Here's a depressing comparison: Robert Khuzami and Judge Judy.

Khuzami in his 35-year legal career has been a leading federal prosecutor, headed the Enforcement Division at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, served as general counsel of the Americas for Deutsche Bank and was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

When he left the firm earlier this year to return to the SDNY, he revealed that he was paid about $11 million in 2017 from Kirkland.

“Gee,” I thought. “That's an awful lot of money.”

Nope. Not really. You know who makes a lot of money? Almost surely more than any other lawyer in the United States? Or for the world, for that matter?

That would be Judith Sheindlin, a.k.a. Judge Judy, a one-time family court judge who earns a staggering $47 million a year for yelling at litigants while presiding over small claims cases on television.

So glad we've got our priorities in order, America.

The details of her pay were confirmed as part of a lawsuit by Hollywood agency Rebel Entertainment Partners against CBS, which distributes her show.

Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Sheindlin's salary is not actually excessive.

Right. Obviously.

“That Judge Sheindlin is paid more than any other television host does not establish that her salary is unreasonable,” wrote Judge Joanne O'Donnell, who makes somewhere in the neighborhood of $225,000 for presiding over real cases in real court. “Plaintiff has presented no evidence that the salary was negotiated in bad faith or is unreasonable in light of the undisputed 'resounding success' of Judge Judy and the fact that without its namesake star, the show could not continue.”

Rebel sued CBS in 2016 for breach of contract, claiming that the network schemed to shortchange it of its share of the show's profits. Rebel says it is entitled to 5 percent of the net profits from Judge Judy, and alleges that CBS intentionally bumped up Sheindlin's salary so the show would run at a deficit, leaving it empty-handed.

Rebel also said it deserves a share of a Judge Judy spin-off, Hot Bench. (Think Judge Judy en banc, with a three-judge panel.)

CBS, represented by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton's James Curry, Benjamin Aigboboh and Matthew Ardoin, convinced O'Donnell to dismiss the claim about Sheindlin's compensation, although the (real) judge kept alive claims related to Rebel's share of Hot Bench.

Sheindlin is not a party to the suit, but her statement to The Hollywood Reporter when the case was first filed is classic Judge Judy.

“The fact that Richard Lawrence [President of Rebel] is complaining about my salary is actually hilarious. I met Mr. Lawrence for 2 hours some twenty-one years ago. Neither I nor anyone involved in the day-to-day production of my program has heard from him in 20 years. Not a card, not a gift, not a flower, not a congratulations. Yet he has somehow received over $17,000,000 from my program. My rudimentary math translates that into $8,500,000 an hour for Mr. Lawrence. Not a bad payday. Now complaining about not getting enough money, that's real chutzpah!”

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Backpage.com Is Busted—And Boies Schiller is Glad

When federal law enforcers on Friday seized the website Backpage.com, lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner applauded the move.

Firm lawyers including David Boies have been waging their own battle against Backpage. Working pro bono, they and co-counsel Legal Momentum sued the online classified marketplace and its owners last year for participating in the trafficking of children and young adults for sex.

Represented by First Amendment powerhouse Davis Wright Tremaine, Backpage has been a difficult target—courts in California, Washington, Tennessee, New Jersey and Missouri have rebuffed attempts to censor the site. With support from groups including the Cato Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Backpage has argued it's simply a publisher of third-party created ads, shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

But the Boies Schiller complaint against Backpage in the Middle District of Florida just survived key elements of a motion to dismiss, with leave amend the parts that fell short. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and other relief.

U.S. District Judge John Antoon II on March 31 held that “Plaintiffs have alleged facts suggesting that defendants materially contributed to the content of the advertisements, and thus the issue of CDA immunity cannot be resolved” on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted.

He also held that the firm's clients—Florida Abolitionist, an anti-trafficking organization based in Orlando, and Jane Doe, who said she was sold and raped five times in 12 hours as a result of an ad placed on Backpage.com—have standing to bring the case.

On Friday, a law enforcement coalition including the FBI, U.S. Postal Service and the IRS seized Backpage, promising addition information would be forthcoming later in the day. It wasn't—a DOJ official told The New York Times that a judge was keeping the matter sealed.

Firm partner Karen Dyer noted that the action comes on the heels of Congress' recent passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA, and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA.

It's not clear how the feds' action will affect the case, but Dyer said firm lawyers are “extremely pleased with the government's decision to shut down the Backpage website and hope this will prevent others from being victimized by their actions.”

The DOJ is investigating whether Harvard has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Asian Americans in its admissions process.

In first trial linking Johnson & Johnson's talc products to mesothelioma, the company's efforts to discredit the plaintiffs' evidence fell flat.

Interesting question: let's say your client wants to do a joint venture with someone whom you know from your previous work as a prosecutor is linked to a massive ongoing fraud case. Do you say anything?

The idea–“comedians driving in a car to get coffee and engaging in comedic banter”–is not unique enough to merit protection, according to Seinfeld.

In the second Xarelto case to be tried in Philadelphia state court, plaintiffs say Janssen and Bayer failed to adequately warn about the dangers of taking the drug with aspirin and Plavix.

The money goes the state of Maryland, which “will be responsible for disbursing the funds to the other plaintiff states as they may agree among themselves.”

Leading the defense is Tom Mesereau, the California defense attorney best known for getting Michael Jackson acquitted of child molestation in 2005.

“A signature at gunpoint cannot lead to a valid conveyance.”