Missouri

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.29.16

* Five years later, and one of them enrolled at Yale Law, the kids of Tiger Mom, Amy Chua, plan to raise their own children the same way. [Today] * Rome self-censors for a state visit from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. How, exactly, was this a good idea? [Popehat] * Should the ABA change accreditation standards to prevent students with little chance of actually passing the bar examination from attending law school in the first place? [TaxProf Blog] * Missouri paid its executioners $250,000 in cash. That doesn't seem shady AT ALL. [BuzzFeed] * The whole Ammon Bundy debacle is teaching people damn the consequences. [Lawyers, Guns and Money] * If you need to scale a courthouse in order to get a selfie with lady liberty, just don't do it, you could wind up in jail. [KWTX] * What does Rudy Giuliani really think about Preet Bharara? Plus why he loves being a lawyer. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=9yGt3MF4Sn4

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 11.09.15

* From Jackie Robinson to Missouri: Money is more important to white people than hating on blacks. [ATL Redline] * Are you right to be outraged when the government lies to you? [Guile is Good] * A glimmer of hope in 2015 bar exam results, but mostly more bad news. [Bar Exam Stats] * On the minutiae of sentencing: one man’s prison term all comes down to a comma. [The Economist] * Do you have a reputation? Or a personal brand? [Associate's Mind] * The science and art of jury consultation. [Life of the Law] * A blueprint on the future of "spoofing" cases. [New York Times]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.09.15

* Bob McCulloch, the prosecutor who handled (mishandled?) the Michael Brown / Darren Wilson case in Ferguson, Missouri, was recently named as "Prosecutor of the Year" by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. This probably wasn't a good idea. [Slate] * American Apparel filed for bankruptcy, and rather than Biglaw firms representing the embattled clothier, they're trying to snatch up fees. Skadden, White & Case, and Paul Hastings are each owed quite the pretty penny. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * Which law school dean was just named as senior counsel at Dentons, the largest law firm in the world? That would be Nicholas Allard of Brooklyn Law School. Perhaps this law dean's academic cash flow wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle] * "Unless the industry cleans itself up, we can expect more lawsuits like this in the future." In an interesting turn of events, the marijuana industry is now seeing its first product liability suit. A protip for growers: No one wants to smoke fungicide. [Los Angeles Times] * Just when you thought patent trolls couldn't get any worse, they started to harass members of the fashion industry. Copyright trolls (i.e., Stephen Doniger and Scott Alan Burroughs) are suing over textile prints left and right, and that's so last season. [Fortune]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 09.02.15

* The GOP field is getting a heads up on what to expect at their next debate, but the real question is: how will this change JoePa's drinking game... [Politico] * Let Judge Matthew Sciarrino take you through the minutiae of how exactly Batman would testify in court. [Legal Geeks] * Good news: Missouri failed at gerrymandering. Better news: it's gotten the Taiwanese animation treatment. [Lowering the Bar] * Men's rights activists are using the legal system to derail women's networking events. [Yahoo] * Navigating employment contracts outside of the U.S. [JD Supra] * In the beginning of a startup, everyone is friends.... but it doesn't always end that way. [Concurring Opinions] * Former governor Jan Brewer threatens a lawsuit over the use of her picture. [Jezebel]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.01.15

* ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams is suing his neighbors over his lawyerly lair -- and one of the defendants is a Biglaw partner at a top firm. Expect more on this later. [New York Post] * Speaking of Biglaw, a familiar tale of financial performance: gross revenue at Am Law 100 firms grew by 4 percent in the first half of 2015, but driven by rate increases rather than demand growth. [American Lawyer] * If you want the Supreme Court to hear your case, try to steer your cert petition clear of the "long conference," known as the place "where petitions go to die." [New York Times] * Speaking of SCOTUS, the Court won't come to the rescue of the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- time to issue those licenses or quit, Kim Davis. [How Appealing] * But the justices did come to the (temporary) rescue of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, allowing him to remain free until SCOTUS acts on his petition for certiorari. [SCOTUSblog via How Appealing] * Are criticisms of the S.E.C.'s administrative-law procedures correct? Here's a study from Professor David Zaring. [New York Times] * The Show-Me State leads when it comes to showing defendants to their deaths: Missouri has displaced Texas as the "epicenter of the American death penalty." [The Marshall Project] * Speaking of capital punishment, I predicted that these particular Ninth Circuit judges wouldn't be too sympathetic to this challenge to the death penalty -- and based on yesterday's oral argument, it seems I was right. [How Appealing]

By David Lat
Biglaw

Morning Docket: 11.18.14

* “The notion that some of us weren’t invited, selected or chosen to join Morgan Lewis is ridiculous.” Bingham McCutchen partners who aren’t moving to Morgan Lewis don’t want you to think they’re losers. [Am Law Daily] * MGA is back in court to sue Mattel, and now it wants $1 billion after its $88 million verdict was nixed by the Ninth Circuit. Here’s hoping Quinn Emanuel will come to the rescue in a hot pink Barbiemobile. [National Law Journal] * “We want an indictment. The cops don’t like it.” Missouri’s governor declared a state of emergency ahead of the grand jury’s decision on whether to indict the police officer who shot Michael Brown. Yikes. [Reuters] * Not that it’s a wise choice, but you can still apply to law school with a low GPA. Almost nothing is “too low” these days. Most law schools want a pulse, that’s all. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News] * Everyone can find love, even mass murderers and cult leaders: Charles Manson applied for a marriage license so he could get hitched to a 26-year-old woman who’s visited him since she was 17. [E! Online]

By Staci Zaretsky
Animal Law

Non-Sequiturs: 02.05.14

* Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, has left Akin Gump’s dugout. He hopes to hit it out of the park and slide into his new home at Jackson Lewis. Please, no more baseball references. :( [Am Law Daily] * Thanks to Virginia, the electric chair may be making a comeback when drugs for lethal injection aren’t available. OMG, that’s so freakin’ lame. Bring back the breaking wheel or death by disembowelment. [Gawker] * A lawyer won’t have to pay an ex-law student $1M after making a hyperbolic challenge in a TV interview. Better luck reading the Leonard v. Pepsico case next time, pal. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Protip: when you’ve been suspended for your “contemptuous attitude,” bragging that one of the judges who disciplined you thinks you’re “probably the best DUI lawyer” isn’t smart. [Santa Barbara Independent] * If you watch The Walking Dead, you’ve probably wondered if all of the killing was legal — because you’re a lawyer, and you can’t enjoy anything anymore. Here’s your answer, from a UC Hastings Law prof. [GQ] * If you’d like your chickens to live a life of luxury before you eat them and their eggs, then you’re going to love this law in California. If not, you can move to Missouri. See Elie squawk about it here. [ATL Redline] * Ian Whittle, a recent George Mason Law grad, took a break from watching the saddest Super Bowl ever to save a little girl from drowning in a pond. Check out the news coverage, after the jump. [CBS 6 WTVR]

By Staci Zaretsky
Football

Non-Sequiturs: 09.24.13

* Update: Yesterday we reported about the California courts denying class certification in the Thomas Jefferson School of Law case. Apparently that was a tentative ruling and the parties have since had a lengthy argument in front of the judge. So there’s still hope! [San Diego Courts] * A Houston-area law grad is hoping to crowdfund her law school debt repayment. While that sounds annoying, instead of blaming her, let’s blame Zach Braff for giving her the idea. Always blame Zach Braff. [Go Fund Me] * Law school as explained by a bunch of GIFs from Titanic. They missed the one about the Captain looking hopelessly at the iceberg as metaphor for deans staring at employment statistics. [Buzzfeed] * Could you charge Marty McFly in 1985 for things he did in 1885 since he knew they were going to be illegal 100 years later? [The Legal Geeks] * The former chief legal counsel to the old governor of Missouri is accused of posting naked pictures of an ex-lover online. This continues today’s theme of “Missouri lawyers that should know better.” [Missouri Lawyers Weekly] * More on the legal storm surrounding the Danzinger Bridge killings: veteran prosecutor Karla Dobinski self-reported her involvement in making online comments and is being investigated. Dobinski posted under the alias “Dispos,” which means alcoholics. So someone might want to keep an eye on her drinking after she loses her job. [The Times-Picayune] * M.I.A. has been largely MIA since the Super Bowl when she flipped off the masses. The NFL is suing her for $1.5 million for breach of contract and she refuses to pay, noting that the shameful display of the cheerleaders was far more offensive. [TMZ] * An essayist wants to stop being judged because she doesn’t have student loans. “I am responsible and fortunate for the resources I have.” Totally. Except when you read the whole article you have to replace “I am” with “my parents.” [Thought Catalog]

By Joe Patrice
Allen & Overy

Morning Docket: 07.11.13

* Thanks to the slow transactional markets in Western Europe, Magic Circle firms like Allen & Overy, Linklaters, and Clifford Chance are struggling to pull a rabbit out of a hat in terms of gross revenue and profits. [Am Law Daily] * If at first you don’t succeed because of John Ashcroft, try, try again. Former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White is once again being considered for the federal bench in St. Louis. Good luck! [Missouri Lawyers Weekly] * In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to murder charges. He’s looking at life in prison or the death penalty. [Bloomberg] * Target, if you’re wondering why you’re getting sued, it’s because of this alleged memo explaining that not all Hispanic employees eat tacos, dance to salsa, and wear sombreros. [Huffington Post] * “Please don’t be hung” is a solemn prayer that’s only useful to a woman whose case is on re-trial. Ex-Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones’s defamation suit was sent to the jury. [Associated Press]

By Staci Zaretsky