Mossack Fonseca

* “This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not hold a full vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump — yet. [POLITICO; CNN]

* Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has officially failed to comply with a congressional subpoena. According to Giuliani, despite the fact that he’s reportedly the subject of numerous federal investigations, Jon Sale is no longer repping him, saying, “At this time, I do not need a lawyer.” Good luck with that, bro. [The Hill]

* You may remember Mossack Fonseca from the Panama Papers case, but now you’ll remember the firm as the one that sued Netflix for libel and trademark infringement for portraying its attorneys as villains in the new movie “The Laundromat.” Catch the flick this Friday from your couch. [Big Law Business]

* Students from Penn Law are marching to demand that Professor Amy Wax be shown the door. “We’re hoping that today people will join our call to fire her just to create a more inclusive space at the Law School that actually rectifies the harm that is being done.” But will it work? [Daily Pennsylvanian]

* In case you missed it, jurors recommended life in prison for Sigfredo Garcia after finding him guilty of murdering Professor Dan Markel, and a judge another 30 years on top for conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors still intend to retry Katherine Magbanua. [Tallahassee Democrat]

* Sign up here if you’d like to take part in a conversation between best-selling author John Grisham and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.) tonight. I’ll be there to cover the event for Above the Law, and I hope to see you there. [TimesTalks]

* Vanessa Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, filed for an uncontested divorce against Donald Trump Jr. Apparently Jr.’s controversial tweets destroyed their marriage. At least they’re not destroying a country. [Page Six]

* Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was forced to plead with senior officials at the Justice Department not to fire him just days before his expected retirement. This man has a pension, and he wants to keep it, even if he has to beg. Let’s see if he was able to change anyone’s mind. Cross your fingers… [Washington Post]

* The late Justice Antonin Scalia’s judicial legacy is being quietly erased each time members of the Supreme Court examine legislative history. The legal legend absolutely, positively hated using legislative history to interpret laws, and it’s been happening more frequently since his death. [New York Times]

* Never could’ve seen this coming: Mossack Fonseca, the law firm behind the Panama Papers, will be closing by the end of the month. “The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege, and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage” to the firm. [American Lawyer]

* If you haven’t been following @LadyLawyerDiary on Twitter, you should start. It’s a community for women lawyers to talk about exactly what’s going on behind closed doors in the legal profession by “outing stupid sexist stuff” and celebrating women’s successes. It’s a great place to find support, so join up soon. [Big Law Business]

* Authorities charge the Panama Papers lawyers with money laundering. On the other hand, the firm’s Twitter account denies any wrongdoing, and I think we all know Twitter never misleads anyone. [Am Law Daily]

* An intellectual property suit over Kim Kardashian and ugly sweaters and that’s the first time “intellectual” and “Kardashian” have made it into the same sentence. [Law360]

* Shady new strategy concocted to fast track foreclosures on the homes of unsuspecting seniors. Just in case you’d gotten the misperception that lawyers were good people. [Law.com]

* Kramer Levin renews its lease, but it’s cutting back about 50,000 square feet. [Wall Street Journal]

* Where does Judge Gorsuch stand on intellectual property matters? [National Law Journal]

* Puzder slapped with antitrust class action over alleged schemes to depress wages. Seems like the kind of guy who should be in charge of defending labor in America. [Courthouse News Service]

* If you thought you were going to be making $180K after graduation, then you better lower your expectations by quite a bit. Be prepared to make less than $65K! The National Association for Law Placement has released its annual edition of the bi-modal salary distribution for recent law school graduates, and the wide chasm between peaks on the bell curve looks more unhealthy than ever. [Big Law Business]

* In the wake of the Democratic National Convention, everyone wants to know the names on Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court shortlist. It might surprise you that insiders say President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, is at the top of Clinton’s list of eleven potential candidates. We’ll have more information on this later today. [The Hill]

* “What we’re seeing is a sort of shift around social norms. Kennedy is the best Geiger counter. He’s a very good instrument for measuring that.” SCOTUS seems to be cutting back on its defense of religious freedom in favor of supporting government regulators, and the high court’s swinger has led the way in the wake of Scalia’s passing. [USA Today]

* Federal prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office and the DOJ are now investigating whether Mossack Fonseca, the infamous firm behind the Panama Papers, knowingly assisted its clients in laundering money and/or evading taxes. A firm spokesperson has denied all accusations of criminal wrongdoing. [Wall Street Journal]

* “You can sentence me to whatever you want, I guess. This sentence, I won’t outlive it.” Convicted murderer Drew Peterson was sentenced to an additional 40 years in prison in a murder-for-hire plot to kill prosecutor James Glasgow. In 2047, Peterson will be 93 years old, and he’ll be up for parole for the murder of his third wife. [Chicago Tribune]

* In case you haven’t been keeping score like we have, these are the firms that recently raised salaries: Duval & Stachenfeld; Seyfarth Shaw; and Foley & Lardner. If you’re worried you’ve missed any of our coverage on pay raises, check out our omnibus 2016 salary chart where we collect these stories. [2016 Salary Increase / Above the Law]

* Lawyers are “the best-paid writers in the world,” so grammar god Bryan Garner suggests they emulate one of the greatest language snoots of them all: the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Garner identifies with Scalia’s textualism because “[he] believe[s] that words have meaning, and that we should take them seriously.” [Wall Street Journal]

* According to constitutional law scholar Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Irvine Law, SCOTUS may be at a turning point since the next president will likely be able nominate up to four justices. “Whether you see yourself as conservative or liberal … this affects all of us, our most intimate and important aspects of our lives.” [Los Angeles Times]

* Lawyers for Led Zeppelin are seeking about $800K in costs and legal fees for their defense of the seminal rock band in the “Stairway to Heaven” copyright infringement suit. Peter Anderson, the band’s lead counsel in the case, claims that his $330 per hour rate is “actually below” the going rate for this caliber of high-profile work. [Ars Technica]

* Venezuelan authorities have arrested a woman connected to Mossack Fonseca, the firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, for allegedly being “in charge of seeking customers to invest illicit funds in outsourcing-type business arrangements.” She’s been charged with illegally obtaining funds in violation of banking regulations. [Reuters]

* Do not mess with federal judges: Shortly after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump criticized Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the Southern District of California at a political rally by calling him a “hater,” the judge ordered that internal Trump University documents from a consumer fraud trial be unsealed. [POLITICO]

* The Clark County Defenders Union that represents Zohra Bakhtary condemned Judge Conrad Hafen in an open letter, writing, “[h]andcuffing an attorney who is merely doing her job to teach her a lesson is simply improper and has never been done in the history of Nevada.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* When we last checked in with Stephen DiCarmine, Dewey’s ex-executive director, he told a judge that due to financial constraints, he’d like to represent himself at retrial. Now, he’s hired Rita Glavin of Seward & Kissel for the job. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Uh-oh… Mossack Fonseca, the law firm behind the Panama Papers leaks, announced via Tweet its plans to close offices in several offshore tax havens. The firm will shutter offices in the island nations of Jersey, Gibraltar. and the Isle of Man. [VICE News]

* Who knew a Libor-rigging trial could be so exciting? Former Barclays trader and criminal defendant Ryan Reich was scolded by a judge after he interrupted a co-defendant’s testimony with shouts of “no, no, no, no.” [Big Law Business]

* Cassandra Q. Butts, former deputy White House counsel and longtime friend and advisor to law school classmate President Barack Obama, RIP. [Washington Post]

* In case you missed it, one of the categories on Jeopardy! earlier this week was “Law Firms.” One of the questions that stumped a contestant was: “Tops for patent litigation per U.S. News & World Report, Fish & Richardson specializes in IP, short for this.” Come on, you dope, the very easy answer was “What is intellectual property?” [WSJ Law Blog]

* After receiving overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) into law yesterday afternoon. The DTSA is the most significant expansion of federal law in IP since the Lanham Act. Companies will now be able to file federal civil lawsuits for theft of trade secrets. [Law 360 (sub. req.)]

* Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, says that it will be filing suit against the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for leaking information that the firm alleges to be false. Attorneys at the firm say the ICIJ has forced them to “start aggressive legal action to protect [them]selves.” [France24]

* “You don’t have to work for a 501(c)(3) or anything like that in order to be eligible. You just have to not make that much money.” More law schools are trying to entice students to attend by touting their low-income protection plans and loan repayment assistance plans. We hope your law school is willing to help you after graduation. [U.S. News]

* Not to harsh your mellow, dude, but according to a recent study by AAA, fatal car accidents have “surged” in states where marijuana has been legalized. For example, in Washington, the number of fatal crashes involving stoned drivers increased from 8% to 17% from 2013 to 2014, the year recreational marijuana was legalized. [Inquisitr]

Helping you to navigate the tricky tax laws and to pay every dime of tax required—and not a cent more—is exactly what you pay your lawyer for, according to columnist Steve Dykstra.

* “Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime.” New York Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich dismissed part of singer Kesha’s claims against producer Dr. Luke because the pop star’s allegations of rape and abuse were time barred and happened outside the state. Tick tock on the clock for a similar suit she filed in California. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has scheduled an appointment to meet with Judge Merrick Garland for breakfast next Tuesday, despite his opposition to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Senator Grassley’s courteous refusal to perform his job presumably pairs well with eggs and bacon. [Quad-City Times]

* The Department of Justice has filed suit against Halliburton and Baker Hughes, seeking to block the oil-field services companies’ pending merger. According to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, completion of the deal would “eliminate vital competition, skew energy markets, and harm American consumers.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* Panama papers law firm Mossack Fonseca seems to have pulled off the perfect magic trick. Shortly after the firm’s exploits in hiding client assets in offshore accounts were revealed via hack, its U.S. operations all but disappeared. The firm’s website has now been scrubbed completely clean of any connection to its Miami office. [USA Today]

* Bart Williams, a top partner at Munger Tolles — a firm that’s been likened to the Wachtell of the West — will be leaving the place where he’s called home for 21 years to become the co-chair of Proskauer Rose’s Los Angeles litigation department. This is a real coup for Proskauer, since partners rarely leave Munger. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* Gawker asks judge to reduce or set aside the $140.1 million Hogan verdict. That’s nice to offer the judge avoid a humiliating reversal on appeal. And yet I’ve seen Wrestlemania, so expect the doomed judge to hit Nick Denton over the head with a chair while he isn’t looking before this gets better. [Capital New York]

* Ramon Fonseca assures the world that all of its operations were legal. Sure. I mean, cockfighting is still legal in Panama so this might not be the most ringing affirmation. [NBC News]

* The Stoli trademark battle may be headed to the Supreme Court. That’s absolut-ly crazy. [Law360]

* There’s an unauthorized Walking Dead theme restaurant out there in case you had a hankering for some possum and cheese whiz and there’s no Carl’s Jr. nearby. [Litigation Daily]

* Which Biglaw firms are making big bucks off baseball season? [The Am Law Daily]

* Eric Conn, dubbed “Mr. Social Security” arrested on federal charges that his immense success is due less to his legal acumen than “paying a doctor and a judge to rubber-stamp false disability claims using phony medical evidence.” Remember when he hired Miss Congeniality USA as a PR flack? Those were happier days. [ABC News]

* North Carolina releases its February bar exam results. So we know of at least 201 people who couldn’t let the championship game spoil their high. You may say, “well Duke students weren’t going to be devastated by the game.” Silly rabbit, Duke kids aren’t taking the February exam. [Bar Exam Stats]

* Sure, the price of oil may be low, but that hasn’t stopped Biglaw shops from descending on Houston. In fact, 9 of the 10 highest grossing firms, according the 2014 Am Law 100, now have Houston offices. Beyoncé must be so proud. [Houston Lawyer]

* Irony is so sweet in the morning. Diane L. Kroupa, a retired U.S. Tax Court judge, and her husband have been accused of tax fraud. [Law360]

* That leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca — being referred to as the “Panama Papers,” has sparked international reaction. The Department of Justice is launching their own probe into potential wrongdoing. [Huffington Post]

* Meet Edward Blum. He may not be a lawyer, but he is behind some of the biggest civil rights cases in front of the Supreme Court including Fisher v. University of Texas and Evenwel v. Abbott. [Mother Jones]

* California class action lawyers rejoice: the state Supreme Court just paved the way for actions on behalf of retail and banking employees who are not giving suitable seating by their employers. [WSJ Law Blog]