Office space

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.10.15

* "We saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and she just blew that tunnel up." Massachusetts teen Michelle Carter was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend after she texted him numerous times, encouraging him to kill himself. If you haven't seen them, her messages are chilling. [Associated Press] * “If you are a lawyer thinking about having sex with your client, you better think first." Go ahead, argue that your client's 30-day suspension from practice was "just" because the woman kept coming back for more. Maybe your judge won't be as sarcastic. [Knoxville News Sentinel] * If you're starting law school, you probably haven't heard about the biggest law firm bankruptcy in history, and you likely don't know what the Dewey & LeBoeuf criminal trial is about. Here's a listicle of reasons to doubt the prosecution's case. [WSJ Law Blog] * Biglaw firms are rethinking their office space at the same time as they're building up their posh amenities. At the end of the day, associates may be forced to move to cubicles, but it's all for the clients' benefit, so hooray for them. *golf claps* [Commercial Observer] * Our congratulations go out to Alicia Ouellette, Albany Law School's newest president and dean. We're certainly hopeful that she'll be able to handle the tenuous employment situation with the school's tenured faculty better than her predecessor did. [Times Union]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.24.15

* Most Biglaw firms are downsizing their office space, but Ropes & Gray just inked a deal to increase the size of its New York office by 40,869 square feet. It'll occupy more than 300,000 square feet in Rockefeller Center. Hope the firm has lawyers to fill it! [Commercial Observer] * Yikes! Thanks to a string of lateral hires by Buchanan Ingersoll, the newly formed Philly office of Novak Druce appears to have been left without a single lawyer. The firm decided to "refrain from commenting" on the departures. [Legal Intelligencer] * The same jury that found James Holmes guilty of several counts of murder in the Dark Knight movie theater massacre completed the first phase of sentencing and decided that aggravating factors existed for him to incur the death penalty. [Los Angeles Times] * A former court clerk in Indiana is suing because she claims she was fired for refusing to process same-sex marriage licenses, even though doing so went against her "sincerely held" religious beliefs. We may be seeing a lot more of these in the future. [Indy Star] * Per Texas prosecutor Warren Diepraam, medical examiners have ruled that Sandra Bland's death was a suicide by hanging, and he has "full faith" in the autopsy results. The community remains outraged, and investigation into the case is ongoing. [NBC News]

By Staci Zaretsky