The former president of the United States is waging a complex defensive legal battle on numerous fronts. From Manhattan to Albany to Atlanta and elsewhere, prosecutors are circling Donald Trump, his business, and his family. The latest blow came last month when accounting firm Mazars USA LLP not only cut ties with Trump but also announced it was disavowing a decade's worth of his financial statements. It was a move that some speculated may indicate Mazars is now cooperating with prosecutors inve...
Mar 01, 2022•21 min
In this special bonus episode, listen to Bloomberg Law columnist Roy Strom read his story profiling one of the largest and most powerful law firms in America, Kirkland & Ellis.
Feb 19, 2022•18 min
Within a decade or so, at least several states will have banned the sale of new gas-powered automobiles. The electrification of America's cars is coming, but is America ready? To get the country ready, President Biden and Democrats in Congress gave states more than $7 billion to install electric vehicle charging stations across the country. But, as Bloomberg Government's Lillianna Byington found, an Eisenhower-era law means these charging stations can't be built on highways, as many EV advocates...
Feb 15, 2022•12 min
The Rooney Rule started in the NFL, but it has since transcended the league—and professional sports altogether—to become a diversity initiative used across corporate America. The rule, named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, requires any organization that implements it to interview at least one minority candidate for senior job openings. But, as last week's explosive lawsuit from former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores shows, the Rooney Rule has some glaring limitations. On thi...
Feb 08, 2022•19 min
No property tax system is totally fair, but few are as unbalanced and often skewed in favor of the wealthy as New York City's. A law passed in Albany in the early 1980's was supposed to keep taxes on the Big Apple's single-family homes from rising too quickly. But what that means is that now a co-op in Staten Island has a tax bill 2,000% higher than a similarly priced brownstone in Brooklyn. On today's episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, we hear from Bloomberg Law's Donna Bo...
Feb 01, 2022•18 min
Justice Stephen Breyer is known for letting his flamboyant intellect shine on the bench. And, according to those who clerked for him, Breyer's personality outside of the courtroom was no different. It was reported earlier today that this will be the 27-year veteran of the Supreme Court's final term. To learn more about who Breyer is, we spoke with some of the attorneys who clerked for the Justice over the years. Breyer was described as someone with an insatiable, extroverted mind, who thrived on...
Jan 27, 2022•10 min
There's been a big push in recent years to make the legal profession more diverse, especially within Big Law. So why has this largely excluded people with disabilities? The stigma against people with disabilities in the workplace is strong, even—and especially—at law firms, according to Bloomberg Law reporter Ayanna Alexander. On today's On The Merits podcast, we present a live online discussion with Ayanna about her recent story about the push to diversify the diversity movement within the lega...
Jan 25, 2022•21 min
It was an extraordinarily lucrative year for law firms that help companies go public, or that help companies make acquisitions. Thanks to the frenzied SPAC boom, along with rock bottom interest rates, corporate transaction activity in 2021 shattered records. However, the largest beneficiaries of this activity were not upstart, boutique firms but rather the titans of the legal world: Kirkland & Ellis, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Ropes & Gray, and so on. On...
Jan 11, 2022•13 min
Both employers and employees got a little bit of clarity last month when the EEOC issued guidance confirming that, yes, Covid-19 can trigger a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. But will this document put to rest all disputes between employers and employees about Covid-19 and disability claims? Not by a long shot. On today's episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, employment law reporter Erin Mulvaney joins us to talk about what the Equal Employment Op...
Jan 04, 2022•16 min
Federal contractors are going to have to share more information about their greenhouse gas emissions with the public, under new General Services Administration reporting requirements the White House introduced earlier this month. However, this isn't the only climate reporting rule these contractors will have to mind. The Securities and Exchange Commission is about to release its own reporting rules early next year, and no one seems to be sure where or whether the two rules will overlap. On today...
Dec 21, 2021•15 min
It's notable whenever the International Brotherhood of Teamsters elects a new president, but it was especially notable last month when Sean O'Brien soundly defeated a rival backed by the union's outgoing president, James P. Hoffa. During the campaign, O'Brien portrayed himself as an outsider and said the Teamsters should take a more aggressive stance—particularly toward Amazon Inc. O'Brien granted a post-election interview to Bloomberg Law's Ian Kullgren. And in this episode of our weekly legal ...
Dec 15, 2021•25 min
Hiring a lawyer is expensive—way too expensive, according to Clifford Winston. The Brookings Institution economist and former MIT professor says the legal profession's excessive licensure requirements are the cause of this, leading to an industry where demand far exceeds supply. Winston has written several books about the problem and about why he thinks basic legal tasks should be opened up to people who haven't necessarily passed the bar, or even possess a law degree. Winston spoke with Adam Al...
Dec 07, 2021•17 min
The case that could overturn the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that recognized abortion as a constitutional right will come before the nine justices tomorrow morning. On today's episode of On The Merits, our weekly legal news podcast, we explain the stakes behind Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and why abortion rights activists are so pessimistic about their chances to even maintain the status quo. We're joined on the podcast by Kimberly Robinson, Bloomberg Law's Supreme Court reporter an...
Nov 30, 2021•18 min
General Electric, the 13-decade-old conglomerate founded by Thomas Edison, announced plans earlier this month to split up into three separate companies focused on aviation, health care, and energy. Whether this will ultimately lead to greater profits is unclear, but one thing is certain: breaking up a company of this size and stature poses numerous legal and logistical hurdles. On today's episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, three reporters from three different desks in our newsroom dis...
Nov 16, 2021•17 min
The bar exam has been around in some form or another since the 1920s. However, it could be time for a change. The pandemic created challenges in administering the test. Some states allowed diploma privilege, others made significant changes. Many critics think it's time to change the bar exam permanently—or even do away with it altogether. Our sister podcast, [Un]Common Law, will release the first episode in a three-part series on the state of the bar exam for lawyers, where it is now, and where ...
Nov 09, 2021•18 min
Ben Wilson has been affectionately described as the dean of black partners within Big Law. But that title doesn't begin to do justice to the Beveridge & Diamond chairman, who announced his retirement last month after 45 years in the legal profession. Wilson has mentored generations of Black and other diverse attorneys. And, in 2008, founded the Diverse Partners Network, which he intends to continue to lead after retirement, renamed as the Diverse Lawyers Network. He is also the founder of th...
Nov 03, 2021•13 min
Operation Varsity Blues was the code name given to the investigation of parents that spent millions of dollars to increase their children's chances of getting into universities like the University of Southern California. Many of the parents who were charged entered guilty pleas, but the first two to stand trial were convicted earlier this month. Patricia Hurtado covers the courts for Bloomberg News. She has been following the Varsity Blues cases since the indictments were announced more than two...
Oct 26, 2021•18 min
For his 100th column for Bloomberg Law, Roy Strom looked back at the seismic changes that have taken place in the legal industry during the pandemic. He says the pandemic has shown many of the country's biggest law firms that there is much more to Big Law than chasing prestige. Law firms are now opening satellite offices in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. And we've seen Big Law continue to move away from lockstep compensation, which many in the industry now consider an anachronism. Additionall...
Oct 19, 2021•18 min
On this special weekend episode of the podcast, Bloomberg Law’s Paige Smith reads her recent story on how laws that allow companies to pay disabled workers below minimum wage may be changing soon.
Oct 16, 2021•13 min
When some companies started implementing vaccine mandates on their employees, it was only a matter of time before they applied the same rules to their job applicants as well. According to a recent survey, nearly one third of employers are now disqualifying candidates who cannot or will not confirm that they've received a Covid-19 vaccine. Bloomberg Law's Erin Mulvaney is reporting on this trend. Her sources say discriminating against unvaccinated candidates likely doesn't violate civil or disabi...
Oct 05, 2021•13 min
The Supreme Court's bombshell 5 to 4 ruling this month on Texas's new abortion restrictions law was both an end and a beginning. It put an end to the hopes of abortion rights activists who wanted to overturn this law before it took effect, but it also marked the beginning of a frenzy of litigation aimed at getting this issue back before the court as quickly as possible. And the litigation has come from all sides, with plaintiffs as varied as the Department of Justice, Planned Parenthood, and two...
Sep 28, 2021•16 min
As recently as 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas received only 90 patent cases or 2.5% of the patent cases filed nationwide. However, after Judge Alan Albright took the bench in Waco, Texas, his federal court has become a hotbed of patent litigation. Just last year, Albright saw nearly 800 new patent suits filed. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Albright speaks to Bloomberg Law reporter Matthew Bultman about why patent plaintiffs are so eager to litiga...
Sep 21, 2021•17 min
Delta Air Lines grabbed some headlines late last month with its plan to encourage its employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19. It would not fire employees who refused to get the shot, but would rather impose on them a $200 monthly surcharge. Then, last week, President Joe Biden made even bigger news by announcing a sweeping plan to require vaccination for all federal employees, federal contractors, and many health care industry workers. On this week's episode of On The Merits, our weekly le...
Sep 14, 2021•16 min
Since 2008, Britney Spears’ life has been controlled by a conservatorship. Renewed interest and public support for ending the conservatorship followed the release of a documentary film, Framing Britney Spears, which highlighted the efforts of the #FreeBritney movement. But how did it come to this? What role can trusts and estates attorneys play in helping high net worth clients avoid ending up in Spears' position? Barbara Grayson, a partner with the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Joshua ...
Aug 31, 2021•10 min
The video game maker Activision Blizzard, Inc. is being sued for gender discrimination and harassment. The $60 billion company, behind games that include Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, isn't being sued by female employees in this suit though. They're being sued by the state of California. California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing says its two-year investigation into Activision Blizzard found a "frat boy" culture where its female workers are regularly subjected to sexual banter ...
Aug 24, 2021•17 min
On this special weekend episode of On The Merits, reporter Lydia Wheeler reads her story about the difficulties some long-Covid victims are facing with insurance claims. Click here to read the story in print.
Aug 24, 2021•11 min
Several states opted to temporarily suspend their bar exams when the pandemic broke out last year. This led many in the legal community to question why the exam exists in the first place. Now at least one state is seriously considering alternative ways to certify new law school grads. The Oregon Supreme Court is currently weighing a proposal that would make the bar exam just one of several options aspiring attorneys there can choose to earn their license. On today's episode of our weekly legal n...
Aug 03, 2021•20 min
Morgan Stanley's chief legal officer issued a memo earlier this month that has the legal world buzzing. In it, Eric Grossman all but demanded that the law firms working with the financial industry giant end their pandemic work-from-home policies. News of an in-house counsel dictating to outside law firms the locations from which their lawyers should be working (news that was first reported by Bloomberg Law) has ricocheted across the legal world. In this episode of On The Merits, reporters Brian ...
Jul 27, 2021•16 min
A team of Bloomberg reporters has been reaching out to elections officials in every state for months to try to get a sense of how often voting fraud actually happens. In all, they found roughly 200 instances over the past two years, where people were charged or convicted for alleged voting fraud. On today's episode of On The Merits, we hear from the lead reporter on this team, Alex Ebert, about voting fraud prosecutions in America. Ebert also talks about the state officials from both parties who...
Jul 20, 2021•17 min
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and once the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, has been disciplined over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Other lawyers who represented the President could also get hit with sanctions. What does it mean to have your law license suspended? What can and can't lawyers do when they've been sanctioned? And why are these attorneys facing discipline when their clients are, by and large, happy with their work? For answers, ...
Jul 13, 2021•14 min
