Judicial Notice (12.16.23): Super Immunity

A 17-year-old passes the bar, a judge generates controversy on LinkedIn, a boutique boycotts Harvard Law OCI, and other legal news from the week that was.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who just announced she’ll be stepping down in February 2024 (photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images).

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!

We’re into the last two weeks of the year, with Christmas right around the corner, so things are about to slow down. My husband Zach and I, along with our two sons, will spend the holiday with my parents, just as we spent Thanksgiving with them.

Thanks to everyone who reached out to me about Against Free-Speech Hypocrisy, which turned out to be one of my highest-engagement pieces ever. I received numerous comments and emails, as well as shoutouts in the New York Times (by David French), The Forward (by Jay Michaelson), and the ABA Journal (by Debra Cassens Weiss)—and I appreciate them all, whether critical or complimentary.

Now, on to the news.

Lawyer of the Week: Peter Park.

As longtime readers know, Lawyer of the Week “honors” are bestowed based on buzz, which can be positive or negative. So I could give them to Jeffrey Chabrowe, who reportedly posted nude photos on a public docket, or David M. Schwartz, who apparently cited nonexistent cases in a motion he filed, in what most of us are guessing was another ChatGPT fail. (Schwartz represented Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen—because of course he did.)

But in the holiday spirit, I’d like to discuss something positive. Meet Peter Park, who passed the California bar exam at age 17. He’s believed to be the youngest person to ever pass the Golden State’s bar exam. How did he pull this off? In eighth grade, he passed the College Level Examination Program tests, making him eligible to apply to law school in California without an undergraduate degree. He then enrolled in a four-year online law program at the same time he started high school, graduated high school in 2021 after completing tenth grade (by taking the California High School Proficiency Exam), and took and passed the California bar—on his first try.

And to his credit, Park decided to start off his legal career in public service. Now 18, he’s working as a law clerk in the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. As Park explained in a press release issued by his employer, “I aspire to become a prosecutor because I am driven by a moral obligation to uphold liberty, equality, and justice in society.” Congratulations to Peter Park, and best of luck to him in the years ahead.

Other lawyers in the news:

• Kudos to the lawyers from Vinson & Elkins who won a complete defense verdict for their client, Aera Energy, after a two-month jury trial in Bakersfield, California.

• I had no idea that Stanford law professor David Mills was such a fascinating figure before reading a fascinating Bloomberg Businessweek profile by Ava Benny-Morrison (flagged by Howard Bashman of How Appealing). A successful trial lawyer and investor, Mills has donated at least $10 million to Stanford Law and millions more to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Working largely behind the scenes, he quarterbacked the ill-fated defense of convicted crypto criminal Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Mills did so as a favor to SBF’s parents, fellow Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried—but Mills fears that his friendship with the couple might not survive the case, given the outcome.

In memoriam: Paul Chevigny, the noted civil-rights lawyer and law professor, passed away at 88. May he rest in peace.

Judge of the Week: Vice Chancellor Travis Laster.

Social media, even the relatively “safe” platform of LinkedIn, poses risks for sitting judges. This is a lesson that Vice Chancellor Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery, the nation’s leading forum for the resolution of corporate-law disputes, learned the hard way.