White-Collar Crime

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.12.19

* Immediately after John Bolton lost his job, a true genius tweeted that he'd signed with the Patriots. It looks like he might return to Kirkland which is basically the same thing in legal circles. [National Law Journal] * Supreme Court decides government can circumvent international law while asylum rules get litigated. Cool. [NY Times] * Dentons just added five firms across Africa in one day. [American Lawyer] * "Chief Counsel of Digital Citizenship" is an actual title a major company came up with for a lawyer presumably after spinning the buzzword wheel. [Corporate Counsel] * Latest appellate judge pick was so mealy-mouthed and evasive that even the Republicans snapped at him before they'll ultimately vote down the line to give the racist myth peddling jackhole a lifetime job. [Huffington Post] * Former Big 4 partner gets a year for fraud. [Law360] * What exactly would happen if California stood up for college athletes? [Sports Illustrated] * John Hinckley seeks sentence adjustment so he can move to California and get into the music business which is a sentence no one ever expected. [AP]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.10.19

* Redaction comedy: filings in the Roger Stone case inadvertently gave out Trump's phone number. [National Law Review] * Law firm growth has slowed but we're going to pretend that's not a troubling sign. [American Lawyer] * California's going to war with the NCAA and they stand a better chance than this year's UCLA team. [KTLA] * Former Penn State GC faces discipline hearing before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. [Law.com] * Insider trading trial begins with argument that banker didn't intend to go in on an insider trading scheme with his dad. [Law360] * FDA sends warning letter to Juul over its claims to be "safer than cigarettes" being potentially false as opposed to its claims to "not make you look like a douche" which are demonstrably false. [Corporate Counsel]

By Joe Patrice
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By Barbri
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.31.19

* New evidence proves what everyone already knew: the citizenship question on the census was intended to suppress minority representation. Maybe Kavanaugh can get angry about it until everyone ignores it? [National Law Journal] * More abuse charges for R. Kelly. [USA Today] * Addressing mental health issues in the legal world probably requires rethinking what "the legal world" really means. But that time isn't billable so it probably won't happen. [Law.com] * HSBC avoids Ponzi scheme suit. Having personally represented HSBC in a Ponzi scheme case before, kudos. [Law360] * It behooves young lawyers to learn how the firm makes its money because it's actually a lot more complex than "make you keep working." [American Lawyer] * You can legally carry brass knuckles in Texas now. [CNN]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.14.19

* Paul Manafort is the Energizer Bunny of lying and he'd now botched his own plea deal. [Huffington Post] * Apple attorney in charge of insider trading compliance charged with... insider trading. [Law360] * John Roberts declared himself the First Amendment's most passionate defender at the Supreme Court, which is absolutely true if you limit the First Amendment to political bribery and bigots with cake shops. [National Law Journal] * EU adopts new copyright law! It's... not good. [EFF] * The Harvard admissions case -- the Trojan horse action about gutting affirmative action programs -- is now in the hands of Judge Allison Burroughs for the perfunctory first act on the road to a 5-4 Supreme Court opinion. [Law.com] * Proskauer inches toward the $1B revenue mark. [American Lawyer] * A review of Biglaw cafeterias in the UK. If any firms out there want Above the Law to duplicate this story here in America, feel free to give us a call. [Legal Cheek]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.08.19

* Judge Dabney Friedrich proves every stereotype about joyless judges by throwing a fit over Reed Smith's practice of writing actually engaging briefs, prompting the firm to muse whether or not the judge is trying to get the firm's almost certainly Putin-allied client to fire him right when we were about to learn the truth of the nude selfies. [Courthouse News Service] * Federal judiciary trying desperately to keep the lights on one week later than initially reported. [National Law Journal] * The big winner of Brexit? Ireland's lawyers who firms are stockpiling in advance of Britain's departure. [International] * Rajat Gupta's conviction upheld by the Second Circuit. [Very Seinfeld voice] Newman! [Law360] * Supreme Court declines to enter the Skakel murder case because try as they might, they couldn't find anything about the case that would result in disenfranchising poor people. [Boston Herald] * In a total shock, sexual harassment claims went up as soon as America stopped immediately dismissing sexual harassment claims out of hand. Amazing! [Corporate Counsel] * Roger Stone continues to wait in torturous limbo for a decision on whether or not he'll be indicted while burning through cash on lawyers. Yeah... that's how this process works. Welcome to white-collar crime. [ABC News]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.20.18

* ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights score win with court order proclaiming the obvious: No, you can't blanket deny asylum seekers. [Associated Press via Huffington Post] * Cyrus Vance accuses someone of seeking publicity over justice. [Variety] * Are you suggesting that law firms and clients don't listen to each other? [American Lawyer] * The Trump administration wanted to share census answers with the cops... which is why they were so hot to get those illegal citizenship questions on there. It's like 3D checkers of bumbling xenophobia over here. [Washington Post] * The SEC's whistleblower program handed out more awards this year than ever before! Unsurprisingly, the article makes no mention of Justice following up on any of these financial crimes. [Law360] * Third Circuit taking a stab at New Jersey's ban on high-capacity magazines -- just as the Framers' envisioned. [New Jersey Law Journal] * What are law schools training students for? Debt management, maybe?[Forbes]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.06.18

* Apparently there's some kind of election today? In any event, law firms are taking on a huge role as volunteers. [American Lawyer] * Flush with nearly $250 million in fundraising, Northwestern Law says it's facing a "difficult time." Time to cut back on those platinum casebooks. [Law.com] * Pressure mounts in the UK to make all law firms -- not just those bigger than 250 employees -- publish gender pay gap data. Meanwhile, US law firms are still so iffy on whether or not to allow associates to give birth that parental leave is a huge deal. [LegalCheek] * Weinstein defense team wants all charges dropped alleging faulty indictment process. It feels like this is an argument half of Riker's could benefit from but won't. [CNN] * Calm before the storm? Supreme Court refuses to disturb ruling that the Second Amendment doesn't protect randos carrying concealed weapons. I feel a lot of these punts are designed to let the Kavanaugh fervor die down for a year before they revisit women's suffrage. [The Hill] * Another day, another insider trading conviction overturned. [Law360] * They're all good lawyers, Brent. [Corporate Counsel]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.18.18

* Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is the subject of no fewer than 14 separate corruption investigations. So he fired the inspector general managing the probes and replaced him with a political appointee. [Outside] * Meanwhile, a Treasury official who blew the whistle on actual criminal activity was arrested. Good to see we've got our priorities straight. [Law360] * While we've been talking about global firms invading the Houston market, V&E is looking to expand to New York, DC, and London. [Texas Lawyer] * Former West Virginia Supreme Court justice found guilty. [American Lawyer] * Why are all the bigots going into baking? [Courthouse News Service] * White & Case has a plan to grow like gangbusters over the next two years. Meghan Tribe talks with the firm about this vision. [American Lawyer]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.16.18

* Valparaiso celebrated earlier in the week after reaching an agreement to send its beleaguered law school to Middle Tennessee. Tennessee's education officials have killed the idea of hosting another middling law school with extreme prejudice. [Chicago Tribune] * Ninth Circuit judge displays deliberate ignorance in what appears to be a looming decision to keep college athletes out of court. [Courthouse News Service] * Whenever you doubt the stupidity of humanity, remember people accused of global financial fraud tend to email each other explicit descriptions of what they're doing. [Law360] * Boies Schiller will act as special prosecutor in the Joe Arpaio appeal in what should be the easiest appellate layup ever. [The Recorder] * Republican judge dismisses lawsuit against Republican politician. [Huffington Post] * Jeff Sessions tells the Heritage Foundation that he doesn't approve of this idea that courts might consider themselves some kind of "check" or "balance" on the executive branch. [National Law Journal] * Ralph Baxter thinks Biglaw needs to change its business model to succeed. [American Lawyer]

By Joe Patrice