Winston & Strawn

* Republicans’ control over the Senate grew after the midterm elections, but Democrats managed to take the House. Here are six interesting reasons why that means President Donald Trump could be in “huge legal trouble” now. [Law & Crime]

* Florida voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to restore felons’ voting rights, which will now be automatically restored after prison time is completed and restitution paid. That’s at least 1.4 million more voters! [Orlando Sentinel]

* Remember Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed after she refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples? Last night, she lost her reelection campaign to Elwood Caudill Jr., a Democratic challenger. [Lexington Herald Leader]

* In case you missed it, President Donald Trump chose former White House counsel and current O’Melveny of counsel A.B. Culvahouse to go Down Under to put another shrimp on the barbie serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia. [National Law Journal]

* A California appellate court has paved the way for former Winston & Strawn partner Constance Ramos to get out of an “unconscionable” arbitration agreement with the firm. This may be the first Biglaw gender bias case to make it to trial. [The Recorder]

* Sorry, but you can’t deduct the cost of your law degree on your taxes because it qualified you for a new trade or business. The U.S. Tax Court says that even with a shiny new J.D. in your possession, you’ve only enhanced your current skills. [Law360]

* Grab ’em by the public interest: Per a new Gallup survey, pre-law students don’t care about Biglaw money; no, they say the top reason to go to law school is to “pursue a career in politics, government, or other public service.” [Idaho Business Review]

* A group of crypto investors has filed suit against rapper T.I., alleging that they could not have whatever they like because he tricked them into backing FLiK Token. The Rubberband Man’s lawyer says, “Tip is truly disheartened by the lawsuit.” [Complex]

* Winston & Strawn revenue up 19 percent last year after securing a hefty contingency fee in the pink slime matter. Despite their victory, we suspect these lawyers are using their windfall on grass-fed free-range beef. [American Lawyer]

* In the continuing war on class actions as a lingering nuisance to our corporate overlords, the Supreme Court may be taking aim at cy pres settlements to “protect the class” by making class actions harder to pull together. [National Law Journal]

* The photographer from the horrendous decision ruling that embedded Tweets are copyright violations is fighting an effort by defendants to get an interlocutory appeal to clear up this travesty as quickly as possible. You know, to save the Internet. [Law360]

* In an article that manages to avoid any reference to Ready Player One, Rhys Dipshan considers the IP challenges facing widespread adoption of VR and AR products. As an example, the article considers what would happen if someone put that famous picture of Albert Einstein into the game. Perhaps the better question is why isn’t that in the public domain and can VR be the technology that finally reverses the broken IP regime Sonny Bono dropped on us? [Legaltech News]

* Can California’s sanctuary laws survive federal assault? Professor Noah Feldman says they should. [Bloomberg]

* Professor Tobias Barrington Wolff considers the sideshow of a career his Penn Law colleague Amy Wax has decided to pursue. [Faculty Lounge]

* The effort to hijack “religious freedom” to legalize discrimination continues to be plagued by members of Satanic Temples invoking the same law to secure personal freedoms that governments routinely curtail. [Huffington Post]

* Cy Vance is barring donations to his campaign from lawyers with business before his office, resolving a conflict that was obvious to everyone but him. [ABC News]

* Mary Jo White admits Debevoise made a mistake in naming confidential witnesses in its report that functionally exonerated the University of Rochester in a massive sexual harassment investigation. Well, when they’re described as “confidential” witnesses this would seem to be a mistake. [American Lawyer]

* Prosecutors want to retry Senator Menendez and have a list of demands for the new trial like, “not letting defense attorneys talk.” [New Jersey Law Journal]

* HLS students open a startup bringing AI into document categorization following in the proud tradition of Harvard undergrads who dropped out to become tech moguls. [Legaltech News]

* Discrimination suit against Winston & Strawn hinges on what it means to be a “partner.” In other words, can firms placate attorneys with empty titles without accepting the consequences? [Litigation Daily]

* Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered map gets the benchslap. [NPR]

* Trump calls for changes to the tax laws to punish the NFL. I think this is a reference to the NFL’s tax-exempt status… which they gave up in 2015. But hey, he’s upset over a picture of players kneeling from 2014, so they’re still a year behind on this stuff over in the West Wing. [Reuters]

* Living in limbo: Kirkland’s income partners are supposed to go up and out, but upon closer examination they’re going up and… wildly well-compensated purgatory. [Law.com]

* Winston & Strawn want arbitration in their gender bias suit based on a clause in the applicable partnership agreement. Get used to this, because by this time next year every job will be forcing arbitration if the Supreme Court has anything to say about it. [Am Law Daily]

* Today in unintentionally sad: two elite female attorneys fight over a song pretty clearly about date rape. [The Recorder]

* Apple GC Bruce Sewell is retiring. Very symbolic of someone at Apple to stop working just when they release a new product. [Corporate Counsel]

* What are the seven worst words from your past for your jury to hear? Because “I think we got away with it,” have to be up there. [Law360]

* An interview with former Magic Circle lawyer Tom Vaughan MacAulay about his new book Being Simon Haines (affiliate link). [Legal Cheek]

* We’ve found Justice Washington’s notes in a circuit case he heard in 1823, which is kind of fun. [Concurring Opinions]