* 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]
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