Proskauer Rose LLP

This is going straight to the mortgage isn't it?

More cold, hard cash for associates.

Welcome to the raise party, Proskauer!

The market has finally settled on a standard.

What it's like opening up a firm (in the middle of a pandemic).

Will this work to resolve the legal profession's difficult diversity dilemma?

The parties have refused to offer comment on the settlement.

* Confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh will begin on September 4, which means that Justice Brett Kavanaugh will likely be ready and raring to go for October Term 2018. [Politico]

* If and when Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, he’ll be able to fulfill his hoop dreams at “the highest court in the land.” Unfortunately, as his fellow players and coaches have confirmed, white men judges can’t jump. [Wall Street Journal]

* In the meantime, liberal activists seem to be struggling in their attempts to rally the troops to convince Republican senators (like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Dean Heller) to vote “no” on Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination. [New York Times]

* Remember when Rudy Giuliani spoke to George Stephanopoulos about President Trump’s conversation with James Comey on Michael Flynn? Giuliani doesn’t. In fact, he’s now saying Trump’s conversation with Comey never took place. [CNN]

* Partner Connie Bertram has settled her $50 million gender discrimination suit against Proskauer Rose. Details on their agreement aren’t available, but let’s hope that the labor and employment leader is getting what she’s due. [American Lawyer]

* If you want to attend the Manafort trial but have no idea what to do with your electronics, the Cafe Gallery deli across the street from the courthouse will hold onto everything for you for just $2 per item. [Washington Business Journal]

The Biglaw firm argues the plaintiff 'cherry-picked' the stats in the complaint.

* Barbara Jones, a former federal judge who now serves as a partner at Bracewell (a firm where Rudy Giuliani was once a name partner), has been appointed as a special master in Michael Cohen’s case to decide which materials that were seized from his office are protected by attorney-client privilege and which materials can be reviewed by prosecutors. [New York Post]

* This just got really interesting: The anonymous Proskauer partner who is suing the firm in a $50 million gender bias case has come forward and revealed her name. Jane Doe is better known as Connie Bertram, head of the firm’s labor and employment practice in D.C. and co-head of the firm’s whistleblowing and retaliation group. [American Lawyer]

* Veteran Supreme Court advocate Lisa Blatt of Arnold & Porter received a rare honor at the high court earlier this week during oral arguments in Trump v. Hawaii when Justice Stephen Breyer mentioned her as the author of an amicus brief. This almost never happens. Congratulations on a job well done! [National Law Journal]

* The Stanford Law Class of 1998 has the special sauce for producing female deans at top law schools. Kimberly Yuracko of Northwestern, Kerry Abrams of Duke, and Gillian Lester of Columbia all graduated in the same year. [The Recorder]

* Cooley Law School is back in compliance with ABA accreditation standards. Apparently the school is now admitting candidates who appear capable of finishing law school and gaining admission to a state bar (even though recent bar exam pass-rate statistics seem to strongly disagree with that assessment). [ABA Journal]

The judge throws around some harsh words.

Nineteen destinations in 15 countries on six continents -- sounds way more fun than doc review, doesn't it?

* President Trump seems to be addicted to lawyers, and maybe someday he’ll be able to find another one like Michael Cohen who is “willing to sacrifice reputation, sanity, and perhaps a paycheck” to defend him. [Politico]

* Proskauer Rose and Jane Doe, the partner who sued the firm in a $50 million gender bias lawsuit, will be entering mediation to see if they can reach a settlement. At the same time, limited discovery will take place as to whether Doe is an “employee” under the anti-discrimination laws cited in the suit. [American Lawyer]

* Anthony Borges, a student who was shot five times while blocking a doorway to save other students during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has filed suit against Nikolas Cruz for for assault and battery. Perhaps we should be expecting more of these lawsuits in the future. [Sun Sentinel]

* Parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones of Infowars. Jones responded to the lawsuit going on a 10-minute rant on his show about how his lawyers thought the suit was frivlous. [New York Times]

* Bonus season isn’t over yet — for staff members, that is. Mintz Levin recently awarded hundreds of its staff members with special bonuses to celebrate an increase in equity partner profits. [Big Law Business]

Not a bad reason to take a break from law school.

Bonuses may be nice, but associates are feeling the pinch of cuts to other benefits.

* President Trump’s personal legal team: “It’s utter chaos. Sometimes it can be like no one knows who is in charge.” [Washington Post]

* Adam Feldman predicts that the travel ban is going down before SCOTUS. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* The Trump tweets on banning transgender individuals from the military aren’t the only bad news for the LGBTQ community today. [Washington Blade]

* A nice win for the First Amendment and public access to court records. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* Ira Stoll wonders (with good reason): why did the New York Times account of this high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit name the law firm, but not the plaintiff? [Smarter Times]

* Clerkships guru Debra M. Strauss, who has written for our pages on the topic, is out with a second edition of Behind the Bench: The Guide to Judicial Clerkships (affiliate link).

For starters, never be afraid to ask for help.

* Joe Lieberman is senior counsel at Kasowitz Benson, one of President Donald Trump’s go-to law firms, and now that he’s considered to be a frontrunner for FBI director, someone has been desperately trying to edit the firm’s Wikipedia page to remove Trump from its list of notable clients. Gizmodo did some investigation as to who was trying to cover up the fact that Lieberman has a relationship with Trump’s longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. [Gizmodo]

* Now that Robert Mueller has been appointed as special counsel in the investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, the DOJ is exploring possible conflicts of interest with his former law firm, WilmerHale. Coincidentally, the firm represents former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but its GC says Mueller had nothing to do with those matters. [Washington Post]

* “You ain’t going to impeach nobody. Try it and we will lynch all of you. You’ll be hanging from a tree.” Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on the House floor last week, and now he’s being threatened. Green is unwilling to allow the racial hostility to deter him from doing the “right thing,” which he believes, in this case, means proceeding with impeachment proceedings against the president. [Houston Chronicle]

* Much has gone down in the $50 million Jane Doe/Proskauer gender discrimination case since we last checked in. It seems that one judge ruled that Doe need not be unmasked and may continue to use a pseudonym in her action against the firm, and another judge ordered that notes from Doe’s mediation with the firm be preserved, as she claims that a fellow partner allegedly threatened to fire her because of her complaints while there. [ABA Journal]

* “I’ve never known how many students didn’t come because of the old building. I’m quite certain that none came because of the old building.” Twenty years and $80 million dollars later, and the University of South Carolina School of Law finally has a shiny new building to show off that the administration is hoping will not only entice new students to enroll, but also increase its U.S. News law school ranking next year. The school is currently tied for 88th place. [Post and Courier]

This is utterly depressing.

So, what is really going on here?