Category: News Feeds

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays bar examiners from their appointed duty to self-justify. As Texas residents huddle together to keep warm after electric and natural gas heating failed and families ration fresh water after all the uninsulated mains burst, the state’s bar examiners surveyed the suffering and concluded that there’s no reason why this should interfere with the upcoming bar exam.

Frankly, I’d have been shocked if the state arrived at any other conclusion.

The exam will be administered remotely next week as planned. Many examinees have no power at the moment, but, you know, it’ll probably be back soon? Maybe? It’s going to be in the 70s next week, so test-taking conditions can’t be too bad, right? In the meantime, as the North Carolina bar counseled candidates over the summer, “It is important that you minimize distractions and focus on the upcoming examination….” So don’t let the fact that you’re eating snow in lieu of access to running water get in the way of your commitment to studying! Oh, the study materials are all on a computer that ran out of power and require access to an internet that’s been down for three days? Well, have you considered deferring until the summer?

Justice Brett Busby took to Twitter to outline the efforts being taken to push ahead with the exam.

The hotel reimbursement is a nice gesture, though as outlined above the real problem is the disruption to studying right now and — hopefully — not any problems with the days of the test. And hotel rooms are likely at a premium right now as people who can afford to relocate seek out temporary lodging while they wait for a plumber to replace their pipes. The only advice we can give right now is that if you’re in Texas and looking for a hotel where you can take the test in peace, we hear there are rooms available in Cancun.

The make-up exam option is a great option, but it won’t offer the reciprocity of the UBE. For most folks that’s not going to be a concern because they plan to practice in Texas exclusively, but there are definitely going to be candidates for whom this is a non-starter, leaving the only option another deferral.

In a sense, this is a microcosm of the whole disaster in Texas. A dogged commitment to an ideal — be it deregulation or the administration of this anachronistic exam — became the source of the state’s struggles. Instead of chasing well-meaning half-measures to ameliorate the impact, perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at why you’re in this boat to begin with.

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

At the heart of the epic legal battle of Dumb vs. Dumber appeared to be the question of just who, in fact, was dumbest. The winner of that dubious distinction, it seemed, would also win the case, and as such both sides went to great disingenuous lengths to appear as inconceivably stupid as possible.

* A lawsuit has been filed over the name for Corona Hard Seltzer. Maybe they can resolve the despite by kicking back a few… [Chicago Tribune]

* A California woman is accused of impersonating two lawyers and committing PPP loan fraud. Going to refrain from making a My Cousin Vinny reference here… [SF Gate]

* A former Disney employee is accusing the company of bad accounting in a new lawsuit. Maybe they just lost track of their Star Wars money. [Orlando Sentinel]

* The defense teams of three individuals charged in the killing of George Floyd are asking for charges to be dismissed against their clients. [Star Tribune]

* Check out this article on the rate at which federal courts of appeal grant oral argument. The data should be “appealing” to many litigators. [Juris Lab]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!

According to data collected in Above the Law’s Law Firm Transparency Directory, powered by Leopard Data Solutions, which three law schools are the top feeder schools for Wachtell Lipton?

Hint: Given the firm’s founding partners’ alma mater, at least one of the law schools on the list should be easy to figure out.

See the answer on the next page.

It was a great love affair, but now it has come to an end.

“Mayor Giuliani is not currently representing President Trump in any legal matters,” the former president’s spokesman Jason Miller told reporters last night. This morning he elaborated on the conscious uncoupling, tweeting “Simply that there are no pending cases where Mayor Giuliani is representing the President. The Mayor remains an ally and a friend.”

It’s not so surprising, really. Trump has been seeing other lawyers and not even bothering to hide it. Younger lawyers who don’t tweet incriminating details about plots to frame antifa for the Capitol riot. Or leave embarrassing buttdial messages for reporters. Lawyers who know how to keep their root touch-up in place for an entire press conference.

Plus there were rumors of trouble in paradise and unpaid legal bills after Rudy failed to stop Joe Biden getting sworn in.

But who will get custody of OAN?

Here’s hoping Trump and Rudy can at least keep it civil for the sake of the children. And by “children,” we mean all the legal proceedings that are likely to come out of their joint attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Just yesterday, Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, head of the Homeland Security Committee, teamed up with the NAACP to sue Trump and Giuliani for conspiring with radical domestic terrorists to intimidate and harass the congressman as he attempted to carry out his official duties. (Good luck with Judge Amit Mehta!)

Dominion and Smartmatic have both sued Giuliani for false claims he made about their voting machines in his representation of Trump.

And Trump and Giuliani both addressed the mob on January 6 in the moments before they stormed the Capitol, with Trump exhorting them to “fight like hell” and Rudy clamoring for “trial by combat.” So if news reports are correct that D.C.’s Attorney General Karl Racine is weighing charging the former president under laws against incitement, then Rudy might well be in the frame, too.

“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after voting to acquit Trump. “And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.” This also applies to former presidents’ lawyers.

But severing ties to Trumpland will have other, more immediate repercussions for Giuliani, who is currently facing an ethics complaint seeking to disbar him in New York. With Bill Barr out at the DOJ, Giuliani probably won’t be able to waltz in there with his clients and demand an audience. Particularly since he’s under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New York — an investigation which was stymied by Barr and his replacement Jeffrey Rosen, but which is likely to become un-stuck in short order.

If Rudy can’t flog his services to Turks, or Qataris, or Romanians, or Venezuelans, or Ukrainians seeking an in with the White House, he’s going to have a hard time meeting that $230,000 monthly nut for his six homes and 11 country club memberships. And that’s without factoring in the alimony!

Yes, it’s a very sad day. Ah well, we’ll always have Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

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Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Why are they so nervous about people investigating them? Nobody’s harassing them. No one has called for them to be attacked or threatened. I would never do that. They started the fight with me. I did not start it with them. But I’m going to finish it.

— Lin Wood, the Georgia attorney who became one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest allies in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election through frivolous litigation with unfounded allegations of fraud, commenting on his decision to ask Telegram users to investigate members of the state Bar Disciplinary Board to challenge their “competence, qualifications, or objectivity.” Wood recently received a grievance notice from the state bar notifying him of his alleged ethical lapses, which could end his career as an attorney.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Oh joy, Amy Cooper isn’t going to jail. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office — yes, the same DA who has a reputation for selective law enforcement (hint: poor people of color don’t fare so well) — dropped the charges against Cooper. Cooper vaulted to infamy last spring when a video of her threatening to call the cops on a Central Park bird watcher, Christian Cooper — no relation — went viral. Vance announced in October that charges were being filed against Amy Cooper for filing a false police report, though Christian Cooper said at the time he wouldn’t cooperate with the prosecution, saying the public humiliation and losing her job as part of the hubbub was punishment enough.

Now Christian Cooper’s had his way and Amy Cooper is in the clear.

According to reports, Amy Cooper completed a therapeutic educational program — a whopping whole five sessions of them, which included a racial bias component. Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said Cooper’s therapist described it as a “moving experience” and said Cooper “learned a lot” from it. And so, the charges were dropped. As unfair as this might strike some, it might not get a mention at Above the Law, seeing as we’re focused on the machinations of the legal industry, not just a single criminal case. But then her lawyer started running his mouth.

As reported by Law & Crime, Amy Cooper’s attorney Robert Barnes made this statement:

“After a thorough and honest inquiry, the New York District Attorney’s office concluded the appropriate outcome of this matter was complete dismissal of all charges. We thank them for their integrity, and agree with the outcome,” Barnes said in a statement to Law&Crime. “Many others rushed to the wrong conclusion based on inadequate investigation, and for some, there may be legal consequences coming.”

I guess taking a W gracefully wasn’t one of those things Amy Cooper learned in her restorative justice class.

Deep sigh. Of course this sort of puffery is exactly Barnes’s go-to move. Back in May, he threatened Amy Cooper’s now former employer with legal action:

“Sixty seconds of panic in a park in response to a stranger saying he is about to do something to a woman alone in the park that ‘you won’t like’ cost a lady her job, her public reputation, and her livelihood, even after she apologized for her reaction. Her employer promised to conduct a fair investigation, then publicly rushed to join the reputational lynch mob of their own employee,” Barnes told Law&Crime in May. “Amy Cooper enjoys potential legal claims against her employer for defamation because they gave the world the impression they conducted an impartial investigation that led them to conclude her motivations were malevolent racism within the employment setting when they conducted no such investigation and no such information would support such a conclusion.”

No, you haven’t forgotten the basics of defamation law. As Christy Hull Eikhoff, a partner at Alston & Bird and a defamation expert, said, calling Cooper or her actions racist would likely fall under the “subjective opinion” exception. And employment law expert Tom Spiggle explained that employment law is also unlikely to help Amy Cooper’s cause, since “Private employers have pretty broad latitude to terminate you for out-of-work conduct — it’s usually perfectly legal.”

We’ll have to wait and see if this bluster turns into an actual lawsuit. But if Amy Cooper wasn’t a fan of the last media frenzy she was at the center of, well, litigation seems like a poor choice to return to a non-infamous life.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

A lawyer ran afoul of a cat filter and gave the country a light-hearted moment of escapism. Then someone remembered the sordid details of the brouhaha over his time as a prosecutor. We also talk about law school and its impact on salaries, Trump’s amazingly bad yet nonetheless successful impeachment lawyers, and the impending February bar exam.