Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.03.25

* Fresh off announcing massive profits, Paul Weiss decides it simply cannot function without forcing lawyers into the office 4 days a week. [American Lawyer]

* Gibson Dunn recruiting ad suggests that Gen Z lawyers are busted… girl, we know. (Which, to be fair, probably has a lot to do with the above Paul Weiss decision) [LegalCheek]

* Trump/Musk administration's mass, arbitrary cuts raise trade secret concerns as ranks of disgruntled former employees grow. Who could've predicted this except everyone? [Law360]

* There are so many lawsuits over Trump's haphazard handling of the first month of his presidency that Bloomberg created a handy tracker. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Jury convicts man in murder of Palestinian child. [Reuters]

* Frightening story spreading through social media over the weekend about an attorney seeing his client nabbed and whisked away by ski mask wearing ICE agents. [Newsweek]

Morning Docket: 02.28.25

* Biglaw develops a cowardly streak when it comes to departing government lawyers. [National Law Journal] * Here come the lawsuits over the California bar exam. [Bloomberg Law News] * Trump administration drops big consumer protection enforcements. [Reuters] * And the SEC is going to stop its fraud case against guy after he pumped millions […]

Morning Docket: 02.27.25

* Paul Weiss goes gangbusters, pushing PEP to $7.5M [American Lawyer]

* Protest starting to form after Trump administration strips Covington lawyers of security clearances in retaliatory move. [New York Law Journal]

* John Roberts places administrative stay on USAID funding order. [CNBC]

* Jones Day discrimination suit ends after judge's discovery ruling put an internal policy memo on the table. [ABA Journal]

* Judge threatens Apple litigation director with sanctions over... generous attorney-client privilege designations.[Law360]

* Eric Adams looks DOJ gift horse square in the mouth, seeks dismissal with prejudice. [Reuters]

* Willkie's wild ride. [Bloomberg Law News]

Morning Docket: 02.26.25

* Trump takes away Covington's security clearances because they represent Jack Smith. If they want to see classified material, they have to hang out at Mar-a-Lago like every other hostile power. [Washington Post]

* Supreme Court refuses to put to death a man that even Oklahoma's tough on crime prosecutors admit is innocent. 5-3. [Slate]

* Judge who told everyone he'd killed his wife says he didn't mean to. [The Recorder]

* As companies bend over to appease the new administration, Apple is going the Costco route and refusing to back down from diversity commitments. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Alex Spiro is now billing $3000/hr. [Reuters]

Morning Docket: 02.25.25

* In-house counsel question whether higher billing rates are sustainable. Just like they did every other time rates went up and nothing changed. [American Lawyer]

* Elon Musk angry that federal workers are listening to their legally appointed bosses instead him. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Elizabeth Holmes loses appeal. [Law360]

* The tough on crime paradox: Kathy Hochul backs provision to allow prosecutors to hide evidence from defendants while simultaneously refusing to remove Eric Adams from office. [New York Law Journal]

* Judge allows White House to continue banning AP for refusing to rename Gulf of Mexico. [Reuters]

* It's hard to break into the expert game when these guys keep working until they're dead... or maybe after they've died. [Houston Chronicle]

Morning Docket: 02.24.25

* Judiciary tells its people that they are not required to respond to Elon's "tell me what you did this week or be fired" email, thus saving Justice Thomas the chore of ignoring another required disclosure form. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Partner censured after threesome with associate and legal assistant. Or, maybe more accurately, censured for proposing false billing after the fact. [Idaho Statesman]

* Administration fires key JAG lawyers to prevent "roadblocks." We are gonna commit SO many atrocities... [NY Times]

* Freshfields opens Boston office. I guess no one heard Paul Revere. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court balks at extending Trump's firing authority. At least for the time being. [Law360]

* AP heads to court to challenge their "Gulf of Mexico" ban. [Reuters]

* Does the rule of law hang on this evidentiary hearing? [Just Security]

Morning Docket: 02.21.25

* McDermott crosses $2B mark. [American Lawyer]

* Linklaters created a legal exam to certify AI tools to provide competent legal analysis. See California, it's not so hard. [Roll on Friday]

* Having beaten Trump soundly over and over again in the Carroll case, Roberta Kaplan launches legal challenge over attempted congestion pricing ban. [Politico]

* Administrative law judges can now be fired at will! [NY Times]

* The administration's continued defiance of court orders brings judge to the brink of contempt finding. [Reuters]

* Senate Dems want clarity on reports that AG Bondi misled them under oath which would be an absolutely not shocking turn of events. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Spirit creditors thought they were making one deal and then it became a lot more expensive. Welcome to Spirit. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 02.20.25

* Ninth Circuit affirms striking down Trump's birthright citizenship order. [Courthouse News Service]

* Supreme Court hearing reverse discrimination case on behalf of mediocre applicants everywhere. [Reuters]

* DOGE to lead purge of federal regulations, which is to say DOGE to lead overwhelming morass of costly lawsuits under the APA. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Ed Martin's tenure as US Attorney continues to dazzle in its wingnuttery. [Esquire]

* Smile, you're on Candid Camer-- wait did he just say, "I killed her. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convict my ass. I did it"? [Law360]

* Targeting independent agencies, the White House asks "Would anyone say these are organs of Congress?" But would anyone say these are organs of the executive either? [National Law Journal]

* "Some conservatives back 'common-good constitutionalism'" is a weird way to begin a conversation about Adrian Vermeule's theories. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket: 02.19.25

* KPMG says the era of the Big Four displacing American law firm work is just beginning. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Judge says DOJ got some 'splainin' to do about this Adams dismissal. [Law360]

* Serial lateral moves aren't the dealbreaker they once were. [American Lawyer]

* Musk's lawyers trying to change Delaware law to authorize his pay proposal to pocket roughly half of the company's assets as compensation for himself. [CNBC]

* Ethics officials resigning in protest can't be good. [Reuters]

* Remember when the government made 3-year-olds defend themselves in legal hearings? It's back! [CBS]

* Atlanta continues its rise as a Biglaw hotspot. [Daily Report]

Morning Docket: 02.18.25

* Eric Adams case finally dropped and it seems like the move came after a soon-to-retire DOJ official signed off in order to give colleagues -- likely planning to resign in protest over this -- time to look for new jobs. Find yourself a coworker like that. [NY Times]

* Time for some Unitary Executive theory as Trump takes fight to fire independent agency heads to the Supreme Court. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Judgment day for J&J baby powder settlement. [Reuters]

* Every firm is poachable now. [American Lawyer]

* Trump administration exerts pressure on Romanian officials to lift restrictions on accused sex traffickers because they're Trump fans. [Sky News]

* Ilya Somin pens takedown of the New York Times' "hey we don't actually have legal support for this, but what if the Fourteenth Amendment really didn't include birthright citizenship" article. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* NLRB lawyer begins dismantling labor protections. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 02.14.25

* It seems significant that every DOJ official who's actually seen the evidence against Eric Adams is resigning in protest over the charges being dropped. [Law360]

* Florida judges allow Trump to pursue defamation claims against the Pulitzer committee for not rescinding awards to the newspapers that broke the 2016 Russian interference story. While the opinion is about jurisdiction, one judge took the time to write a concurrence blasting the story as "FAKE NEWS" to give you a sense of the intellectual lightweights working the Florida court system. [Miami Herald]

* A deep dive into the history behind the Privacy Act and its Nixonian history why -- despite Musk's ranting -- these TROs are entirely warranted. [Bloomberg Law News]

* A solid multimedia dive into the Marvin Gaye-Ed Sheeran copyright case. [Bloomberg via YouTube]

* Meta's Cambridge Analytica settlement approved. [The Recorder]

* Missouri AG going after Starbucks because he wants his coffee with a LOT of cream. [ABA Journal]

* Company posting job openings for lawyers and then trying to sell them training programs. [Roll on Friday]

Morning Docket: 02.13.25

* DOJ says it's going to abandon Humphrey's Executor. [Reuters]

* One of those Blue state courts that Musk complains about adopts the anti-judge shopping rule the Fifth Circuit's districts refuse to. [National Law Journal]

* The partner lateral market is rough right now. [American Lawyer]

* NBC describes the Administrative Procedure Act as "this obscure law." We live in the dumbest timeline. [NBC]

* Former Illinois House Speaker guilty in bribery case. Where did he think he worked? The U.S. Supreme Court? [Law360]

* Biglaw's FCPA practices reeling from Trump's "what foreign bribery?" order. [Bloomberg Law News]

* LeClair Ryan co-founder may escape tax liability. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket: 02.12.25

* Chevron began as a justification for the Reagan administration to ignore environmental laws. Now that Trump's in charge, Loper Bright might be the environmentalists' revenge. [National Law Journal]

* Elon begins process of threatening law firms. [Reuters]

* Neal Katyal joins Milbank. [American Lawyer]

* FBI wants law office in "DWI Eneterpise" case. [ABA Journal]

* Lawyer allegedly blew friend's $215K at casino. Has she considered starting a Supreme Court blog? [Yahoo]

* Lawyer to guests: do not cut the buffet line! Or else. [NY Post]

* Judge Pauline Newman continues to push back against the Federal Circuit's unconstitutional pocket impeachment. [Bloomberg Law News]

Morning Docket 02.11.25

* All that groveling New York City Mayor Eric Adams did to Donald Trump paid off. [Bloomberg News]

* Now that the EEOC has stopped investigating actual discrimination, conservative groups are calling on the agency to investigate the American Bar Association. [Reuters]

* Trial lawyers hit back at Elon Musk after the billionaire complains that a judge reigned in his access to Treasury data. [New York Law Journal]

* New partners say being a partner is better than being an associate, because obviously. [American Lawyer]

* Judge Amy Berman Jackson says Donald Trump cannot fire federal ethics watchdog Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. [Politico]

Morning Docket: 02.10.25

* Return to office push taking a mental toll on lawyers. [Law.com]

* Trump administration blocking federal funds set to build EV charging stations. Elon must not have been consulted on this one. [Law360]

* Focus on immigration sapping DOJ resources from combatting terrorism. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Facebook heads to appeals court to defend its privacy settlement. [Reuters]

* The lawyers behind DOGE. [ProPublica]

* ABA Journal announces annual Legal Rebels class. [ABA Journal]

* “Jury of your peers” concept stretched as Rushdie attacker says jury needs Muslim members to be fair. [Telegraph]