Good morning. The American Bar Association has changed its stance on using the GRE in the law school admissions process, easing the way for more schools to add the test to the LSAT as tools to vet applicants. Plus, we’ve got the details on the merger between Arent Fox and Schiff Hardin, and Penalty Box is back! Is it really already December?
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The American Bar Association’s decision to broadly allow law schools to accept applicants’ GRE scores is likely to spur many more schools to embrace the test as an alternative to the LSAT, reports Karen Sloan.
Eighty schools currently accept the test, but ABA data shows fewer than 1% of 2020’s first-year class was admitted with a GRE score, Sloan writes. Until the ABA changed its policy this month, law schools had to supply additional research on the GRE's reliability to the ABA to justify using the test to vet applicants.
But experts told Sloan the ABA’s change could persuade a wave of schools to start accepting the test along with the LSAT, in part because it could help them reach a wider pool of applicants.
Read more about what the change could mean for law schools.
- Arent Fox and Schiff Hardin will merge in a deal set to take effect March 1, becoming ArentFox Schiff. The combined firm will have more than 600 lawyers and policy professionals in total, and combined revenue of more than $475 million, the firms said. (Reuters)
- Michael Hausfeld will leave his chair position at Hausfeld, the litigation firm he founded 13 years ago. He will become chair emeritus as Brian Ratner and Anthony Maton, current global vice chairs, become global co-chairs effective Jan. 1. (Reuters)
- The U.S. House of Representatives voted 422-4 in favor of a bipartisan bill imposing more stringent public financial reporting requirements on federal district and appellate court judges. (Reuters)
- Davis Polk white-collar veteran Kenneth Wainstein reported receiving more than $13 million in partner compensation from the firm since last year. He made the disclosure in ethics filings submitted as part of his nomination to a key Homeland Security intelligence post. (Reuters)
- ACLU voting rights litigator Dale Ho expressed some regret about the “overheated rhetoric” of some of his tweets, but assured members of the Senate judiciary committee he could set aside his life as a zealous advocate and judge cases on the merits if he’s confirmed to the Manhattan federal trial court. (Reuters)
That’s how many years a partner needs to be out of law school to be considered for equity status at Kirkland & Ellis, marking a one-year reduction from the firm’s previous policy. And the rewards are significant for Kirkland equity partners, whose average profits reportedly stood at $6.2 million last year. Read more about the shift.
Two months after the en banc 9th Circuit heard oral arguments on a crucial and divisive class certification issue, tuna fish producer StarKist Co. and its parent, Dongwon Industries, told the appeals court there’s a completely independent reason to overturn the trial judge’s certification rulings: She violated the law by even hearing the case. Alison Frankel reports on StarKist’s remarkable brief, which seeks to avert a merits ruling in this intensely-litigated appeal.
Video: High court looks ready to uphold law undercutting Roe v. Wade
Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday signaled a willingness to uphold a restrictive Mississippi abortion law, a move that could overturn the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.
- Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco will hold a hearing over a motion to stay his ruling vacating a Trump-era rule that limits state powers to deny permits for projects that could harm their waterways. Proponents of the rule, including the state of Louisiana and the American Petroleum Institute, represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth, have appealed Alsup's October decision, and they’re hoping to put it on hold until the appeal is decided. The underlying suit challenging the rule was brought by environmental groups represented by the Western Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice alongside several states, including Colorado and California.
- Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Superior Court Judge Michael Ricciuti will hear arguments in Robinhood's bid to block state regulators from moving forward with an enforcement action alleging that the online brokerage encourages inexperienced investors to place risky trades without limits. Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin announced in December 2020 he would seek to revoke the company's broker-dealer license in the state, and Robinhood — represented by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius — sued to stop him, saying Galvin lacks the authority to implement a new state fiduciary rule that underlies his claims against the company.
- A hearing on satellite communications provider Intelsat's reorganization plan will begin in Richmond, Virginia, bankruptcy court before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Philips. Intelsat, which is represented by Kirkland & Ellis, put forward a plan that would cut the company’s debt from $15 billion to $7 billion and hand control over to unsecured bondholders of subsidiary Intelsat Jackson Holdings SA. Noteholders have voiced their opposition to the plan, telling the judge it benefits one group of creditors while leaving little for everyone else.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
"Why then doesn't the history of this Court's practice with respect to those cases tell us that the right answer is actually a return to the position of neutrality and — and not stick with those precedents in the same way that all those other cases didn't?"
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during arguments in the landmark case over Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks. Citing a list of cases where the court overturned precedent, Kavanugh questioned attorneys whether it should be neutral on abortion rights — which would mandate overturning Roe v. Wade. Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart argued that the Constitution is neutral on the subject, and so the court should be as well. Read more about what the justices said during the closely-watched arguments.
Welcome back to the Penalty Box, where The Daily Docket highlights new and notable attorney and judicial discipline orders, hearings, articles and more. We’re looking out for cases and issues of importance, so please do share any observations with us.
- The D.C. Circuit this morning will take up an ethics matter involving the referral of Minnesota lawyer Erick Kaardal to the Washington, D.C., federal district court’s grievance committee. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded a lawsuit filed by Kaardal that challenged Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win was “filled with baseless fraud allegations and tenuous legal claims." Channing Shor of Eccleston & Wolf will argue for Kaardal, who asserts Boasberg acted outside his authority. Vinson & Elkins counsel Matthew Etchemendy, appointed by the D.C. Circuit, argues Kaardal’s appeal is premature and that he would have a chance to challenge any grievance committee order on attorney discipline.
- Jeffrey Rosin, managing partner of the Boston office of O'Hagan Meyer, admitted to "poor judgment" but has urged a federal judge not to punish him any further for coaching a client while they were wearing face masks during a deposition on the Zoom video platform. Rosin and his lawyer, Susan Cohen of Boston's Peabody & Arnold, recently responded to an order to show cause addressing Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's findings that Rosin committed misconduct when he "exploit[ed] the remote nature of the deposition to improperly assist" a client in an employment lawsuit. Cohen said Rosin, now disqualified from participating in the case, that any further reprimand would be “disproportionate.”
- U.S. District Judge N. Reid Neureiter in Colorado has ordered two Colorado lawyers who filed a lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential election to pay about $187,000 in legal fees to defendants including Dominion Voting Systems, Facebook and state officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Neureiter put his order on hold pending the resolution of any appeals. Neureiter wrote that he took into account “the risk that this substantial sanction might chill zealous advocacy for potentially legitimate claims. But I conclude that the repetition of defamatory and potentially dangerous unverified allegations is the kind of ‘advocacy’ that needs to be chilled.” The Colorado lawyers contested the reasonableness of the fee demand. The Washington Post has more here on the order.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb was sued by four employees who said the drugmaker refused their requests for religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination and threatened to fire them if they weren't vaccinated. The workers, represented by Pattis & Smith, include the drugmaker’s head of clinical trial risk management for global drug development. (Reuters)
- Facebook asked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington D.C. to toss an antitrust lawsuit by the FTC seeking an order directing the company to sell two big subsidiaries. Facebook, which is represented by Kellogg Hansen, argued that the FTC had "no plausible factual support" for its claim that the company has the market clout to push up prices in the social network market. (Reuters)
- Opening statements got underway in a case challenging the legality of California's law requiring publicly-held companies to include women on their boards, testing the state's authority to address historic disparities in corporate power. Three California taxpayers, represented by conservative legal group Judicial Watch, are hoping to prove the law amounts to gender discrimination in violation of the state's constitution. (Reuters)
- The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has agreed to pay $4.5 million to resolve claims that it allowed its staff to divert fentanyl and other controlled drugs into illegal channels. The settlement stems from an investigation the DEA and federal prosecutors launched after two nurses died at the hospital from fentanyl overdoses. The medical center, which did not admit liability in the settlement, is represented in the case by John Horn of King & Spalding. (Reuters)
- A split 10th Circuit panel said it was reasonable for a former cloud-computing firm employee to believe that mistreatment of Philippines-based workers was unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 even though it was not, and revived her lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining. The court said Viktorya Reznik, represented by Philip Patterson, didn’t need to prove a Title VII violation occurred to sue over her firing from inContact Inc, represented by Jackson Lewis. (Reuters)
- Kirkland & Ellis said Scott Scheele has joined the firm as a Washington, D.C.-based antitrust partner from the Justice Department, where he served as chief of the antitrust division’s media, entertainment and communications section. (Reuters)
- Paul Hastings has added Kecia Reynolds as an intellectual property partner based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She arrives from Pillsbury Winthrop. (Reuters)
- Hughes Hubbard added Kenyen Brown, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, to the firm’s white-collar practice in Washington, D.C. Brown earlier practiced at Maynard Cooper & Gale. (Hughes Hubbard)
- Arnold & Porter has brought on Chicago-based government contracts partner Michael Barnicle from Duane Morris, where he formerly led the government contracts and international trade group. (Arnold & Porter)
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