Judicial Notice (03.29.26): Contempt All Around
A viral video of contumacious counsel, a new U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a law firm raising top partner pay (to $17 million), and the next GC of the NAACP.
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.
I spent last week trying to get back into the swing of things after vacation. It was a low-key week—and after a hectic start to 2026, I welcomed it.
Even after a productive week, though, I’m still playing catch-up on many things in my life, both professional and personal—and as a result, I’m doing what I call “exercising my ‘no’ muscle.” I’ve always been someone who tries to say “yes” as much as possible. But this caused me to overextend myself—and by the time I left for vacation, I was burned out. So for now, I’m setting some boundaries and saying “no” to most requests (with the exception of speaking engagements in fabulous destinations).
Before shifting into “no” mode, I accepted an invitation to join Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis on the California Appellate Law Podcast—and I’m glad I did, since I enjoyed our conversation. I also agreed to participate in a New York City Bar Association webinar about accelerated Biglaw recruiting of law students, which yielded media mentions for me in Law.com articles about (1) five-figure stipends being paid to 1Ls during recruiting and (2) whether the whole process has turned into a “race to the bottom.”
Now, on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: Robert Frazer.
Here in New Jersey, we’re used to being mocked—much of the time, unfairly—by people from other states. But some recent jokes about my former office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey (D.N.J.), have been justified. Things over at 970 Broad Street in Newark have been a bit of a mess over the past year.
One of Donald Trump’s former personal lawyers, Alina Habba, led the office for a time. After her term expired, the judges of the district selected a successor—Desiree Grace, an experienced prosecutor—but the Trump administration fired Grace immediately, reinstalling Habba. After Habba’s new appointment was held unlawful by Chief Judge Matthew Brann (M.D. Pa.), whose ruling was affirmed by the Third Circuit, a triumvirate of lawyers—Ari Fontecchio, Jordan Fox, and Philip Lamparello—assumed leadership of the office. But Judge Brann rejected this arrangement as well, and it probably would have met the same fate in the Third Circuit.
Last Monday, Chief Judge Renée Bumb (D.N.J.) announced that she and her colleagues had appointed a new U.S. attorney: Robert Frazer, who has served in the office for 20 years. The Trump administration didn’t fire Frazer—because, as explained in a letter to Judge Brann by supervisory assistant U.S. attorney Mark Coyne, Frazer’s selection “followed consultations between the District Court and the Department of Justice’s senior leadership.” And New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, issued a statement that praised the picking of Frazer (while getting in some digs at the Trump administration).
A veteran prosecutor, Frazer has handled more than 700 cases during his two decades in the office, as reported by The New York Times. He’s highly respected both within the office and the defense bar, with D.N.J. alumni turned defense lawyers like Henry Klingeman and Charlie McKenna praising Frazer to the New Jersey Law Journal. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1991, previously worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2006.
A number of D.N.J. defendants have challenged their prosecutions by questioning the lawfulness of the leadership structure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. So the office will seek superseding indictments, signed by Frazer, to dispel any doubts.
I wish Robert Frazer a long and successful tenure in his new role. Based on his excellent reputation, I’m guessing that if the Trump administration were to ask Frazer to do anything he viewed as unethical or unlawful, he’d resign. But given all the drama of the past year, as well as all the other things on its plate, hopefully the Trump administration will leave Jersey alone—at least for now.
Other lawyers in the news:
Why did Margaret “Meg” Ryan resign as director of the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)? As reported by Reuters, she “clashed with agency leaders over the direction of its enforcement program, including the handling of cases with ties to Donald Trump and his family.”
Colin McDonald was confirmed by the Senate, 52-47, to serve as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s new fraud enforcement division.
Speaking of AAGs, Harmeet Dhillon has received some criticism for her leadership of the DOJ Civil Rights Division. But she stands by her record—which she vigorously and enthusiastically defended, in an interview with Tunku Varadarajan of The Wall Street Journal (gift link).
The WSJ also had this interesting profile (gift link) of Mark Lanier, the prominent plaintiff’s lawyer who won one of two verdicts against leading social-media companies (discussed below as Rulings of the Week).
Speaking of leading litigators, but moving from the civil to the criminal side, David Oscar Markus got to cross-examine Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Markus represents Esther Nuhfer, one of two defendants in a federal corruption case now being tried in Miami (S.D. Fla.); the other defendant, former congressman David Rivera, is a longtime friend and former roommate of Secretary Rubio.
Another top trial lawyer, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel—the go-to lawyer for Elon Musk, the richest person in the world—had a busy week. On Tuesday, Spiro filed a motion asking for Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick to recuse herself from shareholder litigation against Musk, based on her allegedly clicking to “support” a LinkedIn post critical of Musk (discussed in more detail below).
Then on Thursday, Spiro sent a detailed letter to Judge Charles Breyer (N.D. Cal.), alleging that jurors who found against Musk in a recent securities-fraud trial were biased against his client—and let it show, by making a “420” joke on the verdict form. As explained by Reuters, “[t]he number 420 is associated with marijuana culture,” and Musk “has often mentioned 420 in interviews and tweets, and used it in business activities”—e.g., buying Twitter for $54.20 per share. (Having Musk as a client isn’t easy: on the same day that Spiro sent his letter to Judge Breyer, Musk took to Twitter to mock the judge’s penchant for bowties.)
By now, many of you have seen the viral video featuring Rob Hopkins, a transgender lawyer in Oklahoma, getting arrested for contempt of court in the middle of a hearing. For an analysis of what went down in legal terms, including a discussion of the jurisdictional issues being argued, see this Twitter thread.
In memoriam: Daniel Krisch, an appellate litigator and partner in the Hartford office of Harris Beach Murtha, passed away at 52. May he rest in peace.
Judge of the Week: Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
Lawyers can be skittish about social media. But LinkedIn, full of anodyne posts of attorneys congratulating their colleagues (or themselves) for getting recognized by this or that ranking, tends to be a “safe space.”
Alas, LinkedIn might not be safe enough—at least not for Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery. As mentioned above, Elon Musk filed a motion asking Chancellor McCormick to recuse from shareholder litigation against him, based on her apparently “supporting” a LinkedIn post that mocked Musk and his lawyers after their loss in a securities-fraud trial in California federal court. The news was covered by Bloomberg Law, Law.com, Reuters, and even The New York Post.
Chancellor McCormick responded to the motion in a two-page letter. She claimed that (1) she does not actually “support” the post; (2) she either didn’t click the “support” icon, or she did so accidentally; (3) she “reported the suspicious activity to LinkedIn”; and (4) when she tried to log into her account to check the status of her suspicious-activity report, she found that her account was locked.
This is rather… strange. Accidentally “liking” a LinkedIn post, which is the default reaction, is easy. But as explained in Musk’s motion, expressing “support” is harder to do by mistake, since it requires the user to hover over “like,” slide over to the “support” icon, and then click. So if Chancellor McCormick didn’t do it, who did?
(I don’t believe McCormick has young children—but if she does, or even if she has young nieces or nephews, I’d bring them in for questioning. I once let Harlan, who was five at the time, play with my phone for a few minutes, while I was trying to work—and before I knew it, he had ordered $107.68 in Japanese food on DoorDash.)
My guess is that Chancellor McCormick will deny the motion—and, if so, Spiro and Musk will try to appeal. Denial of a recusal motion isn’t a final order—it’s an interlocutory order, issued in the middle of a case—so there’s no automatic right to appeal. But given the high profile of this litigation, this could be the rare case where the Delaware Supreme Court gets involved, either because McCormick certifies an interlocutory appeal or because the Delaware high court issues some type of extraordinary writ (e.g., a writ of mandamus or prohibition). Stay tuned.
[UPDATE (3/30/2026, 12:20 p.m.): In a letter to counsel sent this morning (via Eric Wessan), Chancellor McCormick denied the motion for recusal, but granted the motion for reassignment. She reiterated that she is not biased against Musk, but went on to observe that “disproportionate media attention surrounding a judge’s handling of an action is detrimental to the administration of justice. Fortunately, the Court of Chancery is far greater than any one person. I have complete faith in the Vice Chancellors’ abilities to adjudicate these matters. And three of them will.”]
In other news about judges and judging:
Donald Trump continues to criticize the judiciary. In a speech at a Republican fundraising event on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at “rogue judges,” calling them “criminals” whose rulings are “hurt[ing] our country.”
In light of such attacks, the desire of judges to defend themselves—and to push back against the Trump administration—is entirely understandable. But when it comes to their judicial opinions, are some judges taking anti-Trump rhetoric too far? Quite possibly, according to judges and legal commentators who spoke with Mattathias Schwartz of The Times (gift link).
If judges want to make themselves heard, they can do so outside their opinions. A new advisory opinion from the Judicial Conference of the United States provides that judges may make “public statements about the need for judicial security and funding,” as well as “the independence of the judiciary [and] the rule of law in general, including why both values are crucial to our system of government.”
Speaking of the Judicial Conference, its Judicial Conduct and Disability Committee rejected Judge Pauline Newman’s challenge to her (seemingly endless) suspension from the Federal Circuit. For news coverage and a link to the decision, see Howard Bashman’s How Appealing.
Why was Chief Judge Kimberly Moore so intent on getting Judge Newman off the bench? One theory I’ve heard is that Judge Moore, who takes a more aggrandized view of her chiefly role than other chiefs, viewed Judge Newman—”The Great Dissenter” of the Federal Circuit—as disrupting the order of what Moore views as her court. And there’s now empirical evidence showing that since Newman’s departure, dissent rates on the court have “collapse[d],” and “[t]he Federal Circuit has become, in the space of two years, one of the most consensus-oriented appellate courts in the federal system” (in the words of Professor Dennis Crouch of Patently-O). Mission accomplished?
Judges in Los Angeles County Superior Court, perhaps the busiest trial court in the country, are now using an AI tool called Learned Hand—great name—to help with their heavy workloads. Responding to concerns about AI fails (which OJ readers never get tired of reading about), Learned Hand’s CEO, Shlomo Klapper, pointed out that it has a proprietary tool for verifying citations and avoiding hallucinations (similar to the ones offered by BriefCatch and Clearbrief).
In nominations news, last week brought no new nominations or confirmations. But the Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings for four nominees—Kathleen “Katie” Lane (D. Mont.), Sheria Clarke (D.S.C.), Evan Rikhye (D.V.I.), and Kara Westercamp (C.I.T.)—and things got testy at times. Lane, who graduated from law school in 2017, had to field questions about her lack of trial experience; Westercamp, who currently works in the Trump White House, “sincerely apologize[d]” for tweets attacking senators (including Republican ones). But my guess is that they’ll all ultimately win approval from the SJC and get confirmed by the full Senate.
In memoriam:
New York State Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum, who served in the New York state courts since 1979, passed away at 89.
Judge James Harberson—who served as a city judge in Watertown, New York, from 1986 to 2011—passed away at 85.
May they rest in peace.
Job of the Week: an opportunity for a midlevel real estate associate in Atlanta.
Lateral Link is partnering with an Am Law 100 firm seeking a midlevel associate to join its top-ranked real estate practice in Atlanta. This is a compelling opportunity to work on sophisticated commercial transactions within a nationally recognized, Chambers-ranked practice. The role offers exposure to acquisitions, dispositions, financings, joint ventures, development, and leasing across a range of asset classes. Ideal candidates will have at least three years of Biglaw experience, strong academic credentials, and the ability to manage complex, client-facing matters in a collaborative environment. If interested, please send your résumé and law school transcript to Marion Wilson at mwilson@laterallink.com.
