Want to get this daily news briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.

|

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

RARITY – The impeachment trial of President Trump is set to begin in the Senate today, and, as Jacqueline Thomsen reports, it will include a rare mix of legal and political proceedings and an unusual co-mingling of all three branches of the federal government. Chief Justice John Roberts will emerge from the privacy of the Supreme Court to preside over House prosecutors, with White House defendants and senators playing both judge and jury.

PRICE TAG – Going to a public law school in California is poised to get significantly more expensive—especially for out-of-state students. Karen Sloan reports that the UC Board of Regents is set to vote tomorrow on tuition increases at the four law schools within the UC system that, on average, would hike the amount of their so-called "professional degree supplemental tuition" by 17% between 2020 and 2023 and ultimately widen the gap between what California residents and non-residents pay. The increases would apply to students at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine and UCLA. Tuition and fees for non-residents attending Berkeley, currently at $55,000, would increase to $75,500.

NOR'EASTERS – Next month's merger of Duane Morris and Satterlee Stephens will be the first major combination involving Northeastern-based law firms in about two years. David Thomas reports that last time the region saw mergers of this magnitude was in 2018, when D.C.-based Venable merged with New York's Fitzpatrick Cella, and D.C.'s Arent Fox combined with Boston's Posternak Blankstein & Lund. Yes, the region is saturated with combined law firms, say observers, but there's also never-ending pressure to scale up, wherever firms are based.

|

EDITOR'S PICKS

'Big Law Loves Litigation Financing': Legalist's GC Breaks It Down

With Your Law Firm's Help or Not, Here's a Path to Mental and Physical Health

|

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

AFTERMATH – The U.K.'s transition away from using Libor, the agreed interest rate at which banks lend to each other, is set to generate a flood of disputes, Varsha Patel reports. The market regulator Financial Conduct Authority released a set of documents last week outlining the transition plan, with the scandal-ridden benchmark rate set to be phased out by the end of 2021.

|

WHAT YOU SAID

"Ford gave me a great pension. It gives me a lot of freedom, as you might imagine."

— Bill Coughlin, the new CEO at IP boutique Harness, Dickey & Pierce and former assistant general counsel at Ford Motor Co.

➤➤ Sign up here to receive the Morning Minute straight to your inbox.