Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.25.19

* If you thought demand for legal services couldn't get worse... [Corporate Counsel] * We just talked about the best cities for lawyers. One area that's not on that list is Silicon Valley and basically here's why. [The Recorder] * We're in the midst of a Biglaw salary war... just not in the U.S. [Legal Cheek] * Facebook examined its cadre of counsel and crowned this firm the tops in diversity. The prize was some sticky video showing pictures of Zuckerberg and firm attorneys over some warmed over pablum about the power of friendship. [American Lawyer] * Speaking of Facebook, the Cambridge Analytica bankruptcy has officially let Schulte Roth off the hook. [Law360] * Sidney Powell wants security clearance so she can rant about classified documents that have nothing to do with the case against her client. [NY Times] * Strength in numbers we can get it right/One time/We are a part of the Biglaw nation. [Los Angeles Times]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.31.16

* The ABA Forum on Communications Law will publish First Amendment lawyer Susan Seager's Donald Trump "libel bully" article, despite its reservations about doing so -- reservations that resulted in a media firestorm. The ABA said the following: "Hopefully, this matter will shine a light on the problem of frivolous lawsuits that turn the justice system into a weapon that has a chilling effect on free speech." [ABA Journal] * Uh-oh! Following the abrupt departure of four of its senior partners, King & Wood Mallesons has opted to pause its partner recapitalization plan in order to reassess its financial footing. The firm believes it will take about four weeks to complete that process. "If I was a partner there I would be pretty worried," said a former partner. [Legal Week] * "I never thought that my restroom use would ever turn into any kind of national debate." The Supreme Court has taken up its first true transgender rights case. Many fear that the justices may return a 4-4 deadlock decision that will not create a nationwide precedent, but in that case, the Fourth Circuit's decision would be left in place. [Reuters] * "If these guys think they’re going to stonewall the filling of that vacancy..., then a Democratic Senate majority will say, 'We’re not going to let you thwart the law.'" Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine says that should he and his running mate win the election, then his party will try to eliminate SCOTUS filibuster rules. [Huffington Post] * The Justice Department and "election year sensitivities": Some people are wondering why FBI Director James Comey decided to announce he'd essentially reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails -- but had he waited to disclose the information, the FBI's credibility could have been called into question. [WSJ Law Blog] * James Gilliland Jr., Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton intellectual property litigation partner, RIP. We'll have more on his untimely death later today. [CBS San Francisco]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.30.15

* "Say you'll remember me, getting groped in a nice dress..." Uh oh! This pop star seems pretty pissed! Taylor Swift has filed a countersuit against a radio DJ who sued her because he claims he was fired for inappropriately touching the singer backstage at a concert. [Rolling Stone] * Charleston School of Law has a new president, and hopefully his tenure will be less wrought with disaster than that of his predecessors. He says he'll be paid one whole dollar per year as his salary until he can turn things around. [Charleston Post and Courier] * At a speaking engagement at Santa Clara Law earlier this week, Justice Antonin Scalia proclaimed that the Supreme Court has been "liberal" throughout the entirety of his 30-year tenure. We'd like to beg His Honor's pardon; that can't be true. [WSJ Law Blog] * As this article so eloquently puts it, "[t]he Supreme Court is about to climb back into Americans' bedrooms." Today, the high court will review several petitions from non-profit groups that want to be exempted from ACA's contraception mandate. [USA Today] * Everything's bigger in Texas, including the number of firms that are trying to enter the market. To establish a presence in the Lone Star State, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is saying howdy to some new partners and merging with Crouch & Ramey. [ABA Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.30.15

* Next time on Nancy Grace: A recent graduate of Michigan State Law allegedly got a master's degree student from the school pregnant twice before he left the country. The woman allegedly murdered one of the babies, and the other is now missing. [Detroit Free Press] * I'll just leave this right here so I won't get fined. It looks like a partner from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton helped Marshawn Lynch trademark his nickname “Beast Mode" -- a trademark that may lead to Lynch getting a $100,000 fine from the NFL. [Am Law Daily] * In other trademark news, Taylor Swift got approval for catchphrases from her album. “Nice to Meet You, Where You Been?” Her IP lawyers “Could Show You Incredible Things,” but you could've been getting down to "This Sick Beat.” [WSJ Law Blog] * Gibson Dunn earned $459,000 for successfully challenging Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, which was apparently a "sharp cut" in the fees the firm initially requested for star litigator Ted Olson's time. Poor Teddy. [National Law Journal] * According to Am Law's latest Lateral Partners Survey, there was a 7 percent increase in lateral moves -- 2,736, to be precise -- between Oct. 1, 2013 and Sept. 30, 2014. Guaranteed pay packages, though, seem to be a thing of the past. [American Lawyer] * The K&L Gates Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, a clinic that's perhaps better known as the firm's revenge porn project, is assisting a California law student whose nude pictures and videos were allegedly put online by an ex. [DealBook / New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Biglaw

Morning Docket: 02.13.14

* This guessing game is over, even though we’d guessed this from the start. After decamping from the Securities and Exchange Commission, George Canellos will return to his old stomping grounds at Milbank Tweed. [DealBook / New York Times] * You can’t insult Duke and get away with it. Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton secured a one-year no-contact order against Addison Chance, the e-cig retailer who sent “menacing and harassing” emails and voicemails to a partner. [Winston-Salem Journal] * Heenan Blaikie’s talks may have fallen through with DLA Piper, but another Biglaw firm swooped in to rescue more than 20 of the failed Canadian firm’s survivors. You can call Dentons their knight in shining billable hours. [Globe and Mail] * You can’t always get what you want. Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsaernaev’s trial is scheduled for November 2014, despite his lawyers asking for a September 2015 start date. [Bloomberg] * A Tennessee lawmaker just introduced the “Turn the Gays Away” bill, which would allow businesses to refuse goods and services to gay people. If this isn’t ‘MURICA, we don’t know what is. [MyFOX Memphis] * “We have offered generous buyouts—generous by anyone’s standards—and we are now waiting for volunteers.” Yeah, good luck with that. Things don’t look great for profs at Albany Law. [WSJ Law Blog]

By Staci Zaretsky