* Costco is defending litigation claiming that its 401(k) plan had excessive management fees. Hard to imagine that Costco didn't try to save money... [Forbes]
* Lawyers need to be careful about using smart speakers like Amazon Alexa while working from home. [Bloomberg Law]
* A former FBI lawyer was charged on Friday for allegedly falsifying documents related to the Russian election interference investigation. [USA Today]
* The Los Angeles Kings have suspended the actor who wears their mascot's costume after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against the performer. [Yahoo News]
* A candymaker has reached a settlement over empty spaces inside boxes of Mike and Ike's candy. Never even heard of this candy, guess I won't be getting an $8 settlement. [Morning Call]
* In case you somehow missed it, according to Attorney General Bill Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, there was no collusion with Russia and with regard to obstruction, "[w]hile this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." And that's just fine, because AG Barr exonerated Trump himself. [New York Times]
* Speaking of AG Barr, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says he wants to call Barr in to testify due to the “very concerning discrepancies and final decision making” at the DOJ when it came to the Mueller report. [The Hill]
* Rudy Giuliani wants apologies and he wants them now: From legislators to former CIA chiefs, Trump’s personal attorney is demanding apologies from all manner of people who said there was evidence of Russian collusion. [Business Insider]
* Want to see what the Mueller report actually said? Luckily, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a FOIA lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit to get the contents of the full report within an hour of it being submitted to AG Barr. [National Law Journal]
* Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been hired as a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason’s ASS Law Antonin Scalia Law School, where he’ll be teaching a study abroad class titled “Creation of the Constitution.” [Fourth Estate]
* I like dollars, I like diamonds, I like -- paper cups? Okurr... When she's not suing people for defamation, Cardi B is applying for a trademark for her catchphrase "Okurrr" to sell t-shirts, hoodies, and paper goods like cups and posters. [TMZ; BBC]
* Was Michael Cohen involved in any talk about potential pardons? Lawmakers are now very interested in exploring this topic to find out if anyone was allegedly obstructing justice. [Washington Post]
* As we've been hearing for a while now, special counsel Robert Mueller will submit his final report soon, and it's going to turn into a political firestorm. [Bloomberg]
* Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says it’s "very clear" that President Trump obstructed justice in Mueller's probe, and he’s sending out document requests for his own investigation. [Chicago Tribune]
* Thomas Reid is out as the managing partner of Davis Polk after accepting the role of general counsel at Comcast. Congratulations and best of luck! [Corporate Counsel]
* No one could have possibly seen this one coming: After his stint as White House counsel, Don McGahn will be returning to Jones Day. [National Law Journal]
* Michael Cohen was disbarred just days ago, but it's possible he could practice law again the future. It won't be easy, of course, but it could happen. [Big Law Business]
* Yay, more law schools... Concordia Law and Lincoln Memorial Law were granted full accreditation by the American Bar Association this weekend. [KTVB 7; WATE 6]
* Cooley Law's most infamous graduate goes down: Following his guilty pleas on federal felony charges -- some of which were allegedly related to his work for Donald Trump -- Michael Cohen has been disbarred. [New York Law Journal]
* Meanwhile, Michael Cohen is going to be testifying today before the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL 1st District) allegedly took it upon himself to tamper with the witness via tweet. [Tampa Bay Times]
* Here’s Michael Cohen’s opening statement, where he states, “For the record: Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump.” [CNN]
* “Is your oath of office to Donald Trump or is it to the Constitution of the United States? You cannot let him undermine your pledge to the Constitution.“ The House of Representatives voted to overturn Trump’s national emergency declaration at the southern border. Next stop, the Senate... [New York Times]
* The D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld the validity of Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. This is the first time that a federal appellate court has weighed in on the appropriateness of Mueller's role in the Russia probe. [National Law Journal]
* High school and college students have been waiting in line for days holding places for people to watch today’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The price of justice in America is high, and they’re being paid top dollar to camp out in front of the high court. [CNBC]
* A Virginia police officer accidentally fired his gun during a traffic stop involving two students from William & Mary Law. According to reports, a bullet ricocheted off the ground and struck the car's door, but thankfully no one was injured. [Flat Hat News]
* Earlier this week, Justice Samuel Alito blocked a Louisiana abortion law, and now a divided Supreme Court has done the same, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining with the Court's liberals to protect women's right to choose without undue burdens. Justice Brett Kavanaugh penned the dissent -- so much for "precedent on precedent." [USA Today]
* After some back and forth over the threat of a subpoena, Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has agreed to testify publicly on the Mueller probe before the House Judiciary Committee bright and early tomorrow morning. [Washington Post]
* "There’s no doubt that the talent wars in tax have definitely heated up." As it turns out, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is really living up to its name in that it's creating a lot of new jobs -- for tax lawyers and accountants, that is. [Wall Street Journal]
* "I always thought of him as a good lawyer. I’m not so sure I think the same thing about him today." Now that he's serving as Trump's counsel, New York lawyers simply "don't understand" who the new and improved(?) Rudy Giuliani is. [Law.com]
* Students at Harvard Law really want the school to continue its support of a pilot federal clerk hiring program that prevents judges from offering clerkships until applicants have completed their second year of school. [Harvard Crimson]
* Lawyers representing Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic student who went viral after his run-in with a Native American elder during a D.C. protest, have sent an evidence-preservation letter to CNN prior to suing for defamation. [Daily Report]
* President Trump is preparing to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. A draft order is in the works, and $7B+ will be used to build the president’s wall to fix the humanitarian crisis he helped to create. [CNN]
* Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone was arrested early this morning in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. He’s been charged with seven counts: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering. [Washington Post]
* Were you planning on taking the D.C. bar exam in February? Not so fast. Thanks to the government shutdown, you might not be able to do so. We'll keep you updated. If you've been waiting to get sworn in after passing the July 2018 bar, keep waiting -- potentially for a while. [Law.com]
* Michael Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, has called for a criminal investigation into Rudy Giuliani for his alleged witness tampering because "calling out a man’s father-in-law and wife in order to intimidate the witness is not fair game." [The Hill]
* Like it or not, women still carry the bulk of their childcare duties, and lawyer moms often find themselves "deploy[ing] tactical maneuvers" to get the job done. At least millennials are doing what they can to eliminate motherhood bias. [Law.com]
* Congratulations to Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers-Camden, who was recently named as the co-dean of Rutgers Law School. She will be the first African-American and first LGBTQ law dean at Rutgers University. Well done! [Daily Targum]
* Believe it or not, you can still do a lot of extracurricular activities during law school. Just ask Ted Bundy. He killed up to eight women while he was a student at Utah Law. We hope your preferred activities are more... normal. [Salt Lake Tribune]
Based on our experience in recent client matters, we have seen an escalating threat posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) information technology (IT) workers engaging in sophisticated schemes to evade US and UN sanctions, steal intellectual property from US companies, and/or inject ransomware into company IT environments, in support of enhancing North Korea’s illicit weapons program.
* Michael Cohen: The Movie? Cooley Law's most infamous graduate could soon be on the big screen, because Trump's former lawyer/fixer and soon-to-be federal inmate was seen meeting “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds” producer Lawrence Bender. [Page Six]
* Judge Reed O’Connor has stayed his ill-conceived ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional since many people have already purchased their health insurance plans. Gee thanks, Your Honor. How considerate! [National Law Journal]
* SCOTUS has kept a pretty low profile in the wake of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, but that may soon change thanks to the high-profile appeals the justices will be considering. Get ready for some dramatic 5-4 decisions. [Associated Press]
* Speaking of SCOTUS drama, perhaps you've been wondering why Chief Justice Roberts intervened in the Mueller investigation. Mueller's team submitted its briefs on the matter on Friday night, so we'll soon find out what's going on. [POLITICO]
* There were a ton of pay equity disputes litigated in 2018, and you can probably expect to see even more in the year to come. In fact, the Supreme Court take a case on the gender-based salary differences soon. Stay tuned. [National Law Journal]
* "Big Law killed my husband." For far too long, lawyers' mental health was ignored, but the subject came to a head in 2018. Going forward, more attention will be paid to depression, substance abuse, and other problems lawyers face. [American Lawyer]
* Kevin Spacey was seen delivering pizza to paparazzi in Baltimore, Maryland, ahead of his arraignment for felony sexual assault next week. This is the first time he's been seen in public since allegations of this kind were first revealed. [TMZ]
* In completely unshocking news, despite advice from ethics officials, Acting Attorney General and former Tight End Matthew Whitaker has refused to recuse himself from oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election interference probe. [USA Today]
* Corporate clients are trying to control their spending, and that means more and more Biglaw firms are having trouble collecting on their year-end bills, such that "on average [a firm] can lose 20 percent of its original billing amount." [Big Law Business]
* First-year law student enrollment increased by 3 percent this year, and two New Jersey schools played a really big role. Rutgers Law increased its 1Ls by 17.87 percent and Seton Hall Law increased its 1Ls by 24.87 percent. [New Jersey Law Journal]
* Another day, another law school that's willing to accept the GRE for admissions. Starting this fall, the University at Buffalo School of Law will accept the alternative test in place of the LSAT to "eliminat[e] barriers to access to education." [UB Now]
* In case you missed it, earlier this week, Nick Wilson, a public defender, won the latest season of Survivor. Now the 2013 graduate of Alabama Law has $1 million to pay off his loans after becoming the Sole Survivor. Congratulations! [Kentucky Today]
