The Top 25 Stories Of 2023
Here's a nice quick overview of the last year in law and the legal profession.
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Welcome to 2024. I hope the new year is off to a great start for you.
Let’s say farewell to 2023 by looking at some of last year’s biggest stories here at Original Jurisdiction. As I did in 2021 and 2022, I’ll share two lists: the most-read stories, based on both newsletter opens and views on the web, followed by some personal favorites.
In past years, I’ve listed the top 10 stories by readership, but this time around, I’m listing the top 15. There was significant repetition in the top 10—four stories about Judge Kyle Duncan’s ill-fated visit to Stanford Law School, two Supreme Court clerk hiring reports (speaking of which, please send me any tips)—so I’m expanding the list to compensate. Here are the top 15 stories of 2023 based on viewership:
15. Leading Litigator Leaves Latham To Launch A Boutique: An Interview With Chris Clark
In my podcast’s second year, I interviewed several high-profile litigators, including Steven Molo of MoloLamken, Tom Clare and Libby Locke of Clare Locke, Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells, and Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom. One of my most newsworthy interviews was my chat with Chris Clark, shortly after he left Latham & Watkins to launch Clark Smith Villazor—and in the middle of his representation of Hunter Biden.
14. Judicial Notice (07.08.23): Elon Musk v. Wachtell Lipton
Who doesn’t love a good fee fight? The most popular installment of Judicial Notice, the legal-news roundup I send each weekend to paid subscribers, featured Elon Musk’s challenge to the $90 million fee that Wachtell Lipton charged Twitter for successfully compelling the acquisition of Twitter by… Elon Musk. [UPDATE (6:33 p.m.): As noted in the comments, the dispute has been sent to arbitration—which might mean we’ve heard the last of it.]
13. Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Liberals Start To Move
Speaking of features available to paid subscribers, SCOTUS clerk hiring watches are among the most popular. I generally make the color commentary available to all, but put the specific names behind the paywall.
12. The Top 20 Most Profitable Law Firms (2022)
Lawyers like (a) rankings and (b) money. So it should come as no surprise that my breakdown of the Am Law 100, the American Lawyer’s rankings of Biglaw firms by key financial metrics, was a popular story.
11. Notice And Comment: Biglaw Firm Rescinds Job Offer Over 'Inflammatory' Anti-Israel Email
Free speech is a hot topic at Original Jurisdiction, so of course readers appreciated the opportunity to discuss Winston & Strawn’s rescission of an offer to a law student who penned an anti-Israel statement—and shared it with all of NYU Law.
10. Dean Jenny Martinez Speaks Out About The Protest Of Judge Duncan At Stanford Law School (SLS)
Then-Dean Jenny Martinez issued an excellent statement about the disruptive protest of Judge Kyle Duncan (5th Cir.) at SLS—and not long after, she was promoted to serve as provost of Stanford University. Her experience handling L’Affaire Duncan is relevant to her work trying to steer Stanford through free-speech controversies in the wake of October 7, which has been… challenging.
9. The Dan Markel Case: Charlie Adelson, Convicted
It took far too long, but South Florida dentist Charlie Adelson was finally convicted of murdering his former brother-in-law, FSU law professor Dan Markel. Those of us who knew Dan are grateful to prosecutors Georgia Cappleman and Sarah Dugan for their hard work on this difficult case over the years.
8. Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Meet The October Term 2023 SCOTUS Clerks
This hiring roundup includes a demographic analysis of the OT 2023 clerks, looking at gender, feeder schools, and feeder judges.
7. Against Free-Speech Hypocrisy
I received a ton of reader feedback, both negative and positive, for my analysis of the controversial congressional testimony given by three university presidents—two of them now former presidents—at a hearing about antisemitism on campus. This was my 2023 post with the highest level of reader engagement; read it to see why. (For more on these issues, see Cathryn Prince’s new article for The Times of Israel, Critics Say U.S. Colleges’ Double Standards Let Rabid Antisemitism Thrive On Campus, in which I’m quoted.)
6. The 20 Most Prestigious Law Firms In America
I took a deep dive into the latest Vault 100 prestige rankings, using them as a window into some trends transforming Biglaw.
5. Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Time For Reform?
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson takes a unique approach to clerk hiring—and one that her fellow justices might want to consider adopting.
4. 7 Updates On Judge Kyle Duncan And Stanford Law
This was what we in the blogging business call a “linkwrap,” a collection of links to interesting items from around the web—not very exciting. But the scandal over the protest of Judge Duncan generated so much interest that it became one of the most-read stories in the three-plus years of this newsletter.
3. The Barber Ranen Blowup: ‘The Worst Emails I’ve Ever Seen’
The founding partners of the Barber Ranen law firm, which dissolved not long after this scandal, wrote emails that managed to use an impressive array of slurs—including the c-word, the f-word, and the n-word—multiple times. If Chambers had a ranking for “Offensive Emails: The Elite,” John Barber and Jeff Ranen would be Band 1.
2. The Full Audio Recording Of Judge Kyle Duncan At Stanford Law
As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” You can hold whatever opinion you like about the protest of Judge Duncan at Stanford Law, but this recording of events captures what actually transpired.
1. Yale Law Is No Longer #1—For Free-Speech Debacles
My detailed write-up of the highly disruptive protest of Judge Kyle Duncan at Stanford Law—including firsthand accounts from multiple attendees, on both sides of the controversy, plus one of the first interviews of Judge Duncan himself—is now the most-read story in the three-plus years of Original Jurisdiction’s existence. So thank you, Stanford Law School protesters.
Now, here are 10 stories that are personal favorites or otherwise worth highlighting, perhaps because they touch on an important news story or illustrate a theme from last year:
10. No Accident: An Interview With Karen Dunn
I love all my podcast guests, just as parents love all their children, but I particularly enjoyed interviewing Karen Dunn, the star litigator who co-chairs the litigation department of Paul, Weiss. Before going to law school, she served as communications director for then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and her comms experience shows: Karen tells great war stories, and she understands that the best podcast episodes are conversations with plenty of back and forth.
9. Crisis-Management Lawyers Analyze Last Week’s Antisemitism Hearings
One of the highlights of 2023 for me was starting a new column for Bloomberg Law called Exclusive Jurisdiction. In my first few columns, I asked crisis-management experts how they would have prepared the university presidents for the antisemitism hearings; profiled the Society for the Rule of Law, a new organization of conservative lawyers (including former Fourth Circuit judge J. Michael Luttig, whom I interviewed); and spoke with other legal newsmakers, like former Fox Corp. CLO Viet Dinh and SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein.
8. The Supreme Court Speaks On The Big Dobbs Leak
In January 2023, the Supreme Court released its eagerly awaited report on its investigation into the historic leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. I was pleasantly surprised by how forthcoming and transparent the Court was about the investigation. But even if we now know a lot more about how Dobbs came into being—thanks to a fascinating New York Times article by Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak, based on even more leaks—we still don’t know the identity of the leaker(s).
7. In Memoriam: William S. Consovoy (1974-2023)
The legal profession lost several prominent judges and lawyers last year, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (3d Cir.), Bob Bennett, Charlie Munger, and Charles Ogletree. One loss that resonated especially strongly in my circles was the passing of Will Consovoy, a leading litigator and founder of Consovoy McCarthy, at 48. For more on Will, I refer you to the comments of his close friend Sarah Isgur, who named him her 2023 Lawyer of the Year.
6. A Controversial Speaker Returned To Yale Law—You Won't Believe What Happened Next
As the intellectual climate at Stanford Law got worse in 2023, it actually got better at Yale Law—which previously was the poster child for free-speech problems based on the rowdy protest of conservative lawyer Kristen Waggoner in March 2022. She returned to YLS in January 2023, and her appearance went off without a hitch. YLS is also taking steps forward on ideological diversity; in October, it announced the hiring of Keith Whittington, and other right-of-center hires are said to be in the pipeline. But like many of its peer institutions, Yale has faced post-October 7 allegations, from both students and alumni, that it maintains a double standard in which antisemitism is treated less seriously than other forms of bigotry.
5. The New U.S. News Rankings: Harvard Takes A Tumble
Speaking of Yale Law, it kept the top spot in the influential U.S. News law school rankings, whose methodology was radically revamped after dozens of law schools joined a boycott (kicked off by YLS Dean Heather Gerken). Meanwhile, Yale’s chief rival, Harvard Law, dropped to #5. But don’t assume that YLS’s #1 ranking is unassailable—and don’t be surprised if sometime in the next three years, Stanford Law, which tied Yale for #1 this year, overtakes Yale to be an undisputed #1.
4. An Elite Boutique Makes A Notable New Hire
When prominent litigator Jon Cohn left Sidley Austin for Lehotsky Keller Cohn, it was yet another sign that litigation boutiques have arrived—and part of why Sarah Isgur and I, in our 2023 year-in-review podcast, selected litigation boutiques as Law Firms of the Year. I agree with Alex Su that this trend will continue to pick up steam in the years ahead, as corporate clients increasingly realize that high-quality lawyers can be found outside Biglaw, and as Biglaw partners discover the advantages of practicing in smaller, more collegial, and more entrepreneurial environments.1
3. On All The Recent Federal Judicial Scandals
One of the biggest stories of 2023 was a series of ethics controversies involving the Supreme Court, which culminated in the Court’s adoption of its first-ever formal code of ethics, as well as the lower federal courts. But not all of these “scandals” were created equal, as I explored in this analysis. See also my podcast interview of Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth and a piece for The Atlantic that I co-authored with my husband Zach Shemtob, Judicial Ethics in a Populist Age.
2. More Thoughts On Intellectual Diversity In Biglaw
A year ago, I wrote a Boston Globe op-ed entitled Biglaw’s Cancel Culture, in which I lamented the ideological uniformity inside large law firms. I got a fair amount of pushback for the op-ed in some quarters. I decided to respond to the critiques collectively, through an imaginary dialogue between me and a fictional friend who stood in for my critics, articulating the main arguments against my piece.
1. Further Thoughts on Warhol v. Goldsmith
This is a weird and hard-to-explain essay (which might explain why I’m so fond of it). I guess I’d describe it as idiosyncratic insights into Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, the Supreme Court’s fascinating case about the “fair use” doctrine in copyright law, based on my experiences from the early days of blogging.
Speaking of the early days of blogging, it’s hard for me to believe, but 2024 marks my twentieth anniversary as an online legal commentator—first at Underneath Their Robes (2004-2006), then at Above the Law (2006-2019), and now at Original Jurisdiction (2020-present). The sequence of my platforms reflects the evolution of blogging from a hobby (UTR) to an advertising-funded business (ATL) to a subscription-based one (OJ). And while each model has its pluses or minuses, I’m happiest with my current one, which puts readers first and allows me to maximize the quantity and quality of my writing.
I’ve written more than 400 posts over the past three years at Original Jurisdiction—writing made possible by your generous support, which enables me to make a living as an independent journalist on Substack. So, as always, I thank you—and I look forward to continuing to write for you in 2024, an opportunity for which I’ll always be grateful.
Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; and (3) the ability to comment on posts. If you subscribe now at the $5 a month/$50 a year rate, you’ll continue to enjoy that rate even after I raise it on Monday. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. Thanks again!
I’d like to give a shoutout here to my podcast sponsor NexFirm, which advises Biglaw partners on how to launch their own boutiques. In reviewing my podcast guests to date, I was struck by how many are former Biglaw partners turned boutique founders—e.g., Paul Clement, Tom Clare and Libby Locke, Chris Clark, Robbie Kaplan, and Steve Molo. This focus on boutiques was not intentional (and NexFirm has no say in my guest selection), but I pick my guests because they’re in the news, and the fact that so many newsworthy lawyers work at boutiques is telling.
Musk v. Wachtel:
The case went into arbitration, so we will never hear about it again. And it was not removed to federal court.