Julian Assange

* When you constantly admit to elements of a crime, it shouldn’t really be a surprise when you get indicted for that crime. [CNN]

* Julian Assange loses bid to avoid extradition to the United States. His camp says he has another appeal coming, but maybe he and Trump can soon reminisce about classified documents and Russian misinformation campaigns. [Reuters]

* Baker Botts eyes merger and five of its partners eye the leadership chair. It’s Game of Thrones except with more financial spreadsheets and less nudity. Presumably. [Bloomberg Law News]

* ChatGPTGate continued with a hearing and the two lawyers involved in citing the fake AI generated cases got a thorough tongue-lashing. [Law360]

* Speaking of AI, a radio host has sued ChatGPT for making up past criminal claims about him. This has been coming for awhile. [Business Insider]

* The FBI nabbed the guy involved in the allegations against Texas AG Ken Paxton, so that’s all crumbling apace. [Politico]

* ABA issues ruling on client intake. Look, they can’t all be earth-shattering the day after a president gets federally indicted. [American Lawyer]

* Michael Avenatti has been temporarily cut loose from prison amid COVID-19 concerns. Avenatti is prohibited from using a computer during his release, so I guess he won’t send me another email anytime soon. [AP]

* 3M alleges in a new lawsuit that a company charged 600 times the ordinary price for N95 respirators. [MSN]

* The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the governor’s executive order limiting the size of religious services. [NPR]

* Fox News is facing a lawsuit in Washington State alleging that it violated the law when it called COVID-19 a “hoax” in February and March. [Forbes]

* Many attorneys are stepping up and offering pro bono services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. [New York Post]

* Julian Assange fathered two children with his lawyer while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. They must have some interesting ethics rules overseas… [Reuters]

* Michael Avenatti’s lawyer has indicated that his client has been released from solitary confinement. Guess this will help Avenatti prepare for his other criminal trials… [CNN]

* A lawsuit alleges that Florida should not count primary votes for Bernie Sanders since he is not a true Democrat. [USA Today]

* The judge overseeing the Roger Stone criminal case seemed skeptical about Stone’s request for a new trial. [Guardian]

* Julian Assange’s lawyer claims the U.S. wanted to kill the Wikileaks founder and make it look like an accident. Seems a little paranoid. [New York Post]

* The Supreme Court has tossed a lawsuit over the cross-border killing of a teen. [Reuters]

* A University of Maryland student is alleging in a lawsuit that the school knowingly served her gluten even though she had celiac disease. South Park fans know some of the symptoms of eating gluten… [WUSA9]

* Julian Assange was allegedly offered a presidential pardon if he cleared Russia of collaborating with Wikileaks. [AP]

* The jury’s out (get it?) over whether the op-ed penned by Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer will help or hurt her client. [Forbes]

* The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has suspended the prosecutor involved in the Jerry Sandusky case. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* A Roanoke lawyer has been acquitted of charges related to an alleged assault at a strip club. Must’ve had a good attorney. [Roanoke Times]

* “Howrey” going to get clawback payments from former partners? The bankruptcy trustee for Howrey is having a difficult time with clawback claims, and I’m just including this story to use the “Howrey” pun one more time… [ABA Journal]

In today’s edition of two things can be true at once: 1) the prosecution of Julian Assange is a dangerous assault on freedom of the press, and; 2) Julian Assange is a criminal.

* Cravath closing in on an office move, potentially returning the firm to civilization after years on 8th Avenue. [New York Law Journal]

* The moral of the story is: if you’re going to pretend to be a lawyer, have a name that’s easy to spell. [KMOV]

* The blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are begging for some regulatory guidance but what they’re getting instead is about as empty and worthless as a cryptocurrency. [Corporate Counsel]

* Kirkland hires a new “director of well-being.” That seems like a great gesture but if that person can’t initiate core changes to the law firm model this doesn’t seem like much of a solution. Thankfully, Kirkland employees are already pretty satisfied. [American Lawyer]

* The intellectual property tussle over Iron Man’s suit continues. [Law360]

* Across the pond, Boris Johnson is facing prosecution over his Brexit shenanigans. Here’s an explainer. [Legal Cheek]

* Julian Assange too sick for court. [NBC News]

* “It is not and never has been the [DOJ’s] policy to target [journalists] for reporting. But Julian Assange is no journalist.” Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been indicted on 18 charges under the Espionage Act in one of the largest leaks of classified information in U.S. history. [USA Today]

* Emory Law School now has its first-ever female dean. A big congratulations to Mary Anne Bobinski, who will be the first woman to lead the law school in its 103-year history. [Daily Report]

* Steven Hammond, a former Hughes Hubbard partner who was charged with public lewdness after being accused of masturbating in an Equinox steam room, recently had that charged dismissed and is now suing the gym for defamation. [New York Law JournalP]

* In case you missed it, DLA Piper recently elected a new U.S. chair of the firm. Congratulations to New York-based intellectual property lawyer Frank Ryan, who will succeed co-chairs Roger Meltzer and Cameron “Jay” Rains in the role. [Big Law Business]

* James O. Bass Sr., the longtime leader at the firm of Bass Berry & Sims, has passed away at the age of 108. RIP. [Tennessean]

* After what could only be described as a rough day, Attorney General Bill Barr has opted to skip the House Judiciary Committee hearing he’s supposed to attend and force us to remember that Congressional subpoenas are basically worthless. [National Law Journal]

* Speaking of Barr, yesterday spawned a bunch of somber takes like this article with lines like “A few months ago, William Barr was a well-respected former top federal law enforcement official.” No he wasn’t. He was the cover-up artist who helped the first Bush administration stifle Iran-Contra. [The Bulwark]

* Walmart has hired a new general counsel for health and wellness. One might have thought “paying your workers enough money to eat” would be a better way of promoting wellness, but Walmart decided to go with a lawyer. [Corporate Counsel]

* Julian Assange doesn’t want to be extradited to the United States which is an absolute shocker. [ABC News]

* The administration argued that it should be able to keep the emails from private accounts sent as part of its joke voter fraud commission under wraps because irony is dead. Judge Hellerstein disagreed. [Courthouse News Service]

* Google’s CLO made over $47 million last year even though almost every decision he made last year was questionable. [Law360]

This is a big deal.

* Game of Thrones bar prep? How does the Rule Against Perpetuities consider reanimated corpses? [Law.com]

* Labor Department flags Biglaw for diversity failings. That’s not the announcement most expected to hear from this administration, but we’ll take it. [American Lawyer]

* Julian Assange got kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy and is now in custody. It seems as though Robert Mueller might have wanted to keep his investigation open a couple more weeks. [Huffington Post]

* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Greg Craig expects to be indicted. [CBS News]

* GCs want law firms to be their partners — not so much their friends. [Law360]

* Texas mulls death penalty for women who get abortions. [Vox]

* Amal Clooney adds a new title with UK government appointment. [Legal Cheek]

A little birdie tells me this is possible.

Time for a congressional investigation?

* Today the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention held WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for more than three years, is being “arbitrarily detained” arguing he should be allowed freedom of movement without fear of being extradited to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning for a variety of charges including rape. Though the decision has no formal authority, but Assange, who has maintained his innocence on the Swedish charges, can at least claim a moral victory. That’s something at least. [Washington Post]

* The Fourth Circuit found that Maryland’s gun law, passed in the wake of the horrific Newton shooting, should be reviewed under a strict scrutiny standard since it “significantly burdens the exercise of the right to arm oneself at home” and remanded the case back to the district court. [Wall Street Journal]

* Uber had an actual victory amid all of its legal woes. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided against combining over a dozen employment cases into a MDL. [National Law Journal]

* Meet the woman recently hired as the NFL’s senior vice president for investigations. Lisa Friel, formerly a New York prosecutor in the Sexual Victim’s Unit under District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, is charged with investigating all potential violations of the league’s personal conduct code. Hopefully she can bring some consistency to the process. [New York Times]

* The human cost behind a life led in immigration limbo. No wonder last night’s Dem debate spent so much time talking about the need for comprehensive immigration reform. [CNN]

* Dewey have some false expectations of success for this partner settlement agreement? Only one in four affected partners have signed on the dotted line, but advisers think the plan will win bankruptcy court approval. [Am Law Daily]

* “There comes a point where the prospects of substantially increasing your income just outweigh everything else.” Even on his $168K salary, this appellate judge wasn’t rich in New York City, so he quit his job. [New York Law Journal]

* The middle class needs lawyers, and unemployed law school graduates need jobs. The solution for both problems seems pretty obvious, but starting a firm still costs money, no matter how “prudent” you are. [National Law Journal]

* “This is a time when law schools are trying to look carefully at their expenses and not add to them.” New York’s new pro bono initiative may come at a cost for law schools, too. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* Much to Great Britain’s dismay, Ecuador has announced that it will grant political asylum to Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame. Sucks for Ecuador, because Assange is known to not flush the toilet. [New York Times]

* A smooth criminal gets a break: Michael Jackson’s father dropped a wrongful death suit against Dr. Conrad Murray. It probably would’ve been helpful if his attorneys could actually practice in California. [Washington Post]

* Did Lindsay Lohan’s lawyers plagiarize documents from internet websites in their defamation filings against Pitbull? You can deny it all you want, but his lawyer is out for blood and sanctions. [New York Daily News]

Bradley Manning, the American traitor or human rights champion depending on your perspective, was back in court yesterday. His court-martial officially began, and he now faces 22 serious charges that could carry a life sentence, if he is convicted. The 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst allegedly gave more than 700,000 classified documents to Julian Assange, the […]

* How many friend requests did these firms just get? Fenwick & West and Simpson Thacher are the Biglaw stars of Facebook’s S-1 filing for its $5B initial public offering. Like. [Am Law Daily] * The prosecution is expected to make its arguments today in Julian Assange’s appeal of his extradition from the U.K. to […]

The former military intelligence analyst accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks has spent the last four days in a Maryland military court, undergoing a hearing to determine whether or not his case will proceed to court-martial. For those new to the party, 24-year-old Bradley Manning is accused of committing the biggest […]

When news emerged last week that the Wall Street protests were spreading to London, I dared to dream. Maybe I could inculcate myself among the protesters, I wondered, and persuade their leaders to target a Biglaw firm rather than a bank. Then, I fantasized, having obtained the relevant door-code from one of my disgruntled Biglaw […]

It’s been an unusually exciting month in the legal tech world. Several lawyers have been charged with (and cleared of) upsetting electronic crimes. An Am Law 100 firm got sued for allegedly screwing up e-discovery. I haven’t even had the time or need to write the same vague jibber-jabber about Google+ that everyone else on […]

* TLC’s Sister Wives are challenging Utah’s bigamy laws. More power to these polygamist people, especially the men. They deserve some credit for tolerating a handful of wives. [Jonathan Turley] * Screw law students, we need to keep our professors employed. This is definitely the most important thing the ABA needs to worry about right […]