Reed Smith

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.26.18

* As it turns out, Joe diGenova -- the lawyer who's convinced that the Justice Department is trying to frame Trump with its Russia investigation -- won't be joining the president's personal legal team after all due to conflicts of interest. DiGenova's wife, Victoria Toensing, has been conflicted out as well. Oopsie! [New York Times] * President Trump tweeted this weekend that "[m]any lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case," and that his difficulty in finding lawyers to join his defense team is "Fake News." Meanwhile, at least four defense attorneys at separate Biglaw firms have been approached, and most have turned down the offer. [CNN] * In her 60 Minutes interview, Stormy Daniels says she was once physically threatened to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump and was later pressured into signing a false statement denying the affair because she believed that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, would “make [her] life hell.” Cohen has denied threatening Daniels. [Washington Post] * In the summer of 2014, Bracewell & Giuliani warned Cambridge Analytica that foreign citizens shouldn't have "substantive management" roles running U.S. election campaigns, and yet, that's exactly what the company did in its work with the Trump campaign, and now Robert Mueller is on the case. [Washington Examiner; TIME] * Some law firms in the U.K. have started including information on partners' salaries in their mandatory gender pay gap reporting. The first firms to do so were Norton Rose Fulbright, with a 27 percent pay gap for all employees (including partners), and Reed Smith, with an 8 percent pay gap among only partners. [Financial Times] * Law student Jordan Crewe has already filed suit against the soon-to-be-closed Savannah Law School, accusing the school of committing fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. She's requesting punitive damages from the school, and wants a jury trial too. [WSAV]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.23.18

* According to White House counsel Don McGahn in comments made at CPAC, President Trump has picked judicial nominees "he can relate to." Hmm, so maybe that's why he chose people like leading legal luminaries Brett Talley, Jeff Mateer, and Judge John Bush. [National Law Journal] * Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his onetime aide, Rick Gates, face tax and bank fraud charges in a new 32-count indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election interference investigation. Do ya feel like taking a plea and cooperating now? [Bloomberg] * Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted by a grand jury on a Class D felony charge of invasion of privacy after allegedly tying up a woman he had an affair with, taking a nude picture of her, and threatening to release it. He doesn't intend to resign and called the Circuit Attorney on the case a "reckless liberal prosecutor." [USA Today] * Look out, Biglaw, because the Big Four are coming for you. Accounting firm PwC, which already has more than 1,000 legal contractors, is planning to expand its Flexible Legal Resources offering into global markets. [American Lawyer] * A Reed Smith partner's widow has asked the Seventh Circuit to uphold a $3 million jury verdict against GlaxoSmithKline for its failure to warn about an alleged risk of suicidal behavior on Paxil's labeling. Her late husband took his own life days after starting a generic version of the antidepressant drug. [Big Law Business]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.03.17

* 50 Cent is suing Reed Smith for malpractice. As they say, "Get Rich Or Sue Your Lawyers." [Law.com] * The federal government lags in cybersecurity because all the talent is going to the private sector. [New York Law Journal] * Nothing says, "politics as usual" better than the South Dakota legislature declaring an "emergency" to overturn an ethics law. [Huffington Post] * D.C. Circuit blocks state attorneys general from coming to the defense of the CFPB. [National Law Journal] * Kellyanne scolds America for not remembering the Bowling Green massacre. Admittedly it's easy to forget, what with it never happening and all. [CNN] * Trump plans to roll back the protections put in place after the financial crisis. Presumably next week he'll take action to eliminate airbags because, "hey my car isn't crashing right this second, why does anyone need these?" [Wall Street Journal] * NFL TE turned Wiley Rein associate Colin Cloherty has a hard time picking who to root for in the Super Bowl. [The Am Law Daily] * The NLRB's general counsel issued a memo recognizing college football players as employees, because they fit every conceivable definition of an employee. So obviously politicians -- of one party anyway -- are demanding his resignation. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.14.16

* "Your complaint claims that it must speak for us because we are too afraid to speak for ourselves. That is not how we see ourselves and certainly not how any of us believes our clients and colleagues perceive us." Some female partners at Chadbourne & Parke are speaking out against the $100 million class-action sex discrimination lawsuit that's been filed on their behalf. We'll have more on this news update later today. [WSJ Law Blog] * Davis Polk is so desperate to improve gender diversity at the firm that it has launched an alumni rehiring program to give women who have opted to leave the firm to raise children a pathway back to an associate-level position. Participants in the program will earn $190K for one year, and may be offered a permanent job. [Am Law Daily] * Say hello to Michael Gerstenzang, who was elected as Cleary Gottlieb's new managing partner. He's been with the firm for his entire career as an attorney since the 1990s, and he'll continue to maintain his private equity and funds practice during his time serving as the firm's leader, or rather, its "listener in chief." Congratulations! [Legal Week] * The House of Representatives approved the Financial Choice Act, a bill meant to roll back portions of the Dodd-Frank Act, including the Volcker Rule and the Durbin Amendment. Critics had this to say: "This bill is so bad that it simply cannot be fixed. It's clear that this is a rushed, partisan messaging tool.” [DealBook / New York Times] * Sixteen years after the alleged fraud took place, ex-AIG chairman Hank Greenberg is standing trial. Although he's accused of orchestrating multimillion-dollar transactions, David Boies of Boies Schiller says "[t]his case is devoid of any admissible evidence that ties Mr. Greenberg to anything improper in either of these transactions." [Reuters] * Deborah Broyles, global diversity director at Reed Smith, RIP. [Big Law Business]

By Staci Zaretsky