Malpractice

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.31.17

* Here's a roundup of the legal challenges against Trump's foray into immigration policy. [Vice News] * Oh and while we're at it, here's a couple more. [New York Times] * The SEC has brought fraud charges over an $81 million Hamilton Ponzi scheme. It was an ambitious scheme, but if convicted, the defendants will have to... take a break. *Groan* [Courthouse News Service] * Harvard Law Review elects it's first female black president. [WBUR] * Insider trading defendant John Afriyie earned a guilty verdict in less than three hours of deliberation. Sources say the jury would have been in faster, but they kept sticking on the fact that Afriyie had skipped bail and tried to hide out in New Jersey. Only a truly insane man would go to New Jersey willingly. [Law360] * Alston & Bird wins malpractice appeal. [New York Law Journal] * Remember Pokémon Go? Well the lawsuits are still out there. [The Recorder]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.25.16

* From prosecutor to prisoner: former Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane gets sentenced to 10 to 23 months. [CNN] * Oh, the irony: the ABA won’t publish a report calling Donald Trump a “libel bully” because of “the risk of the ABA being sued by Mr. Trump.” [New York Times] * How the AT&T/Time Warner […]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.01.16

* Quinn Emanuel sanctioned by the U.S. International Trade Commission over the Apple-Samsung case. [Law.com] * No rest for the dissolving: Kenyon & Kenyon hit with malpractice suit. [Law360] * Indiana's Go Ahead And Hate Gays Religious Freedom Act invoked in child abuse defense. It's truly a testament to how kerfunkered this whole election is that this episode isn't going to be a devastating scandal for the Trump-Pence ticket. [Chicago Tribune] * Former tech GC takes on housekeeping gig. [Corporate Counsel] * Katten Muchin Rosenman; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; and Eisner Jaffe all land stadium renaming deals, proving that there's money to be made everywhere. Enjoy AshleyMadison.com Park! [The Am Law Daily] * Score one for the anti-trolls: A federal judge orders a lawyer to pay $22K in legal fees after he filed multiple lawsuits over the use of his pictures. [ABA Journal] * Palestinian Authority terrorism verdict given the heave ho by Second Circuit. [NY Times]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.31.15

* In the wake of fired CEO Martin Shkreli's arrest for securities fraud, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company will be repped by Hogan Lovells (and likely won't be charged 4,000 percent more than it should be). [Reuters] * "Not all of it is law at its grandest but all of it is the practice of law." Yet another contract attorney's suit for overtime pay has bitten the dust with a recent dismissal. This time, Quinn Emanuel was the Biglaw firm victorious in keeping doc reviewers downtrodden. [WSJ Law Blog] * Since Dechert decided to up the ante on first-year associate salaries, other Philadelphia Biglaw firms have responded in kind. Drinker Biddle has matched, while Pepper Hamilton and Cozen O'Connor are following close behind. [Philadelphia Inquirer] * Facebook needs a "dislike" button: The social media titan's suit against DLA Piper and Milberg for their defense of alleged con man Paul Ceglia in a fraudulent breach of contract case versus Zuckerberg's first baby was dismissed. [Buffalo Business First] * From "weird to wildly costly," check out some of the craziest malpractice cases that were filed against Biglaw firms during the course of 2015. The McDermott Will & Emery elder abuse case here is particularly creative. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.15.15

* Bill Cosby files suit against 7 women who accused him of sexual assault, because accusers say the darnedest things. [BBC News] * NY to 193!!! If you're a state judge. Maybe. [NY Daily News] * Bowe Bergdahl faces court-martial for desertion. It's like Saving Private Ryan meets Earnest Goes To Fort Leavenworth. [NY Times] * Jury convicts the Bryan Cave attorney accused of fraud in an effort to take over Maxim magazine. [NY Post] * A Missouri lawmaker proposes a bill to strip athletes of scholarships if they refuse to play because one possible scrap of power for black people hasn't been regulated yet. [Huffington Post] * Rather than accept the $200 million judgment against Andrews Kurth, a Texas judge orders the parties back to mediation. [Law360] * Putin signs law allowing Russia to overturn international human rights decisions in a move that, frankly, I'm surprised wasn't taken years ago. [Reuters]

By Joe Patrice
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 11.16.15

* Is Andrews Kurth facing a possible mega-malpractice judgment? If you know more, please drop us a line. [MahanyLaw] * Elsewhere in Texas, a UT law student stands accused of leading an intimidation campaign against a professor of Israel studies. [Legal Insurrection] * Advice from our columnist Keith Lee on how to write an excellent legal memo. [Associate's Mind] * Did Michigan prosecutors pressure the state’s crime lab to falsely classify the origins of THC the lab was testing? [The Intercept] * An interview about interviews: Richard Hsu interviews Bryan A. Garner about Professor Garner's famous series of interviews with Supreme Court justices. [Hsu Untied] * Does your employer offer assistance with student loan repayment as an employee benefit -- and should it? [Tuition.io]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.23.15

* Any day Cadwalader can avoid damages in a huge, multimillion-dollar malpractice case is a great day. Yesterday, the New York Court of Appeals dismissed a never-ending suit filed against the firm by a former client over a failed commercial mortgage-backed securitization. Phew! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * Say hello to Northwestern Pritzker Law: In case you missed it, Northwestern Law recently received a $100 million donation, the largest single gift ever made to a law school. For that much money, you're damn right the school has a new name. [Chicago Tribune] * This must've been a huge blow to his ego... U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had to dismiss insider trading charges against seven defendants thanks to a Second Circuit decision that made it harder to prosecute certain financial crimes. [DealBook / New York Times] * Charleston Law fired back against professors who sued the school by saying in its answer it wouldn't be in such dire straits if they hadn't "sabotaged the transfer of the school to InfiLaw." Take that back, they did a good deed. [Charleston Regional Business Journal] * "Sorry, not sorry, narcs," says Judge Breyer. Earlier this week, a California judge informed the DEA that it needed to stop harshing medical marijuana patients' mellows by shutting down medical pot dispensaries that were operating within state laws. [TIME]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.04.15

* Her dad's the ringleader, he calls the shots; she's like a firecracker, she makes it hot: Since "everything is working perfectly" under pop star Britney Spears's conservatorship -- which has been in effect for the past seven years -- it'll likely stay that way indefinitely. [Us Weekly] * Well, that was fun while it lasted. The ABA did away with its year-old LSAT exemption rule in record time. Law schools will only have until 2017 to lard up classes with students who haven't taken the exam. Good luck and Godspeed. [National Law Journal via TaxProf Blog] * Simpson Thacher isn't the only Biglaw firm that allegedly blew it when it came to turning hundreds of General Motors' secured creditors into unsecured creditors. Mayer Brown is also facing twin class-action suits for this $1.5 billion boo-boo. [Crain's Chicago Business] * Good news, everyone! The ABA approved a merger between Rutgers Law-Camden and Rutgers Law-Newark, and we're going to look at this in a positive light because theoretically speaking, there's now one less law school out there. [MyCentralJersey.com] * "Are Law Schools Skewing Job Placement Numbers?" In a word, yes. Not to be a complete pessimist realist, but come on, you know most school-funded positions exist solely to prop up any given law school's less-than-pleasing job statistics. [Bloomberg] * When you've taken the lives of so many, no one cares about your sad life story. A Colorado jury inched closer to inflicting the death penalty upon convicted movie theater shooter James Holmes in the second phase of his trial's penalty portion. [New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky