Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.05.18

* No donation is too small, and no donor is too young: Former Senate candidate and former judge Roy Moore is begging his supporters via Facebook for cash for his legal defense fund because his "resources have been depleted" and he's "struggled to make ends meet." [Washington Post] * The Trump administration wants to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions, and the Justice Department is using the travel ban case to ask the Supreme Court to "reject the deeply misguided practice." Will SCOTUS put these "so-called judges" in their place? [Associated Press] * Remember Claud "Tex" McIver, the Biglaw partner who shot his wife in the back and killed her, allegedly blamed the incident on a Black Lives Matter protest? Jury selection for his murder trial begins today. [Daily Report Online] * No, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't advising LeadInvest, a company promoting cryptocurrency investments in Texas, and neither are former U.S. Solicitors General Theodore Olson, Seth Waxman, and Paul Clement. The Texas State Securities Board sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the company remove photos of the justice and the lawyers from its site. [National Law Journal] * And the Oscar for Best Lawyer goes to... John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel has served as outside counsel to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1986, and he attends every show with the ABC contract in his pocket in case a legal issue pops up. [Corporate Counsel] * Is it time to bring back the lists and rankings commemorating the "hotties of law"? Vivia Chen has a hot take, and thinks that in this puritanical era, it's high time that we stop pretending lawyers are asexual. So long as both men and women are included on the lists, what's the harm? Right now, a lot. [American Lawyer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 02.11.18

* Uber and Waymo settled, so now we can have flying cars. Or something. [Corporate Counsel] * New charges in the Dan Markel murder case. [U.S. News] * Trump can pretty much get away with anything, so why not talk to prosecutors and just take the Fifth? [The Hill] * A look at the difficult work of navigating a romance at work. [Law and More] * A week in the life of a mom working as a solo practitioner. [CorporetteMoms] * An excellent new podcast for aspiring trial lawyers, from McKool Smith and Benchmark Litigation, kicks off by interviewing legendary litigator Evan Chesler of Cravath. [McKool Smith]

By Above the Law
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.05.18

* “I’d like to see in the Constitution a statement that men and women are people of equal citizenship stature. I’d like to see an equal rights amendment in our Constitution.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is all in favor of amending the Constitution to benefit women. Are you? [Washington Post] * Kashyap Patel, the “primary author” of the House Intelligence Committee’s secret memo, is no stranger to controversy. You may remember when he dropped out of this bachelor auction due to an issue with his license to practice or from this “Order on Ineptitude” after he was berated by a federal judge. [New York Times] * Duke Law has a brand new dean, and she’ll be starting her job come July 1. Congratulations to Kerry Abrams -- “one of the brightest stars in legal education” -- on becoming one of the handful of women to lead one of America's top law schools. [Duke Today] * The DOJ wants former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s suit against special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to be tossed, arguing that its only purpose is to “interfere with [his] ongoing criminal prosecution.” Yep, that was the whole point. [CNN] * Ouch! One Am Law 100 Firm is experiencing that awkward moment when management decides to completely scrub the name of the firm’s major merger partner from all of its branding, just one year after the combination was consummated. [American Lawyer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 02.02.18

* A question that has crossed the mind of every Biglaw corporate associate: "How much of lawyering is being a copy-and-paste monkey?" [3 Geeks and a Law Blog] * Kenneth Jost notes out how Justices Ginsburg and Gorsuch like to butt heads -- and scores the fight 2-0 in RBG's favor. [Jost on Justice] * And speaking of rumbles at One First Street, which pairs of justices have the most disagreements with each other, as reflected in majority and dissenting opinions? Adam Feldman has answers. [Empirical SCOTUS] * Saira Rao, former Cleary Gottlieb associate and author of the clerkship novel Chambermaid (affiliate link), takes on a new challenge: running for Congress. [American Bazaar] * Data privacy is the name of the game these days, and Thomson Reuters is ready; TR showed off its new, Watson-enabled Data Privacy Advisor at Legalweek here in New York. [Dewey B Strategic] * Amidst all the hoopla and robot fights at Legalweek, it would be easy to overlook the latest news from Neota Logic -- but you shouldn't. [Artificial Lawyer] * Should more states move away from requiring unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases? Joel Cohen argues that 11 is not enough. [Law & Crime] * Can a U.S. court punish someone for their speech, on the theory that he breached an agreement not to speak, while keeping the speech-restrictive agreement secret? Eugene Volokh thinks not (with good reason). [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason] * Dewey see an end in sight for legal proceedings related to the collapse of the Biglaw giant? Former executive director Stephen DiCarmine was supposed to be in court today to face fraud claims from the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it looks like the parties might have a deal. [Law360] * If you will be in New York City next weekend and are interested Asian-American leadership in the legal field, consider attending Columbia APALSA's annual conference -- where Kathy Hirata Chin will be honored for her efforts to promote diversity in the legal profession. [Columbia Law School APALSA]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.29.18

* She’s going to be 85 in just a few months, and like a fine wine, she just keeps getting better with age. No one should count on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg retiring any time soon. [Associated Press] * Speaking of Justice Ginsburg, you’re going to have to change up your State of the Union drinking games this year, because she won’t be in attendance. She’ll be on a Northeast law school tour instead — and she’ll be wide awake. [The Hill] * The president wants “[his] guys” at the “Trump Justice Department” — but not Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, he wants Rosenstein out — to make public a classified memo on the Russia investigation, an act that the DOJ said would be “extraordinarily reckless.” [Washington Post] * Don McGahn may have threatened to quit his job as White House counsel last summer, but because he decided to stick around, he’s been instrumental to the Trump administration in reshaping a much more conservative judiciary. [CNN] * Just a few months ago, merger talks between Andrews Kurth and Hunton & Williams seemed pretty tepid, but now they’re heating up. We can tell because AK partners are being picked off by other firms like crazy. [American Lawyer] * Justice is blind — and cheap: Stephen McAllister was recently sworn in as U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas, and he’s taking a humongous pay cut. The former Kansas Law dean earned more than $1 million by working three jobs, and his new gig pays more than $800K less. [National Law Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.08.18

* Okay, let's get this straight: Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer isn't Richard Jaffe, the one who voted for Doug Jones; no, Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer is Martin Wishnatsky, the one who "has accepted Christ" as his savior. [Washington Post] * In our last Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch, we focused a bit on the fact that rumored retiree Justice Anthony Kennedy hired a full set of clerks for OT 2018, but in case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg already has a full set of clerks for OT 2019. The Notorious one isn't going anywhere anytime soon. [Newsweek] * Lawyers for the Department of Justice who are attempting to defend the Trump administration's rescission of the DACA program have asked Judge William Alsup, who is handling the case, to ignore our "very stable genius" president's recent tweets regarding the immigration policy. [The Recorder] * Evan Greebel, pharma bro Martin Shkreli's ex-lawyer, is facing hard prison time for conspiracy, but one of the juror's who convicted him is having second thoughts. The former Biglaw partner better hope that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto decides to reopen his case. [Big Law Business] * In what may have been some sort of a Christmas miracle, the legal sector witnessed a very slight uptick in jobs in December. Beggars can't be choosers, so a gain of 600 jobs is better than nothing at all. Employment in the profession is still nowhere near where it once was before the recession. [American Lawyer] * Lewis Donelson, cofounder of Baker Donelson, RIP. [Memphis Business Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky