Meadows' court move fails, Alito rejects tax recusal, law firm tie ups and Aspen Publishing inks law school admission test deal ??

?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here are today's top legal stories:

??? Mark Meadows fails in bid to move Georgia election case to federal court

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones denied Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows' bid to move his 2020 Georgia election subversion case from the state court to a federal court, a sign that similar bids by the Republican former president and his co-defendants to move the criminal case to a more favorable venue will fail.

Meadows is accused of arranging calls and meetings in which prosecutors have said Trump pressured election officials to change the vote count in his favor, including a call in which the then-president urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to deliver him the state, which Biden won.

Prosecutors have argued that those acts were not "necessary and proper" duties for a president and his chief of staff. Meadows has said they were part of his portfolio as Trump's top White House aide. The law allows defendants to have their cases heard in federal court if the charges against them stem from their official duties.

Trump also may seek to move his trial from state to federal court, his lawyer said in a court filing on Sept. 7.

Read more: https://reut.rs/3LifrRy

?? US Supreme Court's Alito rejects recusal in tax case

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rejected a push by Senate Democrats to have him recuse himself from the tax case, Moore v. United States, that involves an attorney who interviewed him for a newspaper article and helped him "air his personal grievances."

David Rivkin Jr., one of the attorneys for the Moores, helped interview Alito for articles that appeared in the Wall Street Journal's opinion section, including on July 28 when the justice said Congress lacks the power to regulate the court.

"There is no valid reason for my recusal in this case," Alito said in a statement.

Read more: https://reut.rs/45X2xAu

?? Law firm tie-ups continue with Spencer Fane move into California

Missouri-founded Spencer Fane will absorb the 15-attorney firm Pahl & McCay, effective Oct. 1., and enter the California legal market.

Pahl & McCay, a corporate law firm founded in 1989, has offices in San Jose and Santa Monica. The two new California offices are Spencer Fane's first in the state. The firm has 21 other locations across the United States, including in Nashville, where it merged with a 40-lawyer firm in 2021.

Law firm mergers picked up in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 and 2021, according to data released in July by legal consultancy Fairfax Associates.

Read more: https://reut.rs/462hQb6

?? Aspen Publishing inks deal for Univ of Arizona's alternative law school admission program

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law licensed the administration of its alternative law school admission program to Aspen Publishing.

Aspen, a company best known for producing legal textbooks and study aids, said it has acquired an exclusive five-year license to run JD-Next, an 8-week series of online legal courses that culminates in an exam.

JD-Next was developed as a way to increase law student diversity by assessing an applicant’s law school aptitude without relying on standardized tests that produce racial score disparities. A 2019 study of the LSAT found the average score for Black test-takers was 142 out of a possible 180, compared with 153 for white and Asian test-takers. Experts attribute those disparities to inequitable schools and racial bias on standardized tests, among other factors.

"The more we can predict success in prospective law students, the better off everybody is," Aspen spokesperson Gregg Chalk said. "That increases graduation rates and ultimate bar examination pass rates."

Read more: https://reut.rs/45N0uz6

?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File!

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