How the midterms shook up state courts

This week is about leverage: who has it, who loses it, and how fast it moves. Weil Gotshal was highly profitable and still came apart in under a month, and your firm runs on the same math. Clients armed with chatbots are testing your patience, and lawyers are pushing back. Google just put your reviews behind a sign-in. And for Native American Heritage Month, we have a podcast on how the Alcatraz occupiers built leverage from almost nothing.

But first, would you trust the juror who eats a Klondike Bar for breakfast?

Midterms shake up the judiciary.
Courts across the country were shaken up by Tuesday’s midterm election. The Brennan Center’s State Court Report has a write-up covering the most consequential races. Beyond that, you can take a look at Ballotpedia’s map of all of this year’s judicial elections. But if you’re looking for election law news in general, Rick Hasen’s long-running Election Law Blog is where you want to be. 

Are we sure we want to know what McRibs are actually made of?
Litigation over the polarizing sandwich’s ingredients is moving forward. 

I passed the bar once, but stopped at the next one to get a drink.
37 states saw their bar passage rate fall this summer. See how your state’s test takers fared. 

She’s not a lawyer, but she plays one on tv.
Season 2 of Kim Kardashian’s legal drama “All’s Fair” is streaming on Hulu. 

“Don’t give me the babe in the woods routine, Karen, I’ve listened to those wiretaps.”
The prosecutor who played himself in Goodfellas wrote a book. 

You know better than most what misclassifying overseas contractors can cost. Remote lets your firm hire skilled support staff in 90+ countries as employees, not contractors, without opening a local entity:

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Weil Gotshal had no debt, ranked 20th in the country in profits per equity partner, and was on pace for another huge year. Now it’s shutting down. David Lat breaks down how it happened. In short, star dealmaker Michael Aiello announced he was taking his M&A team to Cravath, merger talks went nowhere, and partners started heading for the exits. Each departure seemed to inspire someone else to jump ship. 

Why this Matters: If you think the collapse of a 1,200-lawyer firm has nothing to teach a 12-lawyer one, you’re wrong. Your firm runs on the same math, with fewer rainmakers to spare. (Original Jurisdiction)

There is plenty of advice out there on how to describe your firm’s AI use to your clients. And in response to Heppner, sample language warning clients against uploading confidential or privileged documents into AI platforms is a hot topic. 

But it is becoming increasingly apparent that firms need some way to discourage clients from slop-a-fying their case. See, e.g., this Thread from Ken White aka @kenpopehat, Reddit, LawFuel, and this article from Australia’s Financial Review. 

Why this Matters: Nobody seems to have a foolproof solution. But more attorneys are looking at ways to withdraw or charge more when a client starts serving up slop.

In November 1969, Native American activists occupied the abandoned federal prison on Alcatraz Island and held it for 19 months. The occupiers didn’t just trespass. They argued a legal theory: that the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie entitled Native people to unused federal land. The public attention this generated is widely credited with helping push the Nixon administration to abandon termination, the federal effort to dissolve tribal governments, in favor of self-determination.

Why this Matters: An interesting reminder that you can lose on the facts in front of you and still move the rules everyone else plays by. Plus, November marks the anniversary of the occupation and is Native American Heritage Month. (American History Hit)

Google Maps now prompts visitors to sign in before they can see a firm’s full review list, sort through reviews, or search them. Although Google hasn’t explained this change, the leading theory is that it’s meant to stop bots from scraping reviews. Signed-out visitors still see your star rating and a handful of reviews, but Google picks which ones, not you.

Why this Matters: This move favors firms with a steady stream of reviews over firms that ran one review drive back in 2023. If you haven’t done so already, this is your sign to formalize your firm’s system for requesting reviews. (BluShark Digital)

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Raise the Bar is written and curated by Emily Kelchen edited by Bianca Prieto.