Peter Thiel

* A lawyer caught up in the college admissions scandal has had his law license suspended. Maybe he also helped his kid get into law school… [New York Post]

* The former top lawyer for a firm co-founded by Peter Thiel is suing her ex-employer for wrongful termination. [Los Angeles Times]

* The San Francisco District Attorney race may be decided by only a few thousand votes. Never doubt that every vote counts. [San Francisco Chronicle]

* A lawyer who claimed he missed a hearing due to his grandfather’s death must supply proof to the court. This reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld… [ABA Journal]

* President Trump has paid $2M to settle a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General regarding the Trump Foundation. [CNN]

* Are you paying too much in mutual-fund fees? If you’re paying more than zero, then yes — or so argue Professors William Birdthistle and Daniel Hemel in this interesting and persuasive op-ed. [Wall Street Journal]

* James Comey, FBI director turned author (affiliate link), responds to the criticisms of him in the Inspector General’s report. [Althouse]

* It’s complicated — but just how complicated? Adam Feldman uses word counts and citations to measure opinion complexity during the current Term of the Supreme Court. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Judge Alex Kozinski (Ret.) pays tribute to the memory of his late colleague on the Ninth Circuit, Judge Stephen Reinhardt. [Concurring Opinions]

* If you’re confused by why the latest Obamacare litigation over the individual mandate matters, since the mandate was rendered toothless by the recent tax reform, Professor Ilya Somin can help. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* Ethics expert Steven Lubet reviews Ryan Holiday’s book (affiliate link) about the Hulk Hogan/Gawker case — and argues that Peter Thiel’s financing of the litigation might have violated legal ethics. [American Prospect via PrawfsBlawg]

* Thomson Reuters, a leader in applying artificial intelligence in the law — we’re partnering with them on our Law2020 series, exploring how AI is affecting the legal profession — also utilizes machine learning to help people trade cryptocurrencies (among many other use cases). [Artificial Lawyer]

* Manafort’s old son-in-law is flipping because that’s what happens in a criminal conspiracy case. [NBC]

* And now New Jersey is codifying school segregation. This, folks, is why it’s entirely relevant to know if federal judicial nominees believe Brown v. Board is rightly decided. Sadly, the officials running the confirmation process say those questions are unfair. [New York Times]

* The Gawker Media saga ends as its Chapter 11 settlement is approved. In celebration, Peter Thiel is going to drink the good blood. [Law360]

* Kirkland loses four partners to Gibson Dunn.[National Law Journal]

* The anatomy of a satirical SCOTUS story that went viral. [ABA Journal]

* Vivia Chen explains how women should be more like Michael Cohen, and I know that sounds bad, but she’s got a good point. [American Lawyer]

* Are you ready to be tracked online, everyone? Senate Republicans voted yesterday to overturn internet privacy protections for individuals that were created by the Federal Communications Commission in October. “These were the strongest online privacy rules to date, and this vote is a huge step backwards in consumer protection writ large.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* Being forced to resign from your position isn’t so bad when you can land a sweet gig as a law professor. Barbara McQuade and Preet Bharara aren’t the only U.S. Attorneys who found new homes at law schools in the wake of their recent ouster by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Paul Fishman, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, is now a visiting fellow at Seton Hall University School of Law. Congrats! [Law.com]

* Mary Yelenick, the third Chadbourne & Parke partner to join the $100 million gender bias class-action suit filed against the firm, claims she was pressured to disavow the allegations in a letter signed by fourteen of the firm’s then-sixteen female partners. “At least two of the partners who signed the letter subsequently expressed to me that they hesitated, but felt great pressure to sign the letter,” she says. [Big Law Business]

* Gawker may be approaching a “potential settlement” with Peter Thiel relative to the tech billionaire’s vendetta against the website. The feud led to Thiel’s funding of several lawsuits against Gawker, including the one filed by wrestler Hulk Hogan which eventually bankrupted the site. Any deal between the parties would likely protect Gawker founder Nick Denton from any future Thiel-funded lawsuits. [New York Post]

* Illinois may be getting ready to puff, puff, pass some legislation that will legalize recreational marijuana. Senate Bill 316 and House Bill 2353 will allow adults to possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and regulate its sale, tax, cultivation, and use. The state already allows patients with certain ailments to use medical marijuana and decriminalized possession of up to 10 grams of marijuana last year. [Newsweek]

* A plea to strike down Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,” which gives special privileges to opponents of gay marriage. [Bloomberg View]

* Not every litigation financier is Peter Thiel, and I think we are all pretty happy about that. [Wall Street Journal]

* What can Judge Maryanne Trump Barry teach her brother about the federal judiciary? [Real Clear Politics]

* Musings on why some law firms still haven’t matched the Cravath pay bump. [Law and More]

* These are the facts people need to know about gun laws. [Slate]

* This is what estate planning attorneys wished you knew about death and dying. [Forbes]

* We know our readers: here’s the only news that you care about this morning. This is the roster of salary movement news from Friday and Saturday: Desmarais, Brown Rudnick, Susman Godfrey, White & Case, Shearman & Sterling, and Baker Botts. If you’re ever worried that you’ve missed any of our coverage, check out our omnibus 2016 salary page where we collect all of these stories. [2016 Salary Increase / Above the Law]

* You may be wondering why some law firms in your city haven’t hopped on board the Cravath-inspired MoneyLaw train yet. It’s apparently all about competing market forces. John Beulick, Armstrong Teasdale’s new managing partner, says he’s considering bumping up associate pay because “[w]e want to and need to be competitive in our markets to have the talent that clients want us to have.” [Big Law Business]

* Speaking of raises for associates in flyover country, four Texas-based firms and seven national firms with offices in the Lone Star state have already announced matches to the new Cravath scale. Three more Texas firms — Akin Gump, Haynes and Boone, and Andrews Kurth — are expected to follow suit in the coming days. Please be sure to send us your firm’s memos ASAP after raises are announced! [Dallas Morning News]

* WHATCHA GONNA DO, BROTHER, WHEN LITIGATION FINANCE RUNS WILD ON YOU?!? Thanks to billionaire Peter Thiel’s financial assistance, Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Gawker into submission with a multimillion-dollar jury verdict. After declaring bankruptcy and entering into an asset purchase agreement, the media company is investigating possible legal claims against the venture capitalist. [Forbes]

* “I don’t really think [this lawsuit] has legs.” Doctors in California are filing suit to block The End of Life Option Act, a new state law that legalizes physician-assisted suicide. They claim that the law violates the state’s constitution with regard to citizens’ equal protection and due process rights because it fails to make “rational distinctions” between those who qualify under the law and those who are not covered under it. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Will wearing makeup increase your earning potential? (Yes, they only mean for women, the patriarchy is a real bitch like that.) [Corporette]

* Ken Starr says he is resigning from his position as Baylor chancellor “as a matter of conscience.” Yup, he still plans on teaching at the law school. [ESPN]

* Donald Trump’s terrible comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are all part of a branding exercise. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw is fighting to make people remember the women killed by police. #SayHerName [The Guardian]

* The cleanup after a storm can be even more challenging than weathering the storm in the first instance. [Katz on Justice]

* Has Election 2016 convinced you our electoral system is hopelessly broken? Here are the best ways to fix it. [Brennan Center for Justice]

* Reflections from Richard Levick on Peter Thiel v. Gawker (including commentary from our very own David Lat). [Forbes]