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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

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BARRED ENTRY - At the risk of stating the obvious: Failing the bar exam sucks. In the fourth and final installment of The Big Fail, a Law.com series examining falling bar pass rates, Karen Sloan checks in with two recent law graduates who missed the cut. They discuss the emotional gut-punch of failing the licensing exam as well as the toll that early misstep took on their career plans. But passing the bar on the second or third try is doable, experts say, with a good study strategy and the right outlook.

THE BARR ULTIMATUM - It's not exactly action movie material, but it's still pretty intense: Democrats on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee have given U.S. Attorney General William Barr until 9 a.m. today to respond to a proposal allowing greater access to materials in Robert Mueller's report, C. Ryan Barber reports. “The committee is prepared to make every realistic effort to reach an accommodation with the department,” Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, said in a letter to Barr. “But if the department persists in its baseless refusal to comply with a validly issued subpoena, the committee will move to contempt proceedings and seek further legal recourse.” Barr escalated tensions with the judiciary committee last week, when he refused to show up for a hearing on the Mueller report.

FEDERAL FIELD TRIP - A big trial is set to begin today in Texas over allegations that the federal government designed two Houston-area reservoirs to flood a large area despite knowing that a major storm, like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, would put many homes and businesses underwater, Angela Morris reports. But the action won't be confined to a courtroom: On the third day of the 10-day trial, which ends May 17, the lawyers for the plaintiffs and the United States will hop on a bus with the judge, court reporter and others, to make a site visit to the areas where the 13 test plaintiffs alleged their properties and possessions were damaged when the government held Harvey stormwaters in the reservoirs, flooding at least 7,054 acres of private property without properly compensating the plaintiffs.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

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Hard Charging: Back-Office Billing is Becoming Increasingly Difficult

Trump Announces Another Round of Judicial Nominations

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DATA SNAP

DECLINE IN EQUITY? Twenty years ago, holding the partner title at an Am Law 100 firm usually meant sharing in the firm's profits. That's not the case any more. A new analysis of partner numbers by ALM Intelligence shows that among the Am Law 100, the percentage of equity partners has been steadily declining since 2000. That comes even as the nation's top-grossing firms have been seeing steady growth since the Great Recession. Read more here.

 

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

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PAY BY THE RULES - The European Union on Friday rolled out an ambitious proposal for how countries can eliminate barriers to e-commerce and protect businesses and consumers engaged in online transactions. But not everyone—particularly the U.S. and China—is likely to be thrilled with the plan, and a battle over certain aspects could be brewing, Simon Taylor reports.

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WHAT YOU SAID

“Generally speaking, we're not supposed to be perfect but we're not supposed to make mistakes.”

— JOHN BARKETT, A PARTNER AT SHOOK, HARDY & BACON IN MIAMI, EXPLAINING THE LEGAL PROFESSION DILEMMA THAT CAN LEAD LAWYERS TO ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

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