Judicial Notice (09.30.23): Gender Trouble
Calling a woman judge 'sweetheart,' requiring judges to use preferred pronouns, ruling on trans youth healthcare, 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 on the button below. Thanks!
The theme of my week is gratitude—and this was the case even before Congress’s eleventh-hour action to avert a government shutdown. I have many folks to thank for many things.
Thanks to Bob Ambrogi and Mike Fouts, who joined me for a great LinkedIn Live event about the trends shaping the legal profession and the challenges facing attorneys today. If you weren’t able to watch live, check out the recording (starting around 7:30). Thanks to everyone who attended, especially the many Original Jurisdiction readers, and thanks to ShareFile for sponsoring.
Thanks to Sarah Isgur and David French for inviting me to serve as guest host of Advisory Opinions for September, while Sarah was out on parental leave. My final episode as guest host, in which David and I analyzed a slew of new and noteworthy First Amendment decisions, went up on Tuesday. I’m grateful for the opportunity—but I’m also grateful that Sarah is back, since she and David are a peerless pair of podcasters. Their Thursday episode, breaking down nine major cases of the upcoming Supreme Court Term, is a must-listen.
Speaking of excellent podcast episodes, check out the latest Longform podcast, featuring New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill discussing her superb new book, Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It. She talks about how she got her start in journalism working with me at Above the Law (starting around 11:30), and I thank her for the kind shoutout.
Still on podcasting, thanks to Michael Heise of haistack.ai for joining me and Zach Sandberg on Movers, Shakers & Rainmakers. Haistack is using artificial intelligence to transform legal recruiting in fascinating ways, and Mike explained how it can help law firms and other legal employers find top talent more efficiently. Relatedly, Professor Josh Kubicki has put together an online course on generative AI in the legal world, and for my many judicial readers, you can get the course for free—and don’t have to add it to your financial disclosures, since its value is under $415.
Speaking of judicial ethics, thanks again to The Atlantic for publishing the essay that my husband Zach Shemtob and I wrote about recent Supreme Court ethics controversies, Judicial Ethics in a Populist Age. We appreciate the opportunity to appear in its august pages, as well as the excellent editing.
Now—finally!—on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: David Cohen.
Ohio lawyer David R. Cohen, serving as special master in the massive multidistrict litigation (MDL) over the opioids crisis, was anything but masterful in his recent use of email. He accidentally hit “reply all” on an email he meant to send to himself, sharing some candid comments about the cases with all the parties—and now some of the defendants are pushing for his disqualification from the MDL.
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