Sex Scandals

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.23.15

* Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was recently referred to as the "most dangerous man in American politics." Why's that, you ask? It's because he's "a federal prosecutor who doesn’t give a f*ck." Damn straight. [BuzzFeed] * Just when you thought the Alan Dershowitz sex scandal couldn't get any more intense, the investigative sleuths over at Gawker found flight records that allegedly place the professor as a passenger on a billionaire bad boy's pedo plane. [Gawker] * Dewey know which former chairman of a failed firm had to beg to get a refund on his bail money because he couldn't otherwise afford to pay the expert witnesses for his upcoming criminal trial? Aww. Poor, poor Steven Davis. [New York Law Journal] * Fried Frank's chairman says that completely pulling the firm out of Asia was a “difficult but necessary decision.” On the other hand, an ex-partner at the firm says this move had basically been "inevitable" since at least 2009. Hmm. [Am Law Daily] * If you want advice on how to pick a "cost-efficient" law school, the first thing you should realize is that your scholarships may come back to bite you in the ass. Go on, read the fine print -- after all, you want to be a lawyer. [U.S. News & World Report]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.08.15

* 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft got to live out many an American's fantasy: he got to screw a lawyer, again and again. [Gawker] * "I guess if I had to change one thing, it would have been to go to law school after college. But I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I actually grew up, and by then it was a little too late for those goals." [XX Factor / Slate] * Hoboken councilwoman Beth Mason and her husband, Wachtell Lipton partner Ricky Mason, just got hit with more than $40,000 dollars in fines for election finance reporting violations. [Politicker NJ] * Some thoughts from Professor Jonathan Adler on standing up for free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Speaking of Charlie Hebdo, Professor Ann Althouse isn't a fan of slobbery kisses. [Althouse] * How do legal rules contribute to the evolution of the institution of marriage? Thoughts from Professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone. [Concurring Opinions]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.07.15

* Alan Dershowitz vowed to sue the lawyers who alleged he took part in a sex scandal for defamation, but it looks like he was too slow -- they sued him for defamation first. The Dersh, however, seemed pleased as punch by the news: "This makes my day.” [WSJ Law Blog] * Illinois passed some of the toughest anti-revenge-porn legislation the country has seen to date. With possible jail time and huge fines, maybe people will be inspired to be decent human beings... but we doubt it. [International Business Times] * Welcome to 2015: In what's being called the "running of the laterals," many Biglaw partners and associates are making their moves and taking their practices to different firms and businesses. We hope everyone collected their bonuses! [Am Law Daily] * You may be “troubled by a program where people at the bottom pay for the people at the top,” but it's happening at law schools across the country. Students with low LSAT scores are subsidizing their classmates' education. [National Law Journal] * Meanwhile, getting into law school with lower LSAT scores is easier than it's ever been before. From 2010 to 2013, nearly all of the nation's Top 20 law schools admitted students with lower test scores. Thank them for paying your tuition. [Businessweek]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.05.15

* Per recent reports, human rights attorney Amal Clooney was threatened with arrest after she pointed out major issues with the Egyptian justice system in a paper sponsored by the International Bar Association. She was able to escape because officials feared the wrath of George Clooney. [The Telegraph] * Uh oh! It looks like Alan Dershowitz got himself mixed up in a lawsuit involving a salacious underage sex scandal. In his own defense, the famed Havard Law prof said, “It’s a completely, totally fabricated, made-up story. I’m an innocent victim of an extortion conspiracy." [WSJ Law Blog] * The price of the billable hour may have risen by more than 10 percent over the course of the last four years, but according to the chairman of one Biglaw firm, "[t]he question is: Is anybody ­paying that?" Hahaha, yeah right. [National Law Journal] * That was quick. The Bitcoin Foundation hired a global policy counsel who lasted there for less than a year. It seems the policy and regulation aspects of the digital currency's existence were viewed as a "distraction." [DealBook / New York Times] * Chicago Biglaw and midsized firms are brushing up on their Mandarin language skills because Chinese investment in the Windy City hit more than $3 billion last year. FYI, senior associates, these firms may have a job for you. [Crain's Chicago Business] * Did she get SLC punk'd? Another woman was just nabbed for allegedly pretending to be a lawyer. It seems that Utah resident Karla Carbo reportedly impersonated a member of the bar at least three times in the past six months. [New York Daily News]

By Staci Zaretsky