John Marshall Law School (Chicago)

This is unlike other stories about law school professors using the n-word.

* Roy Moore’s lawyer — you know, Richard Jaffe, the Jewish one — is a “passionate supporter” of Senator-elect Doug Jones, and raised and donated money for his Senate campaign before voting for him in the Alabama special election. [Washington Examiner]

* Eversheds Sutherland celebrated the new year by announcing a merger with a Dutch affiliate firm, composed of eight partners and 32 lawyers across two offices. It’ll be known as Eversheds Sutherland Netherlands once the acquisition is complete. [American Lawyer]

* Speaking of mergers, Ballard Spahr celebrated the new year by completing its combination with Lindquist & Vennum. Ballard Spahr will retain its name, and the new firm will have 650 lawyers across 15 offices in the U.S. [Big Law Business]

* The former head of alumni relations for Chicago’s John Marshall Law claims in a new lawsuit that he was fired due to the school’s bias against older male employees. He alleges that Dean Darby Dickerson is trying to “eliminate the employment of men, and particularly older men.” [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* “If you’re too busy to follow this advice, you should follow this advice.” Try this New Year’s resolution on for size: take better care of yourself with these stress management tips. [Law.com]

Why are the schools considering such an arrangement?

The law school should have canceled all evening classes.

* The LSAT may be “destroy[ing] socioeconomic diversity” in law schools. Will a low score on the Logic Games section of the LSAT keep you from becoming employed as a lawyer? Probably not, but it may keep you from attending a top law school, unless you can afford an expensive LSAT tutor, and many prospective law students are priced out from the get-go. [The Atlantic]

* Darby Dickerson, dean of Texas Tech Law, is resigning to assume the deanship at John Marshall Law-Chicago, a school whose enrollment has faltered over the past several years. She was asked during a job interview why she would leave a ranked law school for an unranked one, and her response may surprise you. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* The first oral argument of the new SCOTUS term marked one of the first times that complete gender equality was reached at the high court. Five men — all justices — and five women — three of them justices and two of them representing their clients — were all present for Bravo-Fernandez, which is a relative rarity. [Washington Post]

* “I feel that as a result of the experiences I had, I had a lot to offer.” With the assistance of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former GC, Hinshaw & Culbertson is launching a crisis management and consulting practice. The firm is now in competition with businesses like Zeughauser Group, Altman Weil, and Hildebrandt Consulting. [Big Law Business]

* A class-action suit has been filed over Samsung’s recall of its fiery smartphone, alleging breach of warranty, breach of good faith, and common law fraud. You can expect the size of the proposed nationwide class of plaintiffs in this suit (or at least those in California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada) to explode faster than the Galaxy Note 7. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Because he’d like to stop “freeriding on the services of Bryan Cave,” Stephen DiCarmine, Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former executive director, told a judge that he’d like to dump Austin Campriello as his lawyer and represent himself in the retrial of his criminal case. DiCarmine, a current textile design student, was warned that this likely wasn’t a very wise choice on his part. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Kaye Scholer’s managing partner “wouldn’t comment on any speculation or rumor,” but word on the street is that his firm and Arnold & Porter may potentially be discussing a possible merger. Information related to this merger is really just a game of Biglaw telephone at this point. Let us know if you have any credible details. [Big Law Business]

* This seems like the plotline of a reality TV series: A trial date has been set for one of the three Trump University lawsuits, and if all goes according to plan for likely Republican nominee Donald Trump, it looks like we may have a president-elect taking the witness stand to testify about allegations related to fraud before his inauguration. [CBS News]

* Just in time for law school commencement ceremonies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some depressing news about employment statistics. In April, the legal services sector lost 1,500 jobs. Thus far, the only month in 2016 when jobs were added in the legal services sector was March. Well… this really isn’t very encouraging. [Am Law Daily]

* “It’s been one step forward, two steps back since [2009].” The job market for law school grads is still challenging, but due to the fact that class sizes are smaller now, job prospects may seem a bit brighter for some. Are things really looking up? This John Marshall Law grad — with a job! — thinks things are going to be fine. [Chicago Tribune]

How cool is your law school? It depends on who you've snagged as a graduation speaker.

According to the ATL Insider Survey, who are the happiest law students in Chicago?

Do you have something to say about your law school's U.S. News ranking? This is the place to do it!

* With Eric Holder questioning his job, and Deval Patrick dining at the White House, perhaps we’ll see our second black attorney general. Or not, because one of the Governor’s aides says he’ll continue his reign as a Masshole. [Washington Times; Buzzfeed]

* When it came to sanctions for discovery violations in the Apple v. Samsung case, this judge was all about pinching pennies. Last week, both Quinn Emanuel and MoFo got taken to task over their apparently “sloppy billing practices.” [The Recorder]

* What’s the most inappropriate thing for a federal judge to say to jurors when delivering the news that a defendant of Asian descent killed herself after testifying? “Sayonara.” Ugh. [Careerist via New York Times]

* “Law school is very unforgiving, but classes must go on.” Law schools in the New York metropolitan area are still trying to make sure their students are safe and sound — and studying, of course. [New York Law Journal]

* Another one bites the dust: Team Strauss/Anziska’s lawsuit against John Marshall Law School over its allegedly phony post-graduate employment statistics has been dismissed with prejudice. [Chicago Tribune]

* Are you ready for some litigation? Lawyers for Nick Saban’s daughter are showing the sorority girl who sued her what it’s like to get rolled by the Alabama tide in a flurry of more than 40 subpoenas. [Times Leader]

* Dewey know how deep in the red D&L’s international operations were? Enough to make you shout bloody hell and sacré bleu: the U.K. and Paris offices had liabilities of at least $175M. [Financial Times (reg. req.)]

* “To the extent that we the estate have claims, we would like to settle those claims sooner rather than later.” The joke’s on you if you thought you’d be able to keep your Dewey defector money. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* According to the allegations in former Cravath associate Ellen Pao’s sex discrimination suit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, the “Mad Men” culture seems to be alive and well in Silicon Valley. [New York Times]

* Who will be the first to puff, puff, pass the vote — Obama or Romney? It looks like the path to the White House in Election 2012 might depend upon the legalization of marijuana in key states like Colorado. [Reuters]

* Apparently you can’t take the “duh” out of “Flori-duh” when it comes to voting laws without a fight in the courts. A federal judge has blocked portions of the Sunshine State’s “onerous” voter registration law. [Bloomberg]

* “People want to go to our school, and why should we say no?” Because they can’t get jobs? Northwestern Law is considering shrinking its class sizes; John Marshall Law, not so much. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* Stop crying about coming in second in the U.S. News rankings, Harvard, because you can still brag about beating Yale in having the most-cited law review articles of all time… for now. [National Law Journal (reg. req.)]

* Gloria Allred is representing one of the Miami “zombie’s” girlfriends for reasons unknown. Maybe the zombie apocalypse is truly upon is and she saw an opportunity to stand up for undead women’s rights. [CBS Miami]

Back in October, we informed our readers that law school litigators Jesse Strauss and David Anziska intended to file class action lawsuits against 15 additional schools, on top of the two they'd already filed against Cooley Law and New York Law School. In mid-December, we brought you an update on the status of those potential filings after Anziska told us that at least three named plaintiffs had been secured for 11 out of the 15 law schools on October's target list. And now, about a month and a half later, have we got some news for you....

Back in October, we brought you the news that Jesse Strauss and David Anziska intended to sue 15 more law schools over their post-graduate employment rates, in addition to their already pending class action suits against Cooley Law and New York Law School. As mentioned during their October 5 media conference, Team Strauss/Anziska will not […]

It was just last week that Jesse Strauss and David Anziska announced that in addition to their class action suits against Cooley Law and New York School of Law, they intended to sue 15 more law schools over their allegedly deceptive post-graduate employment statistics. In the days that followed, everyone wanted to know when these […]

Kurzon Strauss, the law firm that brought us some of the most prolific class action lawsuits of the year has split up. Breaking up is hard to do, especially when you've got major cases to deal with. So, what's a lawyer to do? Apparently the solution is to file fifteen more class action lawsuits against law schools with questionable post-graduate employment data. Is your law school or alma mater a defendant?