It's been 10 years since the epic collapse of mega-law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, and we've never heard from its former chairman, Steven Davis.

Until now.

Davis spoke at length with Andrew Satter and Josh Block, the directors of a new documentary, about how Dewey grew so big so fast—and why it fell so far.

The documentary video on Davis and his firm comes out Aug. 3. But in this episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Satter and Block give a preview about why Davis chose to break his silence now, and why law firms should look to Dewey as a cautionary tale.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

In the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal in the late 2000s, the SEC set up a program to reward whistleblowers who uncover fraud against investors. Since then, the program has paid out more than $1.3 billion.

But who's receiving this money? And what information are they providing to the agency? And why is a huge chunk of the money going to whistleblowers represented by attorneys who used to work at the SEC?

Bloomberg Law reporter John Holland recently published an investigative report looking at all of these questions. He found that the SEC's whistleblower program is operating with shockingly little oversight from either the courts or Congress. Holland joins this week's episode of our legal news podcast, On The Merits, with two of his sources: whistleblower attorney Reuben Guttman, and University of Kansas law professor Alex Platt, who's conducted research into what's happening here.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

For months now, both the legal and financial worlds have had their eyes glued to billionaire Elon Musk's theatrical attempt to purchase (or not) the social media giant Twitter.

Musk is now trying to back out of the $44 billion deal, claiming Twitter refused to provide him with vital information. Twitter is trying to force Musk to follow through on the purchase by taking him to court in Delaware, where earlier today a judge set an expedited trial date for October.

If this deal ultimately does go unconsummated, it may not be the only one. A contracting economy and tumbling stock markets mean that mergers and acquisitions that made sense during expansionary times may not make sense any longer.

On today's episode of On The Merits, our weekly legal news podcast, Bloomberg Law's Matthew Bultman and Bloomberg News' Ed Hammond discuss what the Delaware Chancery Court can really do in Twitter v. Musk, what happens if Musk loses this case, and why Twitter would even still want to be owned by someone who is publicly bashing the company.

They also talk about the rocky future for the broader deals market in an ailing economy—and what that may mean for the attorneys who rely on it for billable hours.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The Supreme Court's landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last month was the end of Roe v. Wade, but the beginning of a whole new era of turmoil over reproductive rights in corporate America.

For example, big corporations and law firms are weighing whether they should offer to pay for their employees to travel to receive an abortion. And if they do, how to respond if Republican lawmakers retaliate against them. Will some of these companies play both sides of the issue and continue to donate to GOP lawmakers, while publicly denouncing the abortion laws they enact?

Beyond corporate politics, there's also the more tangible issue of health care access. Some new state anti-abortion laws place restrictions on drugs that can terminate a pregnancy. But some doctors, pharmacists, and patients say it's unclear if it's still legal to prescribe these drugs for vital off-label uses.

Bloomberg Law has been covering all of the fallout from the abortion ruling, and on this week's episode of On The Merits, our weekly legal news podcast, reporters Maia Spoto, Clara Hudson, and Celine Castronuovo dig into all of the new issues that have arisen in the past few weeks.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Last week Paul Clement, arguably the most experienced Supreme Court litigator ever, announced he was leaving Kirkland & Ellis, arguably the largest law firm ever. He cited "client loyalty" as his reason for packing his bags.

Clement left after the mega-firm decided, in the wake of several mass shootings, that it would no longer work on gun rights issues. He said he disagreed with this decision and that attorneys have a "professional responsibility" to represent these clients.

The move raised an eternal question within the legal world: do clients choose their attorneys, or do attorneys choose their clients?

On this week's episode of our legal news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Roy Strom weighs in. He says, at least in civil cases, there's no ethical problem with dropping a client and that firms have a long history of being selective about whom they represent.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The actor Seth Green has reportedly paid a ransom for the return of his purloined NFT, and that's disappointing some intellectual property attorneys.

For those not in the know: Green, who played Dr. Evil's son in the Austin Powers franchise, was planning to develop a TV show around an NFT he had purchased. But then a hacker stole the digital token from him. This raised all sorts of novel legal issues around whether Green still had the rights to exploit the IP.

Riddhi Setty, an IP reporter with Bloomberg Law, says a lot of attorneys were hoping Green would go to court and get a ruling from a judge about whether he still owned the stolen token's IP. This could have cleared up some unanswered intellectual property questions around digital assets.

For this episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Setty explains to us why Green was in this situation in the first place, and why Green's decision not to go to court only delays the legal reckoning for NFTs and intellectual property.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

As the pandemic started to ease, big law leaders worked to fine-tune their remote work policies. Should lawyers be in the office two days a week? Three? Quinn Emanuel had another idea—never.

The Los Angeles-based firm, led by its iconoclastic founder, John Quinn, embraced a work-from-anywhere policy. Quinn says it wasn't without its challenges, but that he's glad his namesake firm made this move. At the very least, he says, he hopes it will spur disgruntled attorneys working at more inflexible firms to send him their résumés.

On this week's episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Quinn speaks to Bloomberg Law's Roy Strom about why Quinn Emanuel is going all in on the remote work trend within Big Law. He also talks about why he thinks a tremendously profitable 2021 was not a fluke for the litigation-focused Quinn Emanuel.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

On this special weekend edition of On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Alex Ruoff reads his story about terminally ill patients fighting the DEA for the right to use psychedelic drugs. Click here to read the story in print.

Former President Donald Trump should face criminal charges for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to one federal judge.

In an expansive and unusual ruling earlier this spring, David O. Carter, a Clinton-appointed judge from the Central District of California, gave federal prosecutors a blueprint for how they could indict the former president.

But don't expect an indictment anytime soon. Ex-prosecutors say that, even if the evidence is there, federal prosecutors must take other factors into consideration, such as the threat of domestic unrest. Bloomberg Law's John Holland joins our weekly podcast, On The Merits, to talk about his conversations with these former prosecutors and about why bringing charges against Trump would be difficult—though far from impossible.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Crypto prices are plummeting, but Big Law isn't rushing for the exits. Far from it.

Many of the country's biggest law firms have thrown themselves head first into the cryptocurrency world, with some even establishing specialized crypto practice groups.

Bloomberg Law reporter Sam Skolnik says the reasons are clear: a confusing regulatory environment combined with crypto companies now flush with enough funds to be able to afford Big Law representation.

On this episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Sam talks about which firms are most active in crypto and why Big Law is bullish on the industry's future.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.