Judicial Notice (03.16.24): You Can’t Please Everyone
Special counsel Rob Hur stands his ground, Judge Scott McAfee charts a middle path, Paul Weiss has a banner year, and other legal news from the week that was.
Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here. Thanks!
The biggest event of my week was an annoying one: I injured my lower back while working out. This hadn’t happened to me in more than a year and a half, so I was saddened to learn that my back remains a problem. Sigh—try to avoid getting old if you can (although I guess it’s better than the alternative).
In happier news, Zach Sandberg and I recorded a great episode of Movers, Shakers & Rainmakers, featuring a stellar guest: Pierre Gentin, senior partner and chief legal officer at McKinsey & Company. Pierre is a true Renaissance man, and he shared both practical career advice and philosophical reflections. Definitely check it out.
Today’s testimonial for Original Jurisdiction comes from John Hellerman, president of Hellerman Communications: “By blending deep insights with authoritative sources, Original Jurisdiction is compelling and essential reading for everyone operating or interested in the legal profession.” John is a leading figure in crisis and litigation communications, so I’m especially grateful for his kind words.
Speaking of compelling content, are you looking to create some yourself, perhaps for business development? If so, please join me and Adam Stofsky, CEO of Briefly, for a free webinar on Thursday, “Creating Human Content in an AI-Driven World.”
Programming note: next weekend I’ll be leaving town for our son Harlan’s spring break. So I might be less prolific than usual between now and April 1.
Now, on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: Robert Hur.
On Tuesday, former special counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. As I predicted, Hur took flak from both sides—from Republicans, who criticized his decision not to bring criminal charges against Biden, and from Democrats, who attacked his negative comments about Biden’s mental acuity.
In my observation, witnesses in Hur’s shoes have nothing to gain and plenty to lose—like public esteem, in the case of former special counsel Robert Mueller, or even their jobs, in the case of the university presidents who testified about antisemitism. But Hur, whose generally flat affect turned out to be a feature and not a bug of his testimony, emerged relatively unscathed. He didn’t stray from the content of his 345-page report, which he defended against attacks from both the right and the left, and he resisted attempts to weaponize the report and his testimony for partisan ends.
So kudos to Hur for leaving the hearing room in roughly the same shape as when he went in. He’ll still get hated on by the left and the right, but his testimony didn’t give his enemies much new fodder to work with.
And to folks on the left who claim that Hur’s going to be rewarded with some plum post in a second Trump Administration, I doubt it. As noted on Advisory Opinions by Sarah Isgur—who, for the record, played no role in prepping Hur (credit for that goes to Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel)—Hur’s involvement in overseeing Bob Mueller’s Russia investigation pretty much guarantees that Hur won’t be welcomed by Trumpworld.
Other lawyers in the news:
The Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, a union representing 2,700 public-interest lawyers in the New York City area, allegedly fostered a hostile environment for Jewish members in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel—and now Congress is investigating.
Congratulations to the National LGBTQ+ Bar’s latest class of 40 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40.
In memoriam:
Ira Millstein, a legendary figure in corporate governance and longtime senior partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges, passed away at 97.
Larry Parker, a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer who became famous through ubiquitous television and billboard ads, passed away at 75.
Paul Alexander—who spent 72 years living inside an iron lung, yet still managed to graduate from law school and practice law for three decades—passed away at 78.
May they rest in peace.
Judge of the Week: Judge Scott McAfee.
On Friday, Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court issued his eagerly awaited ruling on the motion to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from prosecuting the Georgia election-interference case against Donald Trump. His decision, in the form of a 23-page opinion, wasn’t a clean win for either side.
As I predicted on Preet Bharara’s podcast, Judge McAfee concluded that the prosecution “is encumbered by an appearance of impropriety,” and he ordered the prosecution to pick one of two options: (1) Willis and the Fulton County DA’s Office leave the case, or (2) Willis’s ex-boyfriend Nathan Wade, whom she appointed as a special prosecutor, leaves the case. Not surprisingly, they went with the second option, and Wade resigned from the case a few hours after Judge McAfee’s ruling.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Original Jurisdiction to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.