Original Jurisdiction, New York, NY (2025)

07/28/2025

As the new week gets underway, it's helpful to have a sense of what's going on in the world. Here’s the latest installment of Judicial Notice, the weekly legal news roundup that I publish each weekend on Original Jurisdiction.

In this edition: drama in the D.N.J., a Jersey judge’s opinion oopsie, Columbia University's deal with Trump, and Biglaw firms facing challenges.

Thanks to Burford Capital for sponsoring this edition of Judicial Notice.

Thanks to Lateral Link for sponsoring the Job of the Week, an exceptional, ground-floor opportunity for junior or midlevel litigators. I'll post the details in the comments, and you can contact Director Buddy Broome at [email protected] for more.

Thanks for your readership, and have a great week!

https://bit.ly/40DJif0

Drama in the D.N.J., a Jersey judge’s opinion oopsie, Columbia’s deal with Trump, and Biglaw firms facing challenges.

07/23/2025

Few lawyers in America have handled more headline-making cases than Marc Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater. A former prosecutor in both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, Marc has defended a number of famous (some might say infamous) figures. His clients over the years have included so-called “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, former NXIUM cult leader Keith Raniere, and Luigi Mangione, who faces state and federal charges in connection with the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Earlier this month, Marc and his colleagues won acquittals for Sean “Diddy” Combs on federal racketeering and s*x-trafficking charges—the most serious charges that Combs faced, which could have landed him in prison for life had he been convicted.

Last week, I interviewed Marc about the trial, as well as his very interesting career as a prosecutor and now a defense lawyer. Thanks to Marc for taking the time to speak with me, and thanks as always to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast.

https://bit.ly/3GFJSSV

Diddy, Shkreli, and Mangione all turned to Agnifilo—a former federal and state prosecutor with 200+ trials under his belt—when facing serious charges.

07/21/2025

As the new week gets underway, it's helpful to have a sense of what's going on in the world. Here’s the latest installment of Judicial Notice, the weekly legal news roundup that I publish each weekend on Original Jurisdiction.

In this edition: the firing of a prominent prosecutor, Trump’s Epstein-related defamation lawsuit, the launch of Dunn Isaacson Rhee, and the latest hires at Paul Hastings.

Thanks to Burford Capital for sponsoring this edition of Judicial Notice.

Thanks to Lateral Link for sponsoring the Job of the Week, an opportunity for real-estate associates in Dallas or Houston. I'll post the details in the comments, and you can contact Wendy Boone Jaikaran at [email protected] for more.

Thanks for your readership, and have a great week!

https://bit.ly/4kSQKdj

The firing of a prominent prosecutor, Trump’s Epstein-related defamation lawsuit, the launch of Dunn Isaacson Rhee, and the latest hires at Paul Hastings.

07/18/2025

On Wednesday, July 2, a Manhattan federal jury acquitted hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of s*x trafficking. The jury did convict him of two counts of transportation of individuals to engage in prostitution, in violation of the Mann Act.

Although the Combs verdict was split, it was widely viewed as a major victory for the defense (as noted by former federal prosecutors Mitchell Epner and Ken White, among others). The racketeering and s*x-trafficking counts were by far the most serious charges in the five-count indictment, and Combs could have faced life in prison had he been convicted of them.

Yesterday, I interviewed Combs’s lead lawyer, Marc Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater LLP, for my podcast—and we had a great conversation. The full episode will air on Wednesday, July 23. But because Marc made newsworthy comments about a case that attracted worldwide attention, I wanted to share highlights with you now, over at Original Jurisdiction (link below).

https://bit.ly/4eXDW43

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’s lead lawyer, discussed the defense strategy, why they didn’t put Combs on the stand, a possible appeal, and sentencing.

07/17/2025

It's useful to refer to the "conservative" and "liberal" blocs on the U.S. Supreme Court, given the tendency of the members of each bloc to vote together—especially in the most consequential and controversial cases. But convenient labels shouldn’t obscure the interesting internal differences separating the members of each group.

I’ve previously discussed the differences among the members of the six-justice conservative coalition. And as we learned from several recent SCOTUS decisions, significant distinctions exist between the liberals as well—which I explore in my latest post for Original Jurisdiction, available via the link below.

https://bit.ly/4kNQNHs

And of the three, Justice Jackson is emerging as the most full-throated progressive, in the mold of Justices Brennan and Douglas.

07/14/2025

Here’s the latest installment of Judicial Notice, the weekly legal news roundup that I send out each weekend to subscribers of Original Jurisdiction, my Substack newsletter. In this edition: Pam Bondi’s critics on the right, a $515 million legal fee, a judge’s humorous order, and more defections from Biglaw firms that folded to Trump.

Thanks to Jeff Kichaven Commercial Mediation for sponsoring this edition of Judicial Notice.

Thanks to Lateral Link for sponsoring the Job of the Week, an opportunity for a commercial real-estate associate in Ohio. I'll post the details in the comments, and you can contact Zain Atassi at [email protected] for more.

Thanks for your readership, and have a great week!

https://bit.ly/44NiFFR

Pam Bondi’s critics on the right, a $515 million legal fee, a judge’s humorous order, and more defections from Biglaw firms that folded to Trump.

07/09/2025

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded its latest Term. And over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has continued to duke it out with its adversaries in the federal courts.

To tackle these topics, as well as their intersection—in terms of how well the courts, including but not limited to the Supreme Court, are handling Trump-related cases—I interviewed Professor Pamela Karlan, a longtime faculty member at Stanford Law School. She’s perfectly situated to address these subjects, for at least three reasons.

First, Professor Karlan is a leading scholar of constitutional law. Second, she’s a former SCOTUS clerk and seasoned advocate at One First Street, with ten arguments to her name. Third, she has high-level experience at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), having served (twice) as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

Thanks again to Professor Karlan for joining me, and thanks as always to NexFirm for sponsoring!

https://bit.ly/4eDIPiC The United States Department of Justice Yale Law School

A longtime Stanford Law professor and seasoned Supreme Court advocate, Professor Karlan has strong views on the current constitutional moment.

07/08/2025

When industry observers make predictions about the future of Biglaw, it’s common to hear something like this: “Giant global firms with billions of dollars in revenue and dozens of offices around the world, like Kirkland & Ellis or Latham & Watkins, will be fine. So will smaller, more specialized, super-elite firms, like Cravath or Wachtell Lipton. But firms in the middle—lacking the scale of Kirkland or Latham, or the cachet of Cravath or Wachtell—are in trouble.”

This can certainly be true on an anecdotal level, as to individual firms. An unusually high number of Am Law 200 firms have announced or closed mergers in the past year—and some of the smaller shops in these combinations entered into deals because their prospects as independent firms were doubtful.

But taken as a group, big but not behemoth firms continue to do just fine. Check out the strong financial performance of Am Law 200 firms in 2024, which I break down over at Original Jurisdiction (link below).

https://bit.ly/3Igz9yy

Thanks to comebacks from firms like Boies Schiller and Cahill Gordon, the Second Hundred outpaced the Am Law 100 in certain financial metrics.

07/07/2025

Here’s the latest installment of Judicial Notice, the weekly legal news roundup that I send out each weekend to subscribers of Original Jurisdiction, my Substack newsletter. In this edition: Puff Daddy’s day of reckoning, Yale Law’s departing dean, an Am Law 200 firm in trouble, and the biggest case of the next SCOTUS Term (so far).

Thanks to Lateral Link for sponsoring this edition of Judicial Notice and for the Job of the Week, an opportunity for a junior litigation associate in California. I'll post the details in the comments, and you can contact Director Buddy Broome at [email protected] for more.

Thanks for your readership, and have a great week!

https://bit.ly/3TWGtlp

Puff Daddy’s day of reckoning, Yale Law’s departing dean, an Am Law 200 firm in trouble, and the biggest case of the next SCOTUS Term (so far).

07/02/2025

Just how conservative is Justice Amy Coney Barrett? Is she a horsewoman of the MAGA apocalypse, or a traitor to the Trumpian cause? In directional terms, is she drifting to the left or tacking to the right?

Those of us who are Supreme Court obsessives have debated—and will continue to debate—these questions.

But here’s something I suspect many of us, from across the ideological spectrum, can agree on: Amy Coney Barrett is the most interesting justice on the Court right now.

https://bit.ly/4ex0UPu

Justice Barrett: love her or hate her, but you definitely can’t ignore her.

06/30/2025

And that’s a wrap: on Friday, June 27, October Term 2024 of the Supreme Court of the United States came to an end. The Court will stand in recess until the first Monday in October, which this year falls on Monday, October 6, 2025.

With OT 2024 still fresh in our minds, let’s take a moment to discuss. I’ll kick things off with a few observations of my own—which you can read over at Original Jurisdiction (link below).

https://bit.ly/3GtHa2q

Readers, what are your thoughts on the Supreme Court Term just ended?

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