Judicial Notice: ‘This Job Sucks’ – Legal Implications & Analysis

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Is this one of the coldest winters? It depends on where exactly you are and how exactly you calculate it, but according to ABC News, this is New York City’s coldest winter since the winter of 2002-2003. Our family went into Manhattan on Saturday to see friends, and after walking a block and half from the parking garage to our friends’ apartment, Harlan was in tears—and I wasn’t far behind. When I got home, I ordered us balaclavas—because looking like an ICE agent is bad, but frostbite is worse.

Are you a Biglaw associate with an interest in AI and a desire to work remotely—perhaps so you can abandon the northeast for warmer climes? If so, BriefCatch (on whose board I sit) is looking for a senior legal AI product lead. The full job description and instructions on how to apply can be found on LinkedIn.

Despite the below-freezing temperatures, last week wasn’t without highlights for me. On Wednesday morning, I enjoyed attending Ari Kaplan’s first-ever New Jersey Legal Tech Mafia® breakfast, graciously hosted by Evan Shenkman at Fisher Phillips. Then on Thursday night, I had a great time at the fifth-anniversary celebration of Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes—co-founded by my former Wachtell Lipton colleague, Jed Bergman. As I’ve said before, I believe we’re in a golden age for litigation boutiques—and the success of Glenn Agre supports my claim.

Now, on to the news. Normally I’d feel bad about sending this out on Monday morning rather than Sunday afternoon or evening, but many of you were a bit distracted yesterday. Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks on winning Super Bowl LX—and condolences to fans of the New England Patriots. (Yes, I had to Google which teams were in the Super Bowl this year; I’m intentionally ignorant of sports, so I can leave more brain space for law stuff.)

Lawyer of the Week: Julie T. Le.

We all have bad days at the office (or, in my case, on the couch). You know who had a really tough day at work last Tuesday? Julie Le.

Le works as a lawyer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where she practices in immigration court. A few weeks ago, she accepted an appointment as a special assistant U.S. attorney (SAUSA) in the District of Minnesota—i.e., a temporary job as a lawyer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul U.S. Attorney’s Office. That office has been overwhelmed by habeas petitions from immigrants claiming that they’ve been wrongfully detained, resulting from the Trump administration’s ramped-up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities (aka Operation Metro Surge). So Le—who had a background in immigration law, thanks to her ICE work, although no experience litigating in federal district court—”stupidly” (her word) volunteered to help out.

During a grilling last Tuesday by Judge Jerry Blackwell (D. Minn.)—who was upset over ICE not complying with court orders, and who wanted to get to the bottom of why the agency wasn’t releasing individuals he’s ordered to be released—Julie Le made the following, rather candid comments (emphases added):

• “I am here as a bridge and a liaison…. because if I walk out—sometime[s] I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep. I work days and night just because [there are] people still in [detention]. And, yes,[[the]procedure in place right now sucks. I’m trying to fix it…. [L]ast night I had to stay up until 2:35 a.m. just to get [these] documents ready for you…. I can’t say it’s a waste of my time, but I could have sent so many more e-mails and [gotten] so many more people get ready to be released.”

• “I am here with you, Your Honor. What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying [with] every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.”

• “I share the same concern [as] you, Your Honor. I am not white, as you can see. and my family’s at risk as [m]any other people that might get picked up…. But, again, fixing a system, a broken system—I don’t have a magic button to do it. I don’t have the power or the voice to do it. I only can do it within the ability and the capacity that I have. And every case[] I touch, I give it 100 percent.”

To read Le’s statements in context, check out the complete transcript in Segundo A.P.G. v. Bondi (via Chris Geidner of Law Dork and Minneapolis lawyer Daniel Suitor).

Shortly after the hearing before Judge Blackwell, Le was fired from her SAUSA position (which I’m guessing she wasn’t unhappy about). Her outburst and subsequent termination got picked up by Fox 9, a local television station—and then by numerous other outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Bloomberg Law, and Politico.

Le’s comments generated a range of reactions. Some concurred with Joe Patrice of Above the Law, who commended her “refreshing candor.” Others agreed with Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who condemned Le’s in-court conduct as “unprofessional and unbecoming.” What say you?

Other lawyers in the news:

• Julie Le isn’t the only lawyer leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. Because of a wave of resignations, many of them tendered in the wake of the killing of Renee Good, the office—which had as many as 70 assistant U.S. attorneys at some points during the Biden administration, and 55 as recently as January 2025—is now down to around 17 AUSAs.

• In other news about the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has reportedly sidelined Ed Martin and the weaponization working group that Martin was tasked with leading (after Martin’s nomination to serve as D.C. U.S. Attorney failed).

• The three million new Epstein files released by the DOJ last month included additional revelations about Goldman Sachs chief legal Kathryn Ruemmler. I mentioned some in last week’s Judicial Notice, but I missed others. As noted in updates, based on reporting by Bloomberg, the Ruemmler-Epstein emails include correspondence about an alleged affair between Ruemmler and Reid Weingarten of Steptoe, a leading white-collar defense lawyer. Ruemmler forwarded to Epstein the angry emails she was receiving from Weingarten’s wife—as well as a Times Ethicist column, “Do Another Woman’s Marriage Vows Bind Me?” Epstein wrote back reassuringly, “you did nothing wrong” (because who doesn’t want ethics advice from Jeffrey Epstein).

• Epstein also corresponded with a former trainee lawyer in the Paris office of Clifford Chance. The emails, accurately described by Kathryn Rubino of Above the Law as “unsettling,” suggest that the unidentified woman used her legal skills to draft a sex contract between herself and Epstein—and later started recruiting girlfriends for the late financier/sexual predator. According to a statement sent to RollOnFriday by Boies Schiller, which has represented many Epstein victims over the years, the ex-trainee was herself an Epstein victim and survivor.

• After 18 years at the helm, Brad Karp resigned as chairman of Paul Weiss, following the disclosure of additional emails between him and Epstein. I’m working on a more in-depth story; if you have inside intel, please email me (davidlat@substack.com) or text me (917-397-2751), and we can set up a time to talk—on the record, off the record, or otherwise. At this point, I’m looking for hard info only (since I have no shortage of theories and speculation).

• In happier departure news, Rachel Brand stepped down as chief legal officer of Walmart. She left such big shoes to fill that while the company searches for a permanent replacement, her duties are temporarily being filled by not one but two lawyers: Elisebeth Collins, Walmart’s special counsel and global chief ethics and compliance officer, and Jeffery Spalding, chief counsel for Walmart’s international and global sourcing business.

• Please keep Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie and her family in your prayers. As you surely know, Savannah’s 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, has been missing for seven days. What you might not know is that Savannah is a fellow lawyer—as I discussed with her back in October 2021, when I interviewed her for OJ. We covered how she walked away from a promising legal career—Georgetown Law, the highest score on the Arizona bar exam, a Biglaw gig, and a prestigious clerkship—to pursue her dream job as a journalist.

In memoriam: Professor Allen Hammond IV of Santa Clara Law School, a scholar of communications and contract law, passed away at 75, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. May he rest in peace.

Judge of the Week: Judge Mark Wolf.

In November 2025, Judge Mark Wolf (D. Mass.) resigned from judicial office—i.e., left the bench entirely, after four decades of judicial service (since his 1985 appointment by Ronald Reagan). At the time, Judge Wolf claimed he stepped down because he felt “compelled to speak out” against the Trump administration’s “assault on the rule of law,” as he put it in a much-discussed essay for The Atlantic (gift link).

But it now appears that there might have been additional reasons behind Wolf’s retirement. As reported by Carrie Johnson of NPR (via Howard Bashman of How Appealing), Wolf was the subject of a pending investigation into alleged misconduct. After finding “probable cause to believe that misconduct ha[d] occurred,” Chief Judge David Barron (1st Cir.) began an inquiry—but it was terminated after Wolf retired, as explained in Judge Barron’s order dismissing the investigation.

As Aliza Shatzman of the Legal Accountability Project told NPR, “A judge’s departure from the bench amid a misconduct investigation does not eliminate the need for accountability or transparency.” And there’s proposed legislation that would address this: under the Transparency and Responsibility in Upholding Standards in the Judiciary Act (TRUST) Act, pending investigations of misconduct would be required to continue even if a judge retires, resigns or dies.

On the whole, I’m a big cheerleader for clerkships—but as Shatzman and I discussed on my podcast, it’s critical that law clerks and other employees of the judiciary be treated with dignity and respect. If you have details about the allegations against Mark Wolf—which weren’t described in the order, but could involve possible mistreatment of a former law clerk—please drop me a line.

In other news about judges and the judiciary:

• In November 2024, Chief Justice John Roberts asked clerks and other Supreme Court employees to sign formal, written nondisclosure agreements, as reported by Jodi Kantor for The New York Times (gift link). (If you have an interest in how the journalistic sausage gets made, check out Patrick Healy’s interview of the NYT SCOTUS team, now four reporters strong.)

• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attended the Grammy Awards as a nominee in the Best Audiobook category for her memoir, Lovely One—but Her Honor lost out to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (tough competition). On Thursday, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for Justice Jackson to be investigated for attending, apparently because other attendees made comments critical of ICE.

• Speaking of justices and their books, we now know more about Justice Samuel Alito’s book. Its title is So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country, and its release date is October 6, 2026. That’s one day after the start of October Term 2026—leading my former colleague Elie Mystal to predict that Justice Alito will be retired by then, since the justice “thinks he’ll be free to run around the country promoting” his book (instead of doing his day job). But could the date cut the other way? Book buyers are much more interested in what a current justice has to say, as opposed to a retired one—reflected in how the memoirs of Justice Jackson and Justice Amy Coney Barrett became bestsellers, while the memoir of retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not—and I could see Justice Alito not wanting to step down until well after publication.

• The blistering order issued last Saturday by Judge Fred Biery (W.D. Tex.), directing the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from immigration detention, engendered a wide range of reactions. Times critic A.O. Scott wrote a paean to it, while Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) called for the impeachment of Judge Biery (pronounced BEER-ee, rhyming with “weary” rather than “fiery”; I called chambers). As for my poll of OJ readers, 65 percent of you believe that district judges are handling Trump cases appropriately, 24 percent believe the judges are too anti-Trump, and 11 percent believe the judges are too pro-Trump. (I disagree with the idea that judges are being too pro-Trump, at least if we’re talking about district judges rather than Supreme Court justices).

• Judge Rebecca Taibleson appeared in the Epstein files, but not for anything that will get her into trouble. Back in 2018, she advised her uncle, Professor Lawrence Krauss, on a settlement agreement that he entered into with his former university (following an investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct). Her proud uncle forwarded her email to Epstein, praising his “brilliant niece”—but there’s no evidence that Taibleson herself had contact with Epstein.

In nominations news, the Senate confirmed six district-court picks: Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Lea (W.D. Tenn.), civil litigator Justin Olson (S.D. Ind.), Missouri state-court judge Megan Benton (W.D. Mo.), Alaska senior assistant attorney general Aaron Peterson (D. Alaska), U.S. Attorney David Fowlkes (W.D. Ark.), and U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei (S.D. Tex.). Looking ahead, however, the pipeline looks thin—leading Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to declare that Donald Trump needs “to get those nominations up here.”

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