Dec. 16, 2021
Good morning. The number of new 1Ls this fall is up dramatically over last year as many schools responded to a flood of applications by admitting more students. Plus, a setback for Bill Ackman’s new take on blank check companies, and President Joe Biden continues to pick up new opportunities to shape the federal courts. We’re officially halfway through the last month of 2021!
REUTERS/Francois Lenoir New data from the American Bar Association has revealed that the number of first-year law students this year increased by about 12% over 2020’s numbers, a surprising spike, reports Karen Sloan.
The increase translates to an additional 4,516 law students over last year, spread out across the 196 schools accredited by the ABA.
It’s not an unexpected jump, as schools saw an increase in applications this fall. But 12% is a bigger increase than anticipated, law school admissions consultant Mike Spivey told Sloan.
Read more to find out what the increase could mean for the job market when these 1Ls graduate.
Industry buzz
Number of the day: That was the evenly divided vote among the 16 active judges on the 6th Circuit, blocking the court from convening “en banc” at the start of litigation that challenges the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination rule for large employers. A three-judge panel will move ahead now. Meanwhile, a 5th Circuit panel, spurning a trial judge’s nationwide injunction, revived in 26 states Biden’s COVID-19 mandate requiring millions of U.S. healthcare workers to get vaccinated if they work in federally funded facilities. Read more about the latest court orders.
Billionaire Bill Ackman told investors in his $4 billion SPAC last August that he had come up with a way to improve upon the SPAC model by issuing warrants that could be turned into stock after Ackman acquired a target company. Last month, Ackman filed a proposed SEC registration statement for the new model, which he calls a SPARC, or special purpose acquisition rights company. The SPARC can’t go public unless the warrants can be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which proposed a new rule in August to allow that to happen. But as Alison Frankel reports, the SEC isn’t ready to approve the stock exchange’s new rule. Ackman’s SPARC is going to spend some time on the back burner. Check out other recent pieces from all our columnists: Alison Frankel, Jenna Greene and Hassan Kanu.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz "He taught me something that I've tried to embody throughout my career, which is you can disagree without being disagreeable and you have to approach every case with an open mind."
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee she sees the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens as a model for her work as a judge. The committee is weighing her nomination to the 2nd Circuit. Read more about what Nathan – who is currently overseeing Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex abuse case – told the committee.
Coming up today
Reporter's Notebook: Biden rushes to put stamp on judiciary Reporter Nate Raymond is watching the changes on the bench By 2021’s end, President Joe Biden will have installed more federal judges than any of his predecessors in their first year in office since the 1980s — and opportunities for him to shape the judiciary keep growing as the year winds down.
By Wednesday's close, the Senate had confirmed 31 of Biden's district and circuit court picks, with votes on two nominees including Jennifer Sung, an Oregon state labor board member selected for the 9th Circuit. He nominated nine new district court judges hours earlier.
Senate Democrats are moving rapidly to confirm Biden's diverse slate of nominees amid fears they may lose power in next year’s midterms. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday heard from six more including Alison Nathan, the Manhattan judge overseeing Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial up for a promotion to the 2nd Circuit.
By contrast, former Republican President Donald Trump by this point in his tenure had secured approval of just 18 of his presidency's 234 judicial appointments, according to Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow in the Brookings Institution.
Most picks have come from blue states, and Biden could face opposition as he wades into filling vacancies in states with GOP senators.
But opportunities are growing as more Clinton- and Obama-era appointees step down from active service and create vacancies. This month alone, I’ve chronicled seven such announcements by appellate judges, with three on the 4th and 6th Circuits on Tuesday alone. And from the chatter I'm hearing, more are a certainty.
In the courts
Industry moves
Lawyer speak: Notes from the trial of Elizabeth Holmes As closing arguments in the fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes get underway, former federal prosecutor Kevin O’Brien, now a partner at Ford O’Brien, writes that the prosecutors have a tough row to hoe in terms of convincing a jury to care about how wealthy investors were harmed by Holmes’ alleged actions. But O’Brien says the prosecutors made a strong case. Read more to find out what O’Brien says they did right.
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