Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.12.25

* Private equity looking to take over law firms in case you were wondering if the profession could get any worse. [American Lawyer]

* Amazon trying to hide document calling Bezos "Dark Arts Officer" is really the funniest way to get itself sanctioned. [Law360]

* Menendez brothers resentencing drops motion to disqualify prosecutor. [Courthouse News Service]

* Parking garage lawyer Alina Habba arrests Newark's mayor. [Reuters]

* Trump administration moving around detainees to find jurisdictions where judges are willing to look the other way on Supreme Court edict. [Washington Post]

* Partners abandoning surrender firms. [Bloomberg Law News]

Morning Docket: 05.09.25

* Partners and associates alike plotting exits from surrendering firms. [American Lawyer]

* Jeanine Pirro replacing Ed Martin as interim DC US Attorney. Cheers! [AP]

* UK authorizes first fully AI law firm. No way this could go wrong. [Roll on Friday]

* Celsius founder gets 12 years in crypto fraud case. That's like 53 years Fahrenheit. [Law360]

* Court confirms that Alabama gerrymander violated Voting Rights Act. [Reuters]

* Lawyer in trouble for sharing secret Netflix data. Probably how to get it to stop asking if you're still watching. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Susman Godfrey order going about as well for the government as all the other law firm orders. [National Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 05.08.25

* Republicans concede state supreme court case they lost six months ago. [News & Observer]

* Chief Justice Roberts explains that he doesn't think it's bad to overturn precedent, which might be the most "activist judge" thing a chief justice has ever said. [CNN]

* "Is the president not telling the truth?" asks Judge Boasberg at least semi-rhetorically. [Reuters]

* "Lawyer charged with stealing beer, trying to bite officer." [ABA Journal]

* NCAA deal heading back to judge after parties agree to temporary roster size adjustments. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Microsoft-Activision deal affirmed. [Law360]

* The non-equity partner trend still sucks. [American Lawyer]

Morning Docket: 05.07.25

* Surrendering law firms shocked to learn that Trump was going to alter their deals. We explained this all along, but in fancier political science jargon, they played a prisoners' dilemma game with an "untrustworthy jailer." [New York Times]

* Lawyers charging $1 million to pitch pardon deals to Trump. Real "law and order" vibes. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump's inability to stick to a script spelled doom for his Perkins Coie fight. [Reuters]

* Weight Watchers enters Chapter 11 to trim the fat. [Law360]

* In-house and HR teams put to the test by Trump administration chaos. [Corporate Counsel]

* Senator wants probe into pizza deliveries intended to intimidate judges. [ABA Journal]

* Geragos rebuked by judge after calling prosecutors in Diddy case a "six-pack of white women." Which is going to be an awesome throwback 90s girl punk band name. [NY Post]

Morning Docket: 05.06.25

* We've finally reached the point where the shadow docket might be gumming up the actual docket. [Bloomberg Law News]

* David Boies characterizes Trump executive orders as "more primeval scream than they were a real threat." Kinda makes you wonder what the surrendering firms were smoking. [Am Law Litigation Daily]

* California bar sues vendor that administered February exam debacle. This issue spotter should be on the next exam. [Reuters]

* Mark Zaid sues administration over retaliatory security clearance revocation. [Daily Journal]

* Immigration lawyers pushing back against "self-deportation" scare campaign. [Mother Jones]

* Lawyer accused of killing client to delay trial. [ABA Journal]

* Attempt to claim authorship of "Dazed and Confused" going over like a LEAD Zeppelin. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.05.25

* Donald Trump goes back to a familiar well for the first judicial nomination of his second term. [Bloomberg Law]

* Trade wars are big business for Biglaw. [Reuters]

* Turns out the federal judiciary is not a big fan of the slipshod work coming out of the Department of Justice right now. [Washington Post]

* Antitrust victory for Big Pharma looks questionable in the Second Circuit. [Law360]

* Donald Trump's war onBiglaw complicates the American branding for British firms. [Law.com]

* Goodbye administrative state! Republicans moving forward with REINS Act. [Politico]

* Grifters gotta grift. [New York Times]

Morning Docket: 05.02.25

* Amicus brief suggests law firms caving to Trump will face recruiting repercussions going forward. [American Lawyer]

* Law Day demonstrations brought out lawyers all across the country. [Law.com]

* Ed Martin's US Attorney confirmation hearings in trouble. Who could've predicted? [Law360]

* Hogan Lovells hires Chris Kise firm to push back against EEOC bullying. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Justice Jackson criticizes attacks on judges. [Reuters]

* Law firm might want to keep this partner in his office. [Roll on Friday]

Morning Docket: 05.01.25

* Apple referred to criminal contempt investigation over refusing to follow app store court order. The opinion includes a groan-worthy "second bite at the apple" moment, which is a good time to remind lawyers that the phrase makes no sense and exists because we're prudes. [BBC]

* Attorney General Pam Bondi believes somewhere between 35-75 percent of all Americans would have died over the last 3 months but for her fentanyl efforts. [Rolling Stone]

* Having just run a disastrous exam because it made radical changes on short notice, California considers responding by making new radical changes on shorter notice. [Reuters]

* The legal industry as a whole may eventually return to the office, but those hired during the lockdown are bolting. [Bloomberg Law News]

* How the fall of OCI birthed a chaotic free-for-all. [Law.com]

* Judge in trouble for faking documents to get parking discount. [ABA Journal]

* Elon Musk's lawyer exits Texas AG race. [Politico]

Morning Docket: 04.30.25

* Judge wonders if Google can remain default search engine. Ask Jeeves bides its time. [Law360]

* Pants down lawyer botches MyPillow case. [Law Sites]

* Will capitulating law firms push back against latest alteration to Trump deal? They didn't have a spine before, why grow one now? [National Law Journal]

* Paul Clement joins arrested Wisconsin judge's defense team, proving yet again that the conservative legal movement has more appetite to fight Trump than Chuck Schumer. [Law.com]

* DOGE making Justice Department decisions. Cool cool. [Reuters]

* Private equity comes for accounting. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Lawfluencer nabs job. [Legal Cheek]

Morning Docket: 04.29.25

* Pro Bono Payola: Capitulating firms will be tasked with defending police from excessive force claims. Exactly as they planned, no doubt. [White House]

* An account of Susman Godfrey's decision to fight back. [Business Insider]

* Government begins probe of Harvard Law Review over article selection. [Bloomberg Law News]

* DOJ attacks Mansfield Rule. Obviously. [American Lawyer]

* Immigration lawyers being told to self-deport despite, you know, being American citizens. [ABA Journal]

* America's economy more or less hangs on the Supreme Court. [Reuters]

* Supreme Court gets testy with Lisa Blatt when she accuses opposing counsel of lying. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 04.28.25

* Partners come out in defense of Susman Godfrey in suit against Trump. [Reuters]

* S&C trying to downplay their role as collaborator-in-chief. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court considering constitutionality of diverting public school funding to religious schools. [Bloomberg Law News]

* A look back at the journey George Santos took from Congress to prison. [AP]

* Kneedler's final argument draws standing ovation at Supreme Court. [NY Times]

* Nike investors angry that company STOPPED nonsense Ponzi scheme. [Law360]

* Canada votes on whether it wants to be the 51st state or not. [The Walrus]

Morning Docket: 04.25.25

* Skadden facing an NLRB probe over its decision to block firm emails to squelch talk about its Trump deal. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump prepares to strip ABA of its role accrediting law schools. If you have a copy of Contracts for Dummies and a dream... prepare to get your grift on! [Reuters]

* Meanwhile, the ABA sues Trump administration over arbitrary and capricious spending cuts that triggered layoffs. [Law.com]

* Uproar over Cal bar using AI before final vetting in its question development workflow has the UK checking up on its process. [LegalCheek]

* D.C. Circuit, hearing Judge Newman matter, baffled by the idea that the Constitution that says judges serve for life unless they resign or are impeached might actually mean that judges serve for life unless they resign or are impeached. Why can't they shadow impeach their colleagues... you know, as a treat. [Law360]

* Time to break up Google... [Guardian]

* Biglaw in the midst of Saudi gold rush. Er... "black gold"... "Texas tea." [LawFuel]

Morning Docket: 04.24.25

* Whenever you hear complaints about associate salaries going up, remember that partner compensation has gone up much, much more over the same period. [Bloomberg Law News]

* New executive order instructing agencies to roll back the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically anything sounding in disparate impact. [White House]

* Law firms continue crushing administration in court. [Law360]

* But Trump managed to get in a social media post attacking one of the judges before yesterday's hearing. He described the case as him "suing" Perkins Coie, which is wrong. Perkins Coie is suing him in this one. He sued them in the Florida case where he ended up getting sanctioned because it was frivolous. Honest mistake! [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court back to making up facts for case they want to decide. [Balls and Strikes]

* Man sent to Texas despite explicit court order against moving him out of Pennsylvania. [Reuters]

* AARP assuring people that it's not actually the party in the deportation case. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket: 04.23.25

* Sarah Palin loses to the New York Times again. [MSNBC]

* Eric Adams prosecutors detail corrupt bargain. [New York Law Journal]

* David Lat breaks down how lateral partner moves contribute to Biglaw's crisis of courage. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Law schools growing worried about erosion of rule of law. [Law.com]

* Guys, I don't think Mark Zuckerberg was properly counseled about how to avoid antitrust issues. [Law360]

* Or EU law for that matter... though this one also tags Apple. [Reuters]

* Super healthy when the British are writing explainers on American tyranny. [BBC]

Morning Docket: 04.22.25

* Harvard sues Trump administration. [Law.com]

* Republicans want DOJ to prosecute Andrew Cuomo. [Politico]

* FDIC looking to cut 1200 jobs for all you It's A Wonderful Life super fans hoping to live through a bank run. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Bob Menendez wife convicted. [Law360]

* Supreme Court looking into nationalizing "Don't Say Gay." [Reuters]

* Shannon Sharpe blasting lawsuit as extortion. [NBC]