See Also

Is This *The* Worst In-House Job? — See Also

In-House Counsel Woes: Imagine being Jurassic Park's general counsel.

They Left Biglaw To Build Something New. Now They're Paying For It: In the best possible way.

It's Never Too Soon To Start Working On Business Development: Take this important advice from the CEO of an elite boutique.

He's Not A Regular Dean, He's A Cool Dean: Elon Law's Class of 2025 hit a 91.96% first-time bar pass rate, and Zak Kramer paid the tab in ink.

Have You Considered Reading?: Law professors melting down about AI-generated text and the need for more AI detection bots, but maybe there's a simpler, not-entirely-stupid solution?

Check That Email Address Field Before Hitting Send On Those Judge Insults — See Generally

Can't Blame AI For This Email Disaster: The NCAA handed its Rhode Island case over to Foley & Lardner after its Holland & Knight lawyers were caught suggesting the judge was "dumb" and referring to the plaintiff as “poop man.” It came out because they cc'd opposing counsel.

Whose Bankruptcy Is It Anyway: Lewis Rice’s bankruptcy practice leader is out after unsecured creditors alleged he spent seven months representing the debtors’ owner rather than the estates paying the bills.

Thrice Bitten: A Georgia federal judge sanctioned Skadden and Kirkland $2 million for withholding evidence in a False Claims Act case, directing the money to ethics and professionalism instruction at the state’s law schools.

Managed Servitude Organization: Private equity’s pitch for law firm MSO deals now includes parking equity partners in the non-lawyer entity so the firm can bind them with the non-competes that ethics rules would otherwise forbid. That seems... not great.

A Ballroom Of One’s Own: The Supreme Court stayed an injunction against Trump’s East Wing demolition on the theory that nobody has standing to challenge it, which means the next president is welcome -- AND ENCOURAGED! -- to point the bulldozers at One First Street citing the same opinion.

Square Feet Don’t Lie: Legal sector office leasing climbed 17% year-over-year to nearly 12.2 million square feet in the first half of 2026, which is not a thing firms do for a workforce they expect to replace with AI.

Whoop, There It Is: Texas A&M posted a 97.7% modified employment score for the Classes of 2023 through 2025, topping a list on which UC Irvine logged the biggest improvement of anyone.

In Memoriam: Erin Piacenti, a 2021 Fordham Law graduate and a vice president at Bank of America, was killed in what police describe as an unprovoked knife attack in Times Square.

You Can Bill $2,000 An Hour And Still Flunk The Discovery Rules — See Also

Turns Out 'I Forgot' Isn't A Great Discovery Strategy: Just ask Skadden and Kirkland.

She Don't Lie/She Don't Lie/Cocaine: Missouri legislative candidate arrested for trying to plant cocaine on primary opponent.

The Most Forgiving Judge In The World: Chief Judge Pryor, already under fire for lenient approach to misconduct claims against Judge Eleanor Ross, swiftly dismissed misconduct claims against Judge Roy Altman.

Please Mr. Postman: Donald Trump is trying to get the Supreme Court to bless his effort to blow up mail-in voting.

It’s Time To Stand Up For Judges — See Also

New Report Begs Lawyers To Defend Judges -- Ask The Florida Bar How That's Going: A new study wants the profession to step up for a judiciary under siege, a nice idea, if the bar could be bothered.

You Want To Do What Now?: There are a lot of arguments for private equity investment in law firms. Using it as a way to workaround to avoid Rule 5.6 is probably not a great one to brag about.

Trump DOJ Gets It Right: They may be taking this stand for horrible, almost certainly corrupt reasons, but the administration is right that AI training is probably fair use.

Watch That CC Field: Lawyers replaced after cc'ing the other side while casually mocking plaintiff and calling the judge "dumb."

Do Your Job: California is sick and tired of lawyers filing AI slop.

Remember Who Your Clients Are — See Also

Representation Fail: Bankruptcy filing accused firm of representing the estate while really working for the guy who put it in bankruptcy. Now the partner involved has vanished from the firm's website.

Finally, A Milbank Match! But of course, it’s coming from another boutique. Biglaw is still waiting for Cravath.

Guess Which Law School Produces The Most Law Professors? Actually, you probably don’t need to guess…

Florida Being Florida: The Florida Bar displayed its cowardice again, refusing to investigate the general counsel of the DHS after social media posts where he called federal judges his office litigated in front of the "Worst of the Worst."

Sean Duffy Got Transportation Secretary Because It Was 'All That's Left,' Says His Wife: The former prosecutor's exact rank in Trump's Cabinet, brought to you by 'The Katie Miller Podcast.'

It’s Not Illegal If Nobody Has Standing To Say So — See Also

Nice Office You Got There: Let's tear down the Supreme Court building! After all, the Court says no one can stop a president from unilaterally destroying a historic building.

'A Whorehouse And Las Vegas': Ty Cobb reviews Trump's ballroom.

Legal Tech Love-In: Everyone in legal tech is hopping into bed with each other. Figuratively (we hope). The big rundown on last week's ILTACON and how it relates to swinging.

Fools For Clients: Wall Street banks want Biglaw to cut its bills because they can get answers from AI. These are not serious people.

Pangram Perils: Law professors up in arms about AI have put their faith in AI tools to detect AI. That's a dangerous proposition.

Erin Piacenti, Fordham Law '21 And Bank Of America VP, Killed In Times Square Attack: The 32-year-old had celebrated her second wedding anniversary three weeks earlier.

Samuel Alito Has Absolutely No (Direct) Financial Interest In The Upcoming Global Warming Case — See Also

Alito Is Still Loaded Up On Oil And Gas Stock Ahead Of The Big Climate Case: His long-withheld financials, posted this morning, confirm the holdings watchdogs say should have forced a recusal.

Jim Clyburn's Clarence Thomas Endorsement Has Not Aged Well, And He Knows It: Turns out 'personal and professional friend' isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Biglaw Is Betting 12.2 Million Square Feet That You're Coming Back To The Office: Legal sector leasing is up 17% — which is what a four-day office policy looks like on the ground level.

Bad News, Counselors -- You're Not Even Special At Being Miserable: A new admin misery survey finds lawyers are roughly as put-upon as every other professional drowning in paperwork.

You Can't Hide Behind A Disciplinary Process You Refuse To Run: The Sixth Circuit revives a professor's First Amendment suit after Kentucky barred him from teaching, advising, meetings, and the building for over a year.

The Trump Admin's Ballot Rule Is 'Routine Housekeeping,' Same As Any Cremated Pet: Somehow federalizing mail-in voting doesn't read as a modest clerical matter.

Law School Grads Here Are Killing It In The Job Market: A deep dive into the numbers.

As If It’s Not Hard Enough To Make Partner — See Generally

A Change Of Heart: Matthew Cali says Troutman Pepper Locke told him "the goalposts to make Partner" had moved after he survived a devastating heart attack.

Emergency Contact: The conservative majority reached for the emergency docket to let Trump's mail-in ballot executive order proceed over the dissents of all three liberals, with Justice Jackson writing separately about the standing trap the Court keeps building for election challengers.

The Best Defense Is Repealing The Offense: The DOJ's appeal to revive the dismissed Abrego Garcia indictment asks the Sixth Circuit to limit the vindictive prosecution presumption to cases where a prosecutor "ups the ante," which would retire the doctrine currently being pressed against the administration by James Comey, Letitia James, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Scared Straight Stupid: Judicial immunity does not cover handcuffing a student who dozed off during a courthouse field trip, putting her in a jumpsuit and a holding cell for hours, and then staging a mock trial livestreamed on the court's own YouTube channel.

Penny Wise, Token Foolish: NetDocuments benchmarked what accuracy actually costs and found frontier tier models adding big costs for smaller benefits and that good context can deliver quality for less.

Sometimes The Jam Is The Feature: QWERTY -- according to popular legend -- exists to keep typists from outrunning the hammers. Agentic workflows raise a similar challenge.

'One Of The Darkest Days In Our Office's History': Andrew Haden, a longtime federal prosecutor who twice served as acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, was found dead at 48 in a vacant office inside the downtown San Diego federal building.

When Samuel Alito Is The One Calling You ‘Scary,’ You Know There’s A Problem — See Also

Clarence Thomas Was "Scary" In Law School: At least according to Samuel Alito. Court watchers still think he's plenty scary now, too.

SCOTUS Said Come Back With A Final Rule. The States Did. They Won Again (At The District Court): The Postal Service finalized its plan. A fresh wave of lawsuits followed. Judge Talwani hit pause.

Trump Accidentally Trolls His Own Legal Claims: Oopsie! These NYT and IRS suits aren’t mixing well.

Legal Tech Has Hit The Big Time: Things can only continue to go up from here. Until the bubble bursts...

A Heart Attack, A Billing Scheme, And $3,000 For The ‘Cabinets’: Inside One Associate’s Suit Against Troutman Pepper — See Also

He Survived A 'Widow-Maker' At The Office. Then, He Says, His Firm Went To Work On Him: A new lawsuit accuses Troutman Pepper Locke of moving the partnership goalposts after an associate's heart attack -- and of a billing scheme he was told to keep quiet.

Biglaw's Record First Half Comes With A Catch: Biglaw's six-month numbers look spectacular, until you get to the part about receivables.

The True Cost Of AI: NetDocuments is looking hard at the relationship between AI cost and accuracy.

Thinking Of Practicing Family Law? You may want to consider checking out these law schools.

Let’s Just Say This Biglaw Firm’s Feelings About Jan. 6 Have Evolved — See Also

DLA Piper Once Told Pence To Invoke The 25th Amendment. Now It's On Trump's Jan. 6 Legal Team: The firm called the Capitol attack a 'reckless and wanton threat to the Constitution.' Then it signed up to defend the guy accused of causing it.

Cravath Is Just Trolling Associates At This Point: It’s tine to show them the money. Don’t make them wait until November.

Jeanine Pirro Catches A Bar Complaint For The Case The Grand Jury Wouldn't Touch: The Legal Accountability Center thinks no ethical prosecutor should have brought the case.

Prominent Lawyer, Meet Your Son's (Alleged) Cocaine Ring: Plus a prosecutor's hair bows could hand the defense an appeal, and private equity closes its largest law firm deal to date.

Stop Keeping Lawyers 'In The Loop' -- Make The Loop Worth Being In: Thomson Reuters rebuilt CoCounsel and Greenberg Traurig rolled it out, with a workflow designed to pull attorneys into the process, not audit it after the fact.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Has Had Enough Of The Shadow Docket — See Also

Ketanji Brown Jackson Read The Shadow Docket To Filth: A blistering dissent on the 'Kafkaesque nightmare' the Court keeps building for election challengers.

Clarence Thomas And Ted Cruz Spend A Podcast Agreeing That Ethics Questions Are A Grave Injustice: The on-air thank-you for defending his ethics record doubles as a plug for a new book.

"The Supremes" Come To The High Court: A lovely SCOTUS collectible, starring RBG and SDOC, for a starting bid of $2,000.

How Much Does It Cost For AI To Get It Right? AI costs aren't just about the model.

The Abrego Garcia Appeal Is A Trojan Horse — See Also

The DOJ Is Using One Vindictive Prosecution To Help Kill The Doctrine Altogether: Funny timing, given how the vindictive prosecutions are piling up.

Milbank Plants Its Flag In Chicago... Now About That Salary Match, Kirkland? A new office, an energy-transition star, and a pointed reminder to the locals about associate pay.

Falling Asleep On A Field Trip -- Not A Crime! Turns out we needed a ruling on that one.

The Case For Slowing Agentic AI Down On Purpose: Speed up drafting to 11 minutes and you don't get the same brief faster — you get a different animal. The QWERTY keyboard is a reminder that sometimes the inefficiency is the feature.

'One Of The Darkest Days In Our Office’s History': Former acting U.S. Attorney found dead at his office after being reported missing.

ChatGPT Experts, $700 Million Law Firms, And Frat House Felonies — See Generally

Expertly Flawed: An expert witness collected $90,000 from 3M to ask ChatGPT, "show how 3M is 0% at fault." Plaintiffs' counsel turned the resulting 350-page prompt log into the deposition of a lifetime.

Barbarians Inside The Gate: Wood Smith Henning & Berman reportedly signed a letter of intent to sell a stake to Charlesbank Capital Partners at a roughly $700 million valuation, which would make it the largest private equity investment in an American law firm... so far.

Indisputably Disputed: The DOJ told a court there's "no serious dispute" that "86 47" means a threat, even though everyone outside the White House orbit seriously disputes exactly that.

Run For Your Licenses: A whistleblower disclosure sent to Congress describes DOJ civil rights attorneys leaving the antisemitism task force because staying might cost them their law licenses.

Like Father, Like Son... Allegedly: A prominent Pittsburgh product liability lawyer was charged alongside his son in an alleged cocaine trafficking operation run out of Penn State fraternity houses. The son has since lost his $188,000 law school scholarship over it.

Group Chat Privileges Revoked: A UK barrister was disbarred after WhatsApp messages saying a former employee belonged in a "mental asylum" with "restraints lol," conduct an employment tribunal had already found amounted to harassment.

The Piece Of Me Practice: Greenberg Traurig's Mathew Rosengart has become the go-to litigator for Britney Spears, FKA twigs, and now Selena Gomez, who tapped him to defend the fraud suit over her mental-health startup Wondermind.

A Bow Too Far?: Legal commentators are split on whether the Lindsay Clancy prosecutor's daily hair bows are a tribute to one of the young victims or a courtroom optics problem headed for an appellate brief.

Matching The Milbank Scale Before Most Of Biglaw — See Also

While The Rest Of Biglaw Waits On Cravath, McKool Smith Just Matched Milbank: The Texas trial powerhouse is raising associate salaries $10K to $20K — effective January 1. The 'Kool' kids always come through eventually.

Crim Law Lessons Start Early: Penn State frat coke ring costs prospective law student their slot.

Lowering Standards? In This Administration?: The Department of Education begins process of ending ABA law school accreditation. Who could have guessed that giving in to the administration's demands would backfire?

The Associate Compensation Scorecard: Catch up with the firms brave enough to issue bonuses and raises this cycle.

It's A Wild Time To Be Working In Public Health: That's why we need great schools like this for those interested in health law.

Is You Taking Notes?: Former prosecutor accused of leaving a robust written record of violent threats against former bosses.