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

|

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

L.A. LAW - U.K.-based Ashurst has opened an office in Los Angeles, its third location in the U.S. and its first on the West Coast. Rose Walker reports that the new office will focus predominantly on projects and project finance work in infrastructure. Leading the new location in Santa Monica is partner Anna Hermelin, who previously worked in the firm's Tokyo office and who is joined by three California lawyers. The firm said seven to 10 lawyers will work from that location within a year. The California office is Ashurst's 28th globally, and its other U.S. offices are in New York and Washington, D.C.

BLOCKS – Universal injunctions are the focus of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for this morning, following criticism from Justices Gorsuch and Thomas last month that the remedy creates "gamesmanship and chaos." Senators are expected to hear testimony from some vocal critics of such injunctions, including Notre Dame law professor Samuel Bray and Michigan Law's Nicholas Bagley. The Trump administration has repeatedly seen some of its more controversial policies, including immigration rules, halted by injunctions, but SCOTUS' conservative majority is increasingly staying those lower court orders as the legal fights play out.

HE'S BACK – Michael Avenatti is expected back in Manhattan federal court this afternoon for the first time after he was convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. In a separate criminal case, the disgraced California attorney is accused of skimming money from a book deal for his ex-client, adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an extramarital affair with President Trump. Avenatti, who has pleaded not guilty, lost his bid last year to transfer the case, for which today's hearing is scheduled, to California, where he is charged in a sprawling indictment with stealing from former clients.

IN THE WEEDS – A $265 million verdict this month against Monsanto's parent Bayer involving the herbicide dicamba may be the next wave of legal problems for the company following its Roundup litigation. Amanda Bronstad reports that dicamba—sold in more than 100 products in the U.S. by some accounts—is the subject of suits involving about 100 farmers who allege that Monsanto and BASF are liable for damages to crops caused when their herbicides drift into the fields of farmers who used seeds non-resistant to dicamba.

|

EDITOR'S PICKS

The Fight Over the Future of Law Firm Ownership Has Put an Industry at Odds

Harvard, Yale and Stanford Law Students Chide Judiciary Over Its Handling of Sexual Misconduct

|

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

PRECAUTIONS – Law firms in Italy are curtailing the movement of lawyers and staffers to and from their offices, Varsha Patel reports. With at least 230 confirmed cases of the virus in Italy, law firms are shutting down meeting rooms and monitoring staff travel. BonelliErede, for example, is paying for employees to take taxis to the office while encouraging staff not to use public transportation. Bird & Bird is asking its workers in Milan to work remotely.

|

WHAT YOU SAID

"You can afford to mess up in a moot, but you can't afford to mess up in the big show."

— Rod Rosenstein, partner at King & Spalding, offering advice for his successor  Jeffrey Rosen, who will present his debut argument before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

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