Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd

* Fresh off a five-month stint in prison for defrauding clients, Todd Malacuso, a lawyer who once represented Casey Anthony, has been arrested and accused of conspiring to smuggle almost two tons of cocaine into the United States from Central America on his own plane. He’s being held without bail as he’s been deemed a flight risk. [Daily Mail]

* “Taking a fee when you’ve got people literally still paying off their credit cards is a lot different than when it’s essentially found money for the plaintiffs.” In a wide-ranging interview, Jason Forge, a partner at Robbins Geller, explains why plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Trump University fraud case decided to forgo attorneys’ fees. [WSJ Law Blog]

* SCOTUS justices seem poised to block Texas from executing a man due to the fact that an outdated definition of intellectual disability is being used in its capital punishment regime. Justice Stephen Breyer said that the Texas standard to determine impairment “would free some, while subjecting others to the death penalty.” [USA Today]

* “We are refusing to comment on speculation around partners being in discussion with other firms.” Biglaw firms are circling King & Wood Mallesons like vultures, hoping to pick off partners as its EUME operations struggle. Goodwin Procter and Chadbourne & Parke are reportedly in talks to extend offers to KWM partners. [Big Law Business]

* According to the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress may be able to tweak some elements of Dodd-Frank without completely dismantling or rewriting the law. After all, “federal agencies have wide latitude to undo reforms” and “there is room to change things.” [Reuters]

* Global agribusiness group Monsanto Co was awarded $1 billion in a patent infringement case against DuPont for improperly duplicating some kind of crazy seed technology. [New York Times]
* For particularly thick-headed employers who don’t understand it’s a bad idea to ask employees for Facebook passwords, now Illinois will fine them $200 for doing so. [Chicago Tribune]

* A federal judge in Washington sanctioned well-known plaintiff’s attorney Joy Ann Bull for filing grossly inflated fee statements. She was consequently asked to resign her partnership at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. Welcome to the breadline! [LegalNewsline]

* Should a trial judge who is a Brooklyn Law grad recuse himself from a case against Brooklyn Law filed by Brooklyn Law alumni? Meh… [National Law Journal]

* As Ralph Baxter nears retirement, who will be chosen to lead Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe? [Am Law Daily]

* The Ninth Circuit already issued an injunction against Arizona’s new late-term abortion ban. Like they say, it’s all about shakin’ hands and killing kissin’ babies. [Denver Post]

We’ve come a long way from the days when federal courts issued orders banning racial discrimination. Now federal judges hand down orders mandating, or at least encouraging, race-based discrimination. As reported in the American Lawyer, earlier this week Judge Harold Baer (S.D.N.Y.) issued an unusual order. On Monday, Judge Baer directed two firms serving as […]