Marc E. Kasowitz

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 07.12.17

* The allegations about Marc Kasowitz's drinking problem might be salacious, but the issue of alcohol abuse by lawyers is serious. [Law.com] * Fun for legal nerds everywhere: Chief Judge Diane Wood benchslaps parties for shoddy jurisdictional statements! [On the Case / Alison Frankel via How Appealing] * And more fodder for #appellatetwitter types: Adam Feldman ranks the most-cited justices of the last Supreme Court Term. [Empirical SCOTUS] * Chris Geidner wonders whether another shoe will drop concerning the emails of Donald Trump Jr. [BuzzFeed] * The trial judge in this defamation case ought to read this analysis by Professor Eugene Volokh -- or at least watch The Big Lebwoski ("For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint."). [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Professor Paul Horwitz comes to the defense of the latest controversial comments by the artist formerly known as Judge Richard Posner. [PrawfsBlawg]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.02.17

* Let's get ready to rumble: the Trump administration seeks Supreme Court review -- and rescue -- of its travel ban. [New York Times] * In other federal judicial news, the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, held that courts cannot routinely shackle defendants during proceedings; Judge Alex Kozinski wrote the majority opinion, and former Kozinski clerk Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote the dissent. [How Appealing] * Judge Nicholas Garaufis (E.D.N.Y.) -- who isn't shy about telling lawyers how he really feels -- has a new bee in his Article III bonnet: "I’m sick and tired of lawyers from white-shoe law firms marching into my courtroom and getting a deferred-prosecution agreement for their clients." [ABA Journal] * Why did President Donald Trump hire Marc Kasowitz to represent him in the Russia inquiry -- and could DJT already be second-guessing that decision? [Weekly Standard] * Speaking of the Russia probe, Robert Mueller is getting some high-powered help: outgoing Justice Department official Andrew Weissmann joins his former boss's team. [Law360] * Interesting new data from our friends at NALP: the $180K starting salary might not be as widespread as you think. [Law.com] * President Trump plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate deal -- but withdrawal can't be finalized until near the end of his term because of the accord’s legal structure and language. [Washington Post]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.03.16

* The New York Times has obtained Donald Trump's tax records from 1995, revealing a nearly $916 million loss that would have enabled him to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. Marc Kasowitz, name partner of Kasowitz Benson, represents Trump, and has threatened the paper with "prompt initiation of appropriate legal action" for its publication of his client's tax records. [New York Times] * George Mason University will host a grand opening ceremony this week for the twice renamed Antonin Scalia School of Law Antonin Scalia Law School -- a ceremony that five SCOTUS justices will reportedly attend -- and some students and faculty are planning to protest the Koch brothers' funding of scholarships by wearing red tape over their mouths to symbolize their voices being taken from them. [Big Law Business] * Katherine Magbanua, the woman who is suspected of connecting Florida State University law professor Dan Markel's alleged killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, with the family of Markel's ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, has been arrested on murder charges. According to police, she has "received numerous benefits from the Adelsons since Markel’s murder." We'll have more on this later today. [Tallahassee Democrat] * According to Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, Orlando-based firm Butler & Hosch violated the WARN Act when it closed suddenly in May 2015 and conducted mass layoffs of more than 700 employees without giving them 60 days of advance notice. The firm, which is bankruptcy, could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sentinel] * Following the embarrassment that was former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner's light sentence in the sexual assault of an unconscious woman at his school, California Gov. Jerry Brown has broadened the state's legal definition of rape to include penetration with a foreign object, mandate prison time if the victim was unconscious at the time of the assault, and forbid judges from granting probation or parole in such cases. [Reuters] * "Frankly, USD has been a bit behind in that, in part, up until 2014, we had no problem with the bar exam. When you’re hitting in the high 80s or 90s, you don’t worry about much." Unofficial results from the South Dakota bar exam are out, and after years of declines in passage rates for graduates of South Dakota Law, administrators are ready to take action now that only about 50 percent of graduates passed the test. [Argus Leader] * "I was empty and then this woman walked into my life. I didn’t think it would happen again and it did. She is it." LGBT rights pioneer Edie Windsor, the plaintiff whose Supreme Court case rendered DOMA unconstitutional in 2013 and laid the groundwork for the high court to declare that marriage equality was a fundamental right just two years later, remarried in New York last week. Our very best wishes! [New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.03.16

* Sorry, Berners, but you'll have to start the revolution somewhere else: Students at Georgetown Law have been barred from campaigning for Bernie Sanders on campus because administrators say it would threaten the law school's tax-exempt status. [Hit & Run / Reason] * A group from Kasowitz Benson's lucrative insurance recovery practice, including its leader, Robin Cohen, is leaving for McKool Smith, but name partner Marc Kasowitz doesn't seem to mind one bit. He says it'll help the firm out in the long run. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * Obama is expected to nominate Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California, she of the Apple v. Samsung patent feud, to the Ninth Circuit. It's too bad the likelihood of her getting through the Senate right now is "close to zero." [San Jose Mercury News] * Hole singer Courtney Love's "Twibel" (Twitter plus libel) victory against her ex-lawyer in the first case to ever go to trial over a defamatory tweet was recently upheld by a California appellate court. Retweet and Like. [THR, ESQ. / Hollywood Reporter] * Mmm, cheese-product sticks! Fast-food conglomerate McDonald's is facing a class-action suit over its sometimes cheeseless mozzarella sticks, with allegations that they're not made with "100 percent real cheese" and "real mozzarella" as advertised. [Eater]

By Staci Zaretsky