Judicial Crisis Network

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.26.19

* After being subpoenaed, former special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to testify in open hearings before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on July 17. How rare that someone would actually comply with a Congressional subpoena these days! [Washington Post] * “What are they hiding? Tell Joe Biden. Trump released his list. Why won’t you?” In case you missed it, a conservative legal advocacy group plans to spend big money on national ads demanding that 2020 Democratic presidential candidates release a shortlist of their potential Supreme Court nominees. [POLITICO] * Harvard Law’s Pipeline Parity Project, a group that’s working to end mandatory arbitration among Biglaw firms, is going national. Now known as the People’s Parity Project, the group has expanded its mission and hopes to form chapters at least six other law school campuses. [Law.com] * “It is time to do away with the stigmatization of women who challenge discrimination and harassment in their workplaces.” Three of the four women who were previously proceeding anonymously in their gender bias case against Jones Day have come forward to reveal their names. [Big Law Business] * The latest high-dollar addition to the Yankees is Mike Mellis, formerly the top lawyer at Major League Baseball, who will slide into home as the Bronx Bombers’ executive vice president and chief counsel. [New York Law Journal] * Timothy Thornton, CEO of 150-lawyer Greensfelder Hemker & Gale, RIP. [American Lawyer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.17.16

* Been there, done that: The political standoff having to do with Chief Judge Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court is nothing new. When he was nominated to the D.C. Circuit by President Bill Clinton in September 1995, Senate Republicans refused to hold a confirmation vote for him until March 1997. If patience is a virtue, then Garland has got to be the most virtuous judge of them all. [WSJ Law Blog] * Is he the "most anti-gun Supreme Court nomination in decades"? Conservative group Judicial Crisis Network plans to spend $2 million on an ad campaign in opposition to Chief Judge Merrick Garland's SCOTUS nod, calling attention to his "history of general hostility to the Second Amendment," as well as his vote in the Heller case. [POLITICO] * Greenberg Traurig has called off its merger talks with London-based Berwin Leighton Paisner, citing the firm's "conservative approach to financial risk." Executive chair Richard Rosenbaum penned a 540-word break-up letter announcing the bad news. The combined firm would've had more than 2,500 lawyers. [Big Law Businness / Bloomberg] * Finally! The California Supreme Court approved of changing the state's grueling three-day bar exam to a two-day exam, effective 2017. The first test day will consist of five essays and a performance test, and the second day will be the MBE. Both days will be weighted equally, and test takers will surely be less stressed. [State Bar of California] * If you've started receiving law school admission offers, now is a great time to consider weighing your options for merit-based financial aid -- carefully. If you wind up with a conditional scholarship offer, you better make sure to read all of the fine print, because if you don't, you could wind up screwing yourself. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.14.16

* Now that the Supreme Court shortlist has been whittled down to just three appellate judges, people are speculating as to whether we're on track to see our first Asian-American nominee. Sri Srinivasan, the front-runner whose "ethnic identity would be the real novel factor here," could be the high court's first Hindu justice. [Washington Post] * Those on the left, however, apparently have objections to Judge Srinivasan's nomination. During his time at both O'Melveny & Myers and the DOJ, he supported companies accused of gross human rights abuses -- a "deeply disturbing" record for someone being considered for SCOTUS. [The Hill] * Oopsie! Somebody wasted $250K! On Friday, Judicial Crisis Network launched an ad campaign against Judge Jane Kelly of the Eighth Circuit's possible nomination to the nation's highest court. You can "[t]ell your senator Jane Kelly doesn't belong on the Supreme Court" all you want, but this is a bit of a moot point now. [POLITICO] * Since "simply claiming that an attorney's conduct was fraudulent does not allow plaintiffs to circumvent attorney immunity," the Fifth Circuit tossed a suit alleging that Proskauer Rose and Chadbourne & Parke helped to conceal R. Allen Stanford's $7.2B Ponzi scheme. Stanford is serving a 110-year sentence. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * You snooze, you lose: "[W]e find it impossible not to conclude that [Nikita] Mackey slept, and was therefore not functioning as a lawyer during a substantial portion of the trial." The Fourth Circuit vacated a man's conviction and 30-year sentence because his lawyer slept "almost every day" of his trial, for at least 30 minutes. [WSJ Law Blog]

By Staci Zaretsky