Recent Headlines from Above the Law

  • Morning Docket: 05.18.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.18.17

    * IBM says Watson’s about to take away your job, which is an announcement IBM makes roughly every three months because they’re taunting us. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Betty Shelby acquitted in the killing of a black motorist because apparently it’s always reasonable to believe a random black guy is going to pull a gun. [NBC News]

    * Former client seeks $1.4 million back that it spent trying to disqualify BakerHostetler. [Law360]

    * Latham’s Alice Fisher has pulled out of the FBI Director sweepstakes. All eyes are on Joe Lieberman right now, but folks G. Gordon Liddy is just sitting there raring to go. [National Law Journal]

    * And apparently Sheriff Clarke (who I’m sure was Trump’s personal pick) is taking a Homeland Security job so he can focus on harassing the poor and disadvantaged without having to bother all those nice bankers. [New York Times]

    * Judge Charles Breyer took a break from writing the best benchslaps of all time to issue a groundbreaking video game ruling citing Star Wars and Love Actually — two movies that should never, ever be mentioned in the same sentence. [Hollywood Reporter]

    * Stupid fan lawsuit against Warriors center ZaZa Pachulia moves on. [KENS5]

    * More horrific allegations from Ken Starr’s world-class leadership at Baylor. [Huffington Post]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 06.01.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 06.01.16

    * Will wearing makeup increase your earning potential? (Yes, they only mean for women, the patriarchy is a real bitch like that.) [Corporette]

    * Ken Starr says he is resigning from his position as Baylor chancellor “as a matter of conscience.” Yup, he still plans on teaching at the law school. [ESPN]

    * Donald Trump’s terrible comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are all part of a branding exercise. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw is fighting to make people remember the women killed by police. #SayHerName [The Guardian]

    * The cleanup after a storm can be even more challenging than weathering the storm in the first instance. [Katz on Justice]

    * Has Election 2016 convinced you our electoral system is hopelessly broken? Here are the best ways to fix it. [Brennan Center for Justice]

    * Reflections from Richard Levick on Peter Thiel v. Gawker (including commentary from our very own David Lat). [Forbes]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 05.27.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.27.16

    Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday, May 25, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

    * John Quinn is opening up a museum for the brokenhearted. Yes, this is real. [Big Law Business]

    * Chris Martin is getting some really good legal advice. [Jezebel]

    * It may have seemed like Baylor was super forthcoming when it fired Art Briles and demoted Ken Starr to law school professor for failing to adequately deal with allegations of sexual assault by football players, but really, they’ve mastered the art of saying nothing. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * NBCUniversal to a federal judge: watch Straight Outta Compton. Actually, in context of the case, this request makes sense. [The Hollywood Reporter]

    * David Lat on why Peter Thiel shouldn’t be mad at Gawker for reporting that he is gay. [Washington Post]

    * Walgreens allegedly didn’t verify that the blood-testing technology Theranos was peddling actually worked before it partnered with the startup. [Law and More]

    * You may not like that Peter Thiel is trying to sue Gawker out of existence, but that doesn’t mean the practice should be illegal. [Slate]

  • Morning Docket: 09.03.15
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.03.15

    * With the Dewey trial wrapping up, a look back at the history of firm honchos earning jail time. [Law360]

    * Slick video explaining the everything wrong the way law schools market themselves to students. [Business Insider]

    * K&L Gates loses more partners. This time McDermott picks up the spoils. But don’t cry for K&L, they nabbed a huge get off Paul Hastings. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Remember when Sony got hacked? It unveiled some fun stuff, like how the new movie Concussion changed its plot around to avoid offending the NFL. [ABA Journal]

    * As college football prepares to kick off tonight, Baylor has hired Pepper Hamilton to look into how the school handles sexual violence allegations in light of the rape conviction of former player Sam Ukwuachu. [Dallas Morning News]

    * Here’s one of the dumbest arguments ever: Larry Lessig is liberal. About 47 years ago, unchecked campaign spending marginally helped a liberal (he did ultimately lose the nomination… and Nixon became president). Therefore, Larry Lessig shouldn’t be against money in politics. Signed, the former Executive Director of the Club for Growth. [The Daily Caller]

    * Meanwhile, the GOP runs into the downside of Citizens United: arming a terrible candidate with so much money he won’t drop out. [Slate]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 08.21.15
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.21.15

    * Tough legal questions that need to be answered: What to do when you inherit a school bus full of guns? [Adequate Man]

    * Do you know when to quit Biglaw? If you’re miserable, when should you start the search for your next career? [Corporette]

    * When it is Justice v. Football on college campuses, justice usually loses — a look at Baylor’s investigation of Sam Ukwuachu. [Deadspin]

    * Finally, a job that makes Biglaw look appealing. [Careerist]

    * A Biglaw firm doing parental leave right. [Talentkeepers]

    * What is real? Can it be the essence of a character distilled? [What About Paris]

    * Toddlers’ favorite lawyer makes a late night appearance [YouTube]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAPCz6_8nuE

  • Morning Docket: 06.03.15
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 06.03.15

    * C. Michael Kamps, the man who filed a pro se suit against Baylor Law with claims that he was denied admission because his GPA predated grade inflation, recently lost his bid to get SCOTUS to review his case. It’s too bad — he seems like a total gunner. [ABA Journal]

    * If you thought that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the biggest celebutante justice on the Supreme Court, then you’d be dead wrong. According to Professor Rick Hasen’s research, it’s Sonia Sotomayor who’s stealing the spotlight at the high court. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Senator Elizabeth Warren, the queen of taking Wall Street to task, now has her sights set on SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White. In a 13-page letter, the politician called the former Debevoise partner’s tenure “extremely disappointing.” [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s arraignment was rescheduled from this Thursday to next Tuesday. No reason was given for the change, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that there’s still “no attorney of record” on the case. [National Law Journal]

    * Many doctors are hoping that tort reform will save them from litigating their malpractice cases, but there’s an easy alternative. In order to be sued less often, doctors should try to talk more to their patients. What a novel concept. [The Upshot / New York Times]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 02.25.15
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 02.25.15

    * Did you want a Saul Goodman cake for your next party? Because it’s a thing. Do they make Bunsen burner candles? [Legal Cheek]

    * I’m not shy about my love-hate relationship with college athletics. It’s time for more of the hate side: the NCAA cracked down on Baylor walk-on Silas Nacita for accepting benefits deemed improper… WHILE HE WAS HOMELESS! So obviously Baylor kicked him off the team. In case you don’t perceive an SEC bias, this Big XII kid lost his scholarship, while the last time a school gave a homeless kid improper benefits, we gave Sandra Bullock an Oscar. [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

    * A first-year Washington University of St. Louis law student is taking a leave of absence to join the Illinois legislature. Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Pawnee). Of course an ambitious female public servant is from “Pawnee.” [CBS St. Louis]

    * Florida deputy shackles a mentally ill woman and then drags her by the leg shackles through the courthouse. Which, when you think about it, is probably pretty humane by Florida standards. [Raw Story]

    * An interesting profile of CrowdDefend, a new player in the legal-crowdfunding space that’s aimed more towards public interest cases. [LFC 360]

    * The phenomenon of “professional brownouts” hits lawyers hard. [Law and More]

    * Reflections from Professor Laura Appleman on a law clerk’s duty of confidentiality, triggered by Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). [The Faculty Lounge]

  • Morning Docket: 11.21.13
    Animal Law, Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Canada, Deaths, Gay, Gay Marriage, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Pets, Pornography, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court

    Morning Docket: 11.21.13

    * Justice Sonia Sotomayor thinks that the lack of diversity on the federal and state judiciaries poses a “huge danger,” one that might even be greater than her complete inability to dance. [Blog of Legal Times]

    * Because “love [shouldn’t be] relegated to a second-class status for any citizen in our country,” Illinois is now the 16th state in the U.S. to have legalized same-sex marriage. Congratulations and welcome! [CNN]

    * “His discrimination claim was not about discrimination.” After only 2.5 hours deliberating, the jury reached a verdict in John Ray III v. Ropes & Gray, and the Biglaw firm came out on top. [National Law Journal]

    * One thing’s for sure: big city bankruptcies ain’t cheap. Detroit has paid about $11 million to Jones Day, emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s former firm, since this whole process kicked off. [Detroit Free Press]

    * The entire judicial panel overseeing Judge Lori Douglas’s ethics inquiry just quit. Justice apparently wouldn’t be served by continuing to examine a middle-aged woman’s porn pictures. [Winnipeg Free Press]

    * Baylor Law is being overrun by a colony of feral cats. Someone please tell the administration these kitties can’t be used as therapy animals before finals — students will have their faces clawed off. [Baylor Lariat]

    * Guy Cellucci, managing partner of White & Williams who died unexpectedly, RIP. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

  • Morning Docket: 09.12.13
    Attorney Misconduct, D.C. Circuit, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Morning Docket, New Jersey, Old People, Perverts, Reality TV, SCOTUS, Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court

    Morning Docket: 09.12.13

    * The debt “vultures” are still circling Argentina’s carcass, but later this month, the justices of the Supreme Court will convene to decide whether or not they’ll take up the country’s bond case. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Judge Robert Wilkins managed to sail through his D.C. Circuit confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great ease, but let’s see what happens when he gets to the full Senate. [Blog of Legal Times]

    * An in-house attorney in Pennsylvania was suspended from the practice of law for six months because he attached a camera to his shoe to secretly film up women’s skirts. What a classy dude. [Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.)]

    * Massive open online courses are trending in the world of higher education, and some law schools — e.g., Harvard and Northwestern — decided to get on the bandwagon while the getting’s good. [National Law Journal (sub. req.)]

    * “I’m prepared to drop everything and go to law school,” says the man appealing his age discrimination suit against Baylor Law School because his GPA predates grade inflation. [Texas Lawyer (sub. req.)]

    * The man who represented cast members of the Real Housewives of New Jersey was arrested for the unauthorized practice of law. We bet these “reality” TV stars wish they had a real lawyer. [Bergen Record]

Page 1 of 212