Above the Law

Biglaw Flirts With Private Equity, Because Ruining Everything Else Wasn’t Enough — See Also

Biglaw Wants Private Equity’s Money — Ask Your Vet How That Turned Out: The same ‘management services’ trick that swallowed your dog’s clinic is now knocking on Paul Weiss’s door.

That’s Some Catch, That Catch-22: The administration may talk like the SPLC case is a vindictive prosecution, but this Trump judge says there’s no way to know for sure without discovery. Also, she will not allow discovery.

Ballroom Blitzed: D.C. Circuit judges block the Trump bunker ballroom.

The Senate Confirmed Todd Blanche As Attorney General In The Dead Of Night: Collins and Murkowski got their moderate bona fides. Cassidy got the blame and Blanche got the job.

Your LSAT Score May Be High, But Is It THIS High? Check out the law schools with the highest LSAT scores.

A Practical Framework For Optimizing Your Firm’s Content For AI Answer Engines

If your bios, practice pages, and thought leadership aren't structured for AI to read, cite, and recommend, you're invisible at the moment of consideration.

How Lawyers Can Start A Podcast That Actually Builds Business And Brand

A podcast can be one of the smartest branding and relationship tools a lawyer will ever use, but only if it has a clear purpose, a strong format, and a real plan behind it.

Thinking About Trump’s ‘Brain Trust’

Trump likes credentials; he just doesn't have 'em.

Cherryn-Paige Bissett Says AI Didn’t Replace Lawyers. It Repriced Judgment.

The future isn't about redlining faster.

Bunker Ballroom Blocked

BOOM

Moderna Gets FDA Approval For mRNA Flu Vaccine, But CDC Input Still Uncertain

A recommendation from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee is key for payer coverage, and that committee has not met all year due to ongoing litigation.

Morning Docket: 08.10.26

* Todd Blanche confirmed as Attorney General in the middle of the night. [NPR]

* President’s son-in-law intended to destroy villages to build luxury property on stolen Albanian land he bought from suspected gang lord. We are running out of unique English sentences so fast. [WSJ]

* Fake US Attorney Bill Essayli hires his former senior aide into the office despite facing jail time over battery and grand theft charges. Only the best people in this administration. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump judge decides she can’t see anything vindictive about Justice Department’s prosecution of Southern Poverty Law Center for paying informants to infiltrate hate groups. [CBS News]

* Investigation launching into Jeanine Pirro’s ultimately fruitless Reflecting Pool prosecution. [The New Republic]

* Author of “How to Kill A Federal Judge” convicted for… threatening a federal judge. How ironic. [Reuters]

* Harvey raising another $500 million. [The Information]

* Trump tries to fire Lisa Cook again. [Law360]

* Judge Judy’s son now has a court show. [ABA Journal]

Trump Rewrites Supreme Court Loss As A Win — See Generally

Just Pretend You Won: After raging over his loss in the birthright citizenship case, Trump issued new executive orders asserting that he actually won.

Just When You Thought The Paul Weiss Surrender Couldn’t Get Worse: The New York Times dug into the first Biglaw capitulation and it’s even more cowardly than we thought. Dropping a client to keep the administration happy and internally considering running management decisions by Stephen Miller.

And Then This: The same report also claims Paul Weiss paid its first openly transgender partner $3.5 million for a non-disparagement agreement as they parted ways.

Til Disgorgement Do Us Part: Jackson Walker will pay $15 million to end the U.S. Trustee’s suit over its former partner’s undisclosed romance with the bankruptcy judge hearing her cases.

Reflecting Poorly: Jeanine Pirro dropped the vandalism case against a 67-year-old former Olympian after the Interior Department finally turned over documents showing that a $14 million renovation had simply been botched, and the president has spent the days since complaining about her.

Lateral Thinking, In Bulk: Brown Rudnick picked off a massive lawyer intellectual property litigation team from HSF Kramer, the largest group hire in the firm’s history, and opened a Silicon Valley office to put them in.

Too Big To Hire: Firms of more than 500 lawyers are now the single largest employer of new law graduates, taking more than one in five members of the Class of 2025. Those same firms hired 7.5 percent fewer of them than the year before, the first drop in Biglaw entry-level hiring since 2014.

Come Early, Stay Late: Milbank is offering its incoming first-years the chance to start three weeks ahead of schedule on the strength of “exceptionally strong client demand.”

Losing Supreme Court Argument? No Problem! — See Also

When You’re A Star: Donald Trump bitterly complained about losing the birthright citizenship cases. Yesterday, he issued executive orders asserting that he won.

Collins No. Murkowski No. McConnell Absent. Cassidy: Sure, Fine. Todd Blanche is going to be Attorney General of the United States. but it’s closer than anyone expected.

The Bar Exam Waiver Comes For Washington’s Grads. Just Not All Of Them. First-timers who got shut out are being waived in. The ones who ground through the broken exam are stuck with their scores.

Pay Me What You Owe Me: Raises for Biglaw associates are still MIA. Firms need to stop waiting for Cravath.

This Is Bananas: FedSoc co-founder befuddled by green bananas.

The Trial That Made The Supreme Court Untouchable

One impeachment, one acquittal, and a firewall that's held ever since.

The Three Pillars Of Business Development For Lawyers 

How to go from random acts of marketing to a real strategy, in this episode of the 'Be That Lawyer' podcast.

Judges Should Not Make Lawyers Handwrite Orders After Oral Argument

Lawyers may disagree about what the judge actually decided.

The Viral Wachtell Kiss That Exposed A Bigger Biglaw Problem

Office romances can get especially complicated when powerful partners are involved.

FedSoc Co-Founder Does Not Understand How Bananas Work

David McIntosh genuinely shocked by the prospect of a green banana.