Peter Thiel

Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday, May 25, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

* John Quinn is opening up a museum for the brokenhearted. Yes, this is real. [Big Law Business]

* Chris Martin is getting some really good legal advice. [Jezebel]

* It may have seemed like Baylor was super forthcoming when it fired Art Briles and demoted Ken Starr to law school professor for failing to adequately deal with allegations of sexual assault by football players, but really, they’ve mastered the art of saying nothing. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* NBCUniversal to a federal judge: watch Straight Outta Compton. Actually, in context of the case, this request makes sense. [The Hollywood Reporter]

* David Lat on why Peter Thiel shouldn’t be mad at Gawker for reporting that he is gay. [Washington Post]

* Walgreens allegedly didn’t verify that the blood-testing technology Theranos was peddling actually worked before it partnered with the startup. [Law and More]

* You may not like that Peter Thiel is trying to sue Gawker out of existence, but that doesn’t mean the practice should be illegal. [Slate]

* Yikes! Thanks to its expensive legal battle with Hulk Hogan — one that’s been revenge-financed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel to the tune of millions of dollars — Gawker Media is exploring a possible sale of the company and has hired Mark Patricof of Houlihan Lokey to provide financial advice. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Maybe Harvard Law grads are a like Carrie Bradshaw after all — except their degrees cost more than their shoes: In addressing Harvard’s 2016 grads at the Law School’s Class Day, Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City admitted she had no idea why she was chosen as a speaker, and said she initially turned down the offer. [Harvard Crimson]

* Alan Koslow, formerly of Becker & Poliakoff, resigned yesterday after he was charged in a federal money-laundering conspiracy scheme. Koslow’s charge is the result of a three-and-a-half year undercover FBI sting. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sun-Sentinel]

* “Oracle shouldn’t ‘own’ programmers simply because they had taken the time to learn Java.” Google escaped an almost $9 billion copyright lawsuit with the help of a jury that concluded the tech giant had made fair use of Oracle’s Java programming language in the creation of its Android operating system for its phone business. [Big Law Business]

* Closing the gender gap, one job at a time: The OnRamp Fellowship, a program that pairs female lawyers who want to return to practice with the nation’s top firms in the hope of receiving an offer at the end of their one-year stints, has now expanded to in-house legal departments. Congratulations on your excellent work. [WSJ Law Blog]

Is this tech tycoon doing a good deed, or are his actions purely selfish in nature?

* David Mourey, the former assistant dean for bar preparation and academic success at Barry Law, was fired after students continued to fail the bar exam, but in a recently filed gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit, he claims he was discriminated against because he was “singled out for discipline by an all-female management team.” We may have more on this later. [Orlando Sentinel]

* Despite the wishes of the public and rumors of his firing in the face of the Baylor University coverup of reports of rape and sexual assault by football players, “Ken Starr is [still] president and chancellor of Baylor University.” According to a university spokeswoman, the school has not yet finished reviewing Pepper Hamilton’s report on the matter, but Baylor will likely make an announcement by June 3. [Associated Press]

* “We are willing to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.” Eleven states have filed suit against the Obama Administration in an effort to get around its guidance on transgender rights for children in schools, calling the policy a “massive social experiment.” The states suing are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. [Reuters]

* Sumner Redstone turns 93 years old tomorrow, and he’s been in and out of court for the past few months in a battle to prove he’s mentally competent. The salacious case filed by his former female companion may have been dismissed, but now he’s attempting to fend off claims from Viacom directors who were ousted from a trust that will control his media holdings if he dies or is found incompetent. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Now that the world knows that PayPal’s co-founder provided funding for Hulk Hogan’s invasion of privacy suit against Gawker, it’s time to take a look at the lawyer who’s been representing the wrestler. Charles Harder is no stranger to Hollywood cases, and may be a longtime fan of litigation finance since he “[tries] to win and do so in a way that’s cost effective for a client, so they don’t lose when they’re winning.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* Since revenge litigation finance’s recent invention, what’s there to keep billionaires from destroying you with lawsuits? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not much, especially when “there is no obligation to disclose the litigation financing arrangements” that have been made. Ethical issues aside, we really hope the super-rich wield their new power to ruin lives through rented lawsuits carefully. [Fortune]

* Peter Thiel may not have liked being a lawyer, but he’s willing to pay for them — as long as they’re suing Gawker. [Law and More]

* The owner of the New York Jets is backing Donald Trump and he has an unblemished record of picking winners. As long as you ignore Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Ken O’Brien, the desiccated corpses of Brett Favre and Neal O’Donnell… actually this may turn out okay for the Democrats. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* The Senate actually did something, and it was good! Yesterday, they passed a bill to help sexual assault survivors. [Slate]

* Did Casey Anthony pay for Jose Baez’s legal services with her body? A private investigator claims that she did. [Radar Online]

* The term “Oriental,” as a way to refer to people, is being stripped from federal law. [Air Talk]

* Follow up is super important, especially when you are trying to build your own law practice. [Reboot Your Law Practice]

He's like the Charles Bronson of legal investment capital.

Peter Thiel was in Biglaw in the early 90s, but little has changed since then.

We will all experience failure at some point in our lives, but we can develop incredible grit and resilience by reframing these encounters into learning experiences.

Do you know any of these outstanding young legal eagles? If so, congratulate them!

It’s actually worse than a bad mortgage…. You have to get rid of the future you wanted to pay off all the debt from the fancy school that was supposed to give you that future. — Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur, encouraging kids to drop out of school rather than go deeper into debt for […]