Tag: Legal Fees

* Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s nonpartisan plan to pack the Supreme Court almost seems too good to be true — and that’s likely because it might be unconstitutional. [Slate]

* The Trump Organization wants Michael Cohen’s lawsuit seeking legal fees for his defense to be tossed out, claiming Trump’s former fixer created “fictitious ‘contract’” to ensure they’d be bound to him. (But even if it existed, they probably wouldn’t want to pay up anyway.) [Big Law Business]

* In case you missed it, Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, has tapped Chicago finance partner Mary Wilson, “an enthusiastic, exceptionally passionate lawyer and leader,” as the first woman to serve as its U.S. managing partner. Congratulations! [American Lawyer]

* After years tied up in patent and antitrust litigation, Apple and Qualcomm settles in the middle of opening statements at trial yesterday afternoon. Now the feuding companies will have to behave, at least for the next six years. [The Recorder]

* Remember Jeffrey Wertkin, the Akin Gump partner who disguised himself in a wig to try to sell a copy of a whistleblower complaint to Fortinet? The network security company just settled that False Claims Act case for $575K. [Law.com]

* President Trump has added five names to his slate of judicial candidates to fill a nonexistent vacancy on the Supreme Court. Welcome aboard to Judges Brett M. Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit), Amy Coney Barrett (Seventh Circuit), and Kevin C. Newsom (Eleventh Circuit), as well as Justices Britt C. Grant (Georgia Supreme Court) and Patrick R. Wyrick (Oklahoma Supreme Court). [New York Times]

* Did Trump obstruct justice in the Russia probe? We may soon find out. Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested all manner of documents from the Justice Department related to the firing of former FBI director James Comey. [ABC News]

* In other Trump-related legal news, rather than continuing to have his re-election campaign or the Republican Party foot the bill for his legal representation in the Russia probe, the president has officially started to pay his own legal tab. [Reuters]

* Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill, who was considering running for governor, bragged about the fact that he’d been “sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females.” After much backlash, he told his detractors to “lighten up” and offered a nonpology. He won’t be running for governor anymore. [Washington Post]

* FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is about to pull the plug on net neutrality, and Americans are too distracted by Thanksgiving to care. Luckily for us, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wants open hearings to take place before a vote is held. [Slate]

* “Probation is a trap and we must fight for Meek and everyone else unjustly sent to prison.” In the wake of rapper Meek Mill being sentenced to up to four years in prison for violating his probation, Jay-Z is letting everyone know he’s got 99 problems and the way the criminal justice system treats minorities is one of them. [New York Times]

* According to Justice Gorsuch, you don’t need to “suppress[] disagreement” to be civil. Disagreeable, eh? Maybe this is why there seems to be such animosity between him and Justice Kagan. [Associated Press]

* President Trump has reportedly promised to pay $430,000 to “defray the costs of legal fees for his associates, including former and current White House aides.” Meanwhile, some of his former associates have lawyers’ bills from the Russia probe that are higher than that. [Axios]

* President Trump has apparently been interviewing candidates (i.e., Biglaw attorneys with close connections to Rudy Giuliani and Marc Kasowitz) for key U.S. attorney positions, which is outside the norm for most presidents. Despite the gravity of the situation, Senator Lindsay Graham had a clever quip about the situation: “It’s kind of an extension of ‘The Apprentice,’ I guess.” The ratings on this will be YUGE. [CNN]

* “She can leave the country or she cannot get her abortion, those are her options?” Over the objections of the D.D.C. judge who ruled that the government must allow an undocumented 17-year-old seeking an abortion to get one, thanks to the D.C. Circuit, she needs to find a sponsor and further delay the procedure. [New York Times]

* Ex-Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel is on trial for conspiracy, and he’s desperately trying to distance himself from his former client, Martin Shkreli. He claims this was a big misunderstanding, and that he was victimized by Shkreli. [Big Law Business]

* Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is trying to raise funds to pay for his legal bills thanks to the numerous investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. His legal tab could range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to about $1 million. Someone, anyone, please tell this man to set up a GoFundMe account. [Bloomberg Politics]

* Earlier this week, Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was in favor of completely reinstating President Trump’s travel ban from six majority Muslim countries, regaled a group of newly naturalized citizens with his thoughts on the importance of tolerating different viewpoints during “polarizing” times, even if it’s difficult to do. We are living in very strange times. [Associated Press]

* The law school brain drain continues to wreak havoc, with a 45 percent drop in applicants with LSAT scores of 160 or above over the past six years. How in the world can law schools convince these people to apply? Eleven leaders offered their (painfully obvious) ideas, with many of them saying tuition costs must be lowered in light of the state of the weak job market. Gee, ya think? [Law.com]

* According to a study released by Yale Law School and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian Americans may be the fastest growing minority population in the legal profession, but they seem to have hit a “legal glass ceiling” when it comes to attaining leadership positions in private practice, academia, and public service. We may have more on this. [Washington Post]

* “I hope to see you and your four children homeless. I will do whatever I can to assure this.” Martin Shkreli is such a peach. A letter the pharma bro allegedly sent to a former employee’s wife was entered into evidence earlier this week during testimony on the manipulation of Retrophin, one of the eight fraud charges Shkreli is currently facing at trial. [DealBook / New York Times]