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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

 

DOWNWARD SPIRAL – It just keeps getting worse for bar exam takers. New data from the American Bar Association shows that just shy of 75 percent of the people who took the licensing test for the first time in 2018 passed, down from 77 percent in 2017, Karen Sloan reports. Pass rates have been on a five-year slide, and The Big Fail—an ongoing series from Law.com—examines what’s driving the trend and how law schools and legal employers are responding.

MONEY MATTERS - The Am Law 100, which ranks of the 100 largest-grossing law firms in the U.S, launches at 10 a.m. ET on Law.com affiliate The American Lawyer. So what do all the numbers mean? Who are the winners and losers? What spurred growth in 2018? What happens when a recession hits? To get answers to these questions and more, sign up for a free webinar, beginnning at 11 a.m. ET, to hear what our editors and analysts make of it all.

BIG QUESTION - SCOTUS will hear challenges today to the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. U.S. House general counsel Douglas Letter will make his second-ever Supreme Court argument. Also arguing, for the challengers: New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood and Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s voting rights project for the New York Immigration Council. They will face U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

EDITOR’S PICKS

 

Facebook Hires State Department Adviser as General Counsel

Is Don McGahn the Post-Mueller Hero?

Dozens of Lawyers Vie to Lead Data Breach Case Against Marriott

It's Wilmer vs. White Walkers as Big Law Partner Makes 'Game of Thrones' Cameo

Trump Campaign Shoots Down Rumors of Rift With Jones Day

Tesla General Counsel Announces 4 Board Members Not Seeking Re-Election

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

 

BIGGER IN TEXAS - U.K-based Holman Fenwick & Willan, which moved into the U.S. in 2017 through a merger with Houston trial firm Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown, has added its second U.S. lateral. Brenda Sapino Jeffreys reports that energy transactions lawyer Fernando Cano-Lasa, who had been of counsel at Squire Patton Boggs in Houston joins Holman Fenwick as a partner. He’ll work with Derek Anchondo, also an energy transactions lawyer who joined the firm in September from Greenberg Traurig.

WHAT YOU SAID

“That’s something that either bonds you together more closely or breaks you apart.”

— CLAUDIA RAY, A KIRKLAND & ELLIS IP PARTNER WHO HAS PRACTICED WITH DIANA TORRES AND DALE CENDALI FOR 28 YEARS, COMMENTING ON TRYING NUMEROUS CASES TOGETHER.