Mixed Martial Law
A surprising amount of legal controversy surrounds the growing sport.
Morning Docket: 08.11.16
* "Could a firm with a different business model suffer, potentially, if they don't match the $180,000? Maybe." Law firms may be competing for fewer students than in years prior thanks to decreased law school enrollment, but Biglaw's new starting salary scale doesn't seem to have made a big impact on the summer associate applicant pool -- at most schools, OCI participation has held steady or risen only slightly since last year. [Law.com] * “Are you listening? He just flat out lied. ... [I]t could be bad." In a text message that was included in a federal court filing earlier this week, a former aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie claimed that the governor lied when he told the media none of his staff knew about a plan to block George Washington Bridge traffic. Uh-oh! [New York Times] * "We'll tell the council that there's a giant need for affordable law schools like us, and we're going to meet that need." After learning it was unlikely his school would receive accreditation due to students' poor qualifications, Dean Royal Furgeson Jr. of UNT Dallas Law shrugged it off, saying the school would "get a fair hearing." [ABA Journal] * Robert Schulman, a former partner at Hunton & Williams, has been indicted for allegedly trading on insider information ahead of Pfizer's $3.6 billion purchase of King Pharmaceuticals, a client he represented in 2010 while at the firm. He, along with his investment adviser, will face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. [Big Law Business] * Yet another Biglaw firm has partnered with a financial company to assist its attorneys with their law school debt. Miller Canfield is working with Social Finance (SoFi) to provide loan refinancing options to the firm's associates to help "ease the financial burden" of their heavy six-figure debt loads. [Grand Rapids Business Journal] * "They're being terribly exploited." Lichten and Bright, a New York labor law firm, has contacted hundreds of UFC fighters in an effort to unionize them and help get them benefits that other sports unions share, like health insurance, pensions, and the ability to negotiate the terms of their contracts with the mixed martial arts giant. [MMA Junkie]
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Morning Docket: 09.28.15
* Jurors in the criminal trial for former leaders of Dewey & LeBoeuf have reviewed evidence for a full week already, and will return to court today for their eighth day of deliberations. At least the defendants will be able to keep killing time on Candy Crush. [WSJ Law Blog] * A federal judge denied the UFC's motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit that was filed against it by current and former fighters over the organization's monopolization of the MMA industry. It's time to bring in an armbar submission artist to stop the UFC for good. [ESPN] * "I don't want to leave my successor a dirty barn." Hot on the heels of his surprise resignation, House Speaker John Boehner has vowed to avoid a government shutdown and pass some legislation before his time is up. Well, it's good to have goals. [Reuters] * Volkswagen can expect nothing less than a "tsunami" of lawsuits and legal proceedings thanks to its emissions scandal. On the bright side, Kirkland & Ellis is going to be able to reap the rewards of thousands of billable hours. [Chicago Tribune; Automotive News] * TV staffers who worked on "The Following" and "The Blacklist" filed suit against production companies Warner Brothers, NBC, and Sony, alleging they were forced to work 24 hours straight -- and pee in bottles -- without being paid overtime. [New York Post]