* When a case about giant inflatable cats and rats comes before Judge Easterbrook, he rises to the occasion. [FindLaw]
* Lesson from the Lochte incident. [Huffington Post]
* Analyzing the cert petitions filed with the Court this summer. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Expanding corporate speech to deny climate change. [Law360 (sub. req.)]
* The role of expert testimony in the talcum powder case. [The Expert Institute]
* Get your tickets for this Friday's reading of two legally themed TV pilots. [The Tank]
* We're very sorry about this, reporters, but Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Jeffrey E. Ostrow is not Ryan Lochte's lawyer. Stop contacting him seeking comments about Lochte's Olympic misdeeds. Get in touch with Jeffrey M. Ostrow of Kopelowitz Ostrow with your inquiries instead. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Per a new report, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico pulled off what Vice President Joe Biden did back in his law school days by allegedly plagiarizing about a third of his law school thesis, chalking it up to some "style errors." We'll have more on this later today. [New York Times]
* Transgender children, teenagers, and young adults returning to school will have one more thing to be anxious about now that an Obama administration policy that would have allowed them to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice has been blocked by a nationwide injunction. This issue may wind up before SCOTUS. [Reuters]
* As it turns out, it's not just King & Wood Mallesons that's been holding off on paying profit distributions to partners. London-based Ashurst has also forced partners to wait to receive their quarterly due, citing a double-digit percentage drop in annual revenue and profits per equity partner careening to an 11-year low. Ouch! [Law.com]
* Many first-year law students are kicking off their law school careers this week, and they seem to be very nervous. First things first: Calm down, and take a deep breath. Here are some tips and tricks to help you out as you try to adjust to your new lives in the hallowed halls of law schools across the country. :) [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]
* A Brazilian judge ordered that Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen surrender their passports and remain in Rio until investigators can determine whether they filed a false police report of being robbed at gunpoint. There's one problem: Lochte is back in America. Jeah! [USA Today]
* As we mentioned yesterday, according to NALP, law school graduates in the class of 2015 landed fewer jobs in private practice than any other class in the past 20 years. There is a bright side, though: Biglaw firms are hiring in droves and the median starting salary for new lawyers has risen to $100,000, which is 5 percent higher than it was for the class of 2014. [DealBook / New York Times]
* Graduates who sued Widener Law in 2012 over the school's allegedly deceptive employment statistics lost a federal appeal to overturn a denial of class certification. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit -- one which included Donald Trump's sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry -- rejected a class-wide theory of damages. [Law.com]
* Legal ethics professor Ronald Rotunda of Chapman Law wrote an op-ed striking out against the ABA's adoption of a new professional misconduct rule which seeks to combat discrimination and bias in the law. He refers to the new rule as a misguided "foray into political correctness," and thinks the ABA overstepped its bounds. [WSJ Law Blog]
* "At best he was doing something profundity stupid with the hopes of meeting someone he will never get to meet in his lifetime." A lawyer for Stephen Rogata, the teen who scaled Trump Tower, says her client should receive psychiatric treatment instead of jail time. He's being held on $10,000 bail bond or $5,000 cash. [New York Daily News]
