Feb. 11, 2022
Good morning. A major legal recruiting firm is linking up with the country’s largest bar exam prep company, an initiative that comes amid a war for attorney talent. Closing arguments are expected today in Sarah Palin’s defamation trial, and we’ve got the latest from court. The SEC wants to make it easier for tipsters to claim rewards, and civil rights groups are urging the Biden administration to repudiate the U.S. Supreme Court’s century-old “Insular Cases.” It’s Friday, at last. Let’s go!
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REUTERS/Kevin Coombs Amid an intense battle for lawyer talent, one legal recruiting firm is trying a new approach: forging relationships with future attorneys before they even sit for the bar. Major, Lindsey & Africa and bar exam prep outfit BARBRI this week said they’re collaborating to provide career resources to law students in BARBRI’s program, Karen Sloan reports.
The partnership might not make sense at first blush. There’s no money to be made in law student recruitment, since firms hire directly from schools. But Major, Lindsey & Africa is playing the long game, hoping that those students will remember them when they feel the itch to move on to their second or third law firm or in-house jobs, said Ru Bhatt, a partner in Major Lindsey’s associate practice group.
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Industry buzz
Number of the day: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Handout via Reuters That’s the estimated number of gray wolves in the lower 48 states, up from about 1,000 when they were added to the endangered species list in the 1970s. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in California issued a ruling that restored those endangered species protections in the upper Midwest, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest, reversing a 2020 Trump administration decision that allowed the wolves to be hunted. Read more about the decision.
Columnist spotlight: Classwide arbitration is not dead yet, as casino antitrust decision shows Remember how the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 ruling in Lamps Plus, Inc v. Varela was supposed to be lights out for classwide arbitration? Well, it looks like reports of its demise were at least slightly exaggerated. Alison Frankel reports on a new AAA decision allowing a Mohawk casino to move ahead with classwide antitrust claims that two gaming equipment companies overcharged casinos for automatic card-shuffling machines. Check out other recent pieces from all our columnists: Alison Frankel, Jenna Greene and Hassan Kanu.
"It's like having laws on the books that don't outlaw lynching. Why would the U.S. government want to leave those laws there? Why would they not want to repudiate them?"
— Laura Esquivel, vice president of federal policy and advocacy at the Hispanic Federation, speaking out as part of a new effort from civil rights groups urging the Biden administration to disavow the U.S. Supreme Court’s century-old “Insular Cases.” The rulings, suffused with racist language, gave the government license to treat people living in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories differently than other Americans, our colleague Lawrence Hurley writes. Read more about the advocacy from the civil rights groups.
Coming up today
What to catch up on this weekend Robin Williams, George Carlin estates sue Pandora over copyrighted jokes Investor brings insider trading claims against Rocket Cos chair Boy Scouts of America wins key support for sex abuse settlement These law schools' grads crush the bar exam. It's not who you think Lawsuit accuses Harvard of ignoring sexual harassment by professor Troutman Pepper poaches seven Ballard Spahr partners Judge ends 'ironic' bid to nix malpractice case over lawyer's blown deadlines OMG: Big-name lawyer is mindful of appeals court's disdain for acronyms
In the courts
Industry moves
The Federal Circuit issued a much-anticipated ruling on Feb. 1 in the case Qualcomm Inc v. Apple Inc that affects what materials may be asserted to challenge a patent in an inter partes review (IPR), write David McCombs, Eugene Goryunov and Jonathan Bowser of Haynes and Boone. The Federal Circuit, the authors write, held that admitted prior art is not a patent or printed publication and, while usable, cannot form "the basis" of a challenge. Read more about the decision.
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