Morrison & Foerster LLP

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.11.17

* After hearing powerful testimony from victims' relatives, a federal jury sentenced Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to death. [BuzzFeed] * Dahlia Lithwick on yesterday's Jeff Sessions hearing: the nominee "will be handily confirmed," and Democrats "are rightly very, very afraid." [Slate] * An interesting puzzle for the Supreme Court: free speech and credit card fees. [New York Times via How Appealing] * Also from Howard Bashman, also about free speech: Gibson Dunn partner Miguel Estrada "warns City of Philadelphia that his hourly rate is very expensive." [How Appealing] * More about Morrison & Foerster snagging former Justice Department national security chief John Carlin -- the latest in a series of high-profile hires of former government lawyers, including Kathryn Thomson and Jessie Liu. [Law.com] * Some good news out of the Charlotte School of Law: students might be getting their spring semester loan proceeds after all. [ABA Journal] * Speaking of money, Volkswagen is going to pay a lot of it -- perhaps $4.3 billion in fines -- to resolve the federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests. [New York Times]

By David Lat
Biglaw

Morning Docket: 05.05.14

* When it comes to billing rates, starting at the junior level, female law firm partners are still lagging behind their male counterparts by an average of 10 percent less. Boo. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * Just in time for the graduation of one of the largest law school classes in history, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the legal sector is shedding jobs. That sucks. Sorry Class of 2014. [Am Law Daily] * Law school deans are dropping like flies. Since last week, at least three have announced their intention to leave their positions. We know of one more that we may discuss later. [National Law Journal] * If you want to work as an attorney, your odds are better if you go to a Top 50 law school. Seventy-five percent of Top 50 grads are working as lawyers, compared to 50% of all others. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)] * The verdict is in on the latest Apple v. Samsung patent case, and Apple is probably pretty miffed it was awarded only $120M this time, since lawyers for the company requested billions in damages. [Reuters] * Laura LaPlante, a 3L who was set to graduate from U. Chicago Law on June 16, RIP. [Chicago Tribune]

By Staci Zaretsky