Senate Judiciary Committee

* Somehow the Clarence Thomas ethical morass got worse. [ProPublica]

* Biglaw firms consider recapturing the magic of lockdown profits by severely curtailing travel for in-person meetings. Yeah, that’s what the clients want in 2023… firms to Zoom them to save $5K. [American Lawyer]

* Liberals claim calls for Dianne Feinstein to resign are “sexist.” Which is exactly what the same liberals said about calls for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign and how did that work out for you? [Bloomberg Law News]

* SCOTUS refuses to halt student debt settlement involving schools that the government characterized as functional diploma mills. Don’t worry, they’re still on track to strike down the student debt settlement that could help the most people. [Reuters]

* Former client is “batshit crazy” says attorney. I don’t know about this specific client, but there’s a generalizable ring of truth to this. [Law360]

* DeSantis signs 6-week abortion law which, as political mistakes go, is right up there with “pissing off Disney.” [AP]

* President Trump claims that the FBI and the DOJ will be investigating the Jussie Smollett case because it’s an “absolute embarrassment to our country.” Meanwhile, in more realistic news, Chicago wants the Empire actor to pay $130,000 to cover the costs of the officers who worked on the case. [Wall Street Journal]

* According to Diane Feinstein, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, “the blue slip is essentially dead.” May the century-old tradition rest in peace. [Big Law Business]

* Jessie Liu, Trump’s pick for third-in-command at the Justice Department upon the recommendation of Attorney General William Barr, has withdrawn from consideration after facing conservative opposition for her association with the National Association of Women Lawyers, an organization she once led. [Reuters]

* C. Allen Parker, the former Cravath presiding partner who brought Biglaw the $180K salary scale and left the firm to become general counsel at Wells Fargo, will now serve as interim CEO and president at the troubled bank. Best of luck… [Corporate Counsel]

* In case you missed it, the NRA is planning to oppose renewal of the Violence Against Women Act due to provisions that would prevent people who have committed domestic abuse from obtaining firearms. That’s just swell. [The Hill]

* Roberta Kaplan, the founding partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink who represented Edith Windsor in the landmark Supreme Court case that obliterated the Defense of Marriage Act and co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, will be speaking at Harvard Law’s 2019 Class Day Ceremony. Congratulations! [Harvard Law Today]

* Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows have referred Michael Cohen to the Justice Department, claiming that they have evidence that Trump’s former fixer “committed perjury and knowingly made false statements“ during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee. [CNN]

* Meanwhile, thanks to Cohen’s testimony, Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization who has already been granted immunity by SDNY prosecutors, will be called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. [Daily Beast]

* Almost time to say hello to Judge Neomi Rao: The nominee to replace Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit got through the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote, and the full Senate is likely to vote her onto the bench. [NBC News]

* Lawrence Tu, the chief legal officer over at CBS, has resigned from his post and will be leaving the company in April. His leave follows the ouster of former CEO Les Moonves, who allegedly sexually harassed several employees. [New York Law Journal]

* Much to the Justice Department’s chagrin, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit unanimously ruled that not only may AT&T acquire Time Warner but that such a combination would be unlikely to harm competition. [Wall Street Journal]

* Ho Ka Terence Yung, the ex-UT Law student who pleaded guilty to terrorizing an admissions interviewer after he was rejected from Georgetown Law, was just sentenced to almost four years in prison for one count of cyberstalking. [Law.com]

* Lincoln Bandlow, a Fox Rothschild partner who some have referred to as a “porn copyright troll,” got sanctioned $750 by a federal judge after missing court deadlines in at least two dozen of those porn infringement cases. [American Lawyer]

* That was quick! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’d wait until the Mueller report came out to talk about the possibility of impeaching the president, but one of her colleagues is planning to re-introduce articles of impeachment against Trump on the first day of the new Congress. [CNN]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a confirmation hearing for William Barr, the nominee for U.S. attorney general, on January 15, and he’ll get the “same fair and thorough vetting process” as all of his predecessors. Yeaahh… [National Law Journal]

* The DOJ won’t ask SCOTUS to block the appointment of a special prosecutor in former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s quest to delete his pre-pardon guilty verdict on contempt charges — but that doesn’t mean his own lawyers will back down. [POLITICO]

* Connie Brenton, founder of the three-year-old Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), is resigning from the organization, citing the board’s desire to move in “different directions.” Hope this doesn’t put a damper on CLOC’s upcoming conference! [Corporate Counsel]

* Guess which boutique firm is “building an army of killers,” and plans to “take over Boston in short order”? That would be Pierce Bainbridge, the self-proclaimed “fastest-growing law firm” in America. That’s a bit scary, but congrats! [American Lawyer]

* Jane Shay Wald, 72, is a partner emeritus at Irell & Manella who leads the firm’s trademark practice, and unlike our columnist Jill Switzer, she refuses to be referred to as a dinosaur: “I am senior, hear me roar. I’m no f***ing dinosaur.” [AGEIST]

* Yale Law School’s list of the most memorable quotes of the year is out, and Rudy Giuliani’s “truth isn’t truth” and Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s “I still like beer” coming in first and second place, respectively. Congratulations on all of your success. [Newsweek]

* After some dealmaking with Republicans, Senator Kamala Harris will remain on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The problem here is that another GOP seat will be added, but right now, it seems like there’s no one out there who wants to take up this important role. [Washington Post]

* Yup, I’m just going to leave this one right here: “Senate Lawyer Deemed ‘Not Qualified’ by ABA Confirmed to Eighth Circuit.” [National Law Journal]

* Kirkland & Ellis will have a new leader soon, but that doesn’t mean the firm’s lateral hiring spree will end. “[T]he Kirkland threat of poaching isn’t going away anytime soon and might get worse,” says one of the firm’s partners. [American Lawyer]

* The Senate will take a look at a criminal justice reform in a revised version of the First Step Act later this month. Per President Trump, the bill “looks like it’s going to be passing, hopefully, famous last words, on a very bipartisan way.” [Reuters]

* Remember that dustup at GW Law between the SBA and the Jewish Law Student Association? Students say the administration has “swept the incident under the rug” and won’t resolve the situation until next semester. [GW Hatchet]

* When do women get seats on corporate boards? When it’s required by law. That’s certainly less than than inspiring. Time to start lobbying. [Big Law Business]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has hired an outside counsel who’s an expert in sex crimes prosecution to question Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. She’ll be doing the bidding of Republican senators, while Democratic senators will do their own questioning. [CNN]

* That same SJC will vote on Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination the very next day, less than 24 hours after Dr. Ford’s testimony concerning allegations that the judge sexually assaulted her. Everyone must be looking forward to the show hearing even more now. [POLITICO]

* But if Kavanaugh’s nomination somehow gets Borked or withdrawn on or before Friday, you better believe that he could face disciplinary action when he returns to his seat on the D.C. Circuit. A complaint has already been filed, but most are “dismissed fairly promptly.” Let’s see what happens. [Big Law Business]

* Should he stay or should he go now? Sources say Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has no plans to quit and President Donald Trump’s advisers say he’d be willing to keep the DOJ’s second in command on the job. “The president is genuinely conflicted,” but no one knows if his urge to say “You’re Fired!” will be too great. [Wall Street Journal]

* Say hello to the China 45, a ranking of Chinese law firms with the highest gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per equity partner for the prior calendar year. When it comes to the firms with the biggest financial footprints, only one “American” Biglaw shop made the cut. Take a wild guess on which one it was. [American Lawyer]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has reached a tentative deal with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as to when she will testify about her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. The showdown is expected to go down on Thursday, pending any last-minute changes. [New York Times]

* Judge Kavanaugh dug up calendars from the summer of 1982 to corroborate his denials of Dr. Ford’s allegations. He apparently kept detailed entries as a teen, listing events like “go to [Mark] Judge’s,” but “drunk sexual assault fun time” is nowhere to be found. So convenient! [New York Times]

* And now, a second woman has come forward to accuse Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct — this time, during his drunken college years. Meet Deborah Ramirez, who says that when they were Yale freshmen, Kavanaugh shoved his penis in her face and as she pushed him away, caused her to touch it without her consent. [New Yorker]

* Professor Amy Chua claims that everything current and former Yale Law students are saying about her Kavanaugh clerkship coaching is “outrageous” and “100% false.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, those Yale Law students say Chua is lying. [HuffPost]

* “I am resigning from the firm, effective immediately.” It may seem like former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich quit his job as senior counsel at Robbins Russell after objections were raised by partners to his joining Dr. Ford’s legal team, but they made a mutual agreement months ago about parting ways. His representation of Dr. Ford merely “accelerated” the departure. [National Law Journal]

* Will President Trump fire Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein over his reported comments about wearing a wire before the midterms and Kavanaugh’s prospective confirmation? Trump’s GOP allies want him to wait before anything else gets muddled. [CNN]

* “We never once saw him take a shortcut, treat a case as unimportant, or search for an easy answer.” According to 34 of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s former clerks, the man is apparently not just a judge, but also a saint, and they wanted the Senate Judiciary Committee to know all of the details. [National Law Journal]

* Nice guys get confirmed fast? More on Judge Kavanaugh’s sainthood. The man coaches not one, but two girls’ basketball teams, he’s a superb “carpool dad,” and he takes a family friend’s daughter whose father died to the school’s annual father-daughter dance each and every year. He’s just so nice! [Washington Post]

* Damn, it’s not just Arizona Summit’s graduates who can’t practice law in Arizona. Three lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis — including Paul Clement, Viet Dinh, and Christopher Bartolomucci — were booted from the school’s case against the ABA for failing to comply with out-of-state attorney admission procedures. [Law360]

* Acording to the Boston Larger Law Firm Managing Partner Group, “much work needs to be done” when it comes to attorneys who have experienced inappropriate sexual behavior at work. Per a recent study, 60 percent of respondents had either received messages of a personal or sexual nature, been touched inappropriately, or witnessed a coworker being touched inappropriately. [Boston Business Journal]

* Lawyerly Lairs: Convicted Murderer Edition. The 80-acre ranch of Claud “Tex” McIver, the former Fisher Phillips partner who shot his wife in the back, is now on the auction block, and there’s a dispute over who will receive the proceeds. [Daily Report]