• The U.K. must hold a vote in Parliament before starting the two-year countdown to Brexit, a panel of London judges decided, likely setting up a constitutional confrontation at the country’s Supreme Court next month. (Bloomberg)
• President Barack Obama stepped into the latest controversy related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server, indirectly criticizing F.B.I. director James B. Comey’s handling of newly discovered emails. (New York Times)
• The U.S. Justice Department’s suit against AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV unit alleges it colluded with rival pay-TV services to gain leverage in negotiating for rights to televise Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games — a shot across the bow from antitrust regulators as the operator looks to acquire Time Warner for $85.4 billion. (Bloomberg)
• K&L Gates is spending some of the fee windfall it earned earlier this year helping Carnegie Mellon University win a $750 million patent infringement settlement by funding a $10 million endowment at the school to study the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. (Law.Com)
• Send in the clowns: Law firms can learn from innovative nonlegal businesses, such as Cirque de Soleil, to embrace experimentation even if it depresses short-term profits. (BLB)
Brexit
• The U.K. government plans to appeal the London court’s ruling that could sink its plans for Brexit if upheld. (Financial Times)
• A who’s who of key players in the lawsuit challenging U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to begin Brexit without permission from Parliament. (Bloomberg) And what’s at stake. (Bloomberg)
• After May persuaded Nissan Motor Co. to increase investment in a U.K. factory with a promise to keep it financially viable, other industries are pressing their own Brexit requests. But it’s not clear the government will be able to keep such promises once Britain leaves the European Union. (Bloomberg)
• Meanwhile EU air pollution rules still apply. A London judge ruled that the U.K. government broke the law by failing to comply with EU standards on reducing toxic emissions. (Bloomberg)
Legal Market
• Gawker Media LLC reached a $31 million settlement in the invasion-of-privacy lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan and backed by Peter Thiel that drove the web company into bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)
• Announcing some internal changes at Big Law Business. (BLB)
• One-way deal. Lockheed Martin Corp. said the $6.1 billion Pentagon contract it was awarded for 57 of its F-35 fighter planes after 18 months of inconclusive negotiations was a unilateral decision, “not mutually agreed upon.” (Bloomberg)
• A London-based Norton Rose Fulbright associate filed a personal injury lawsuit against the firm earlier this year. (The Lawyer)
Happening in SCOTUS and Other Courts
• A small but powerful group of Republican senators is threatening to put Hillary Clinton’s nominees on indefinite hold, should she become president. That sets up a scenario for the worst Capitol Hill gridlock seen since before the Civil War. (Audio) (Bloomberg 99.1)
• Former Trump University students argued they should be allowed to present statements at trial that Donald Trump made in his presidential campaign. (Bloomberg)
• Jurors at the Bridgegate trial of two former aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were sent home early on Wednesday, their third day of deliberations. (New York Post)
Clinton v. Trump
• Senate Democratic leader-in-waiting Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he’s lost confidence in FBI Director James Comey over his handling of the most recent disclosure in the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation. (Bloomberg)
• An assistant attorney general allegedly gave Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman a “heads up” on a congressional hearing and the latest development in litigation over her use of a private e-mail server, according to purloined e-mails released by WikiLeaks. (Bloomberg)
• The FBI’s investigation of the Clinton email scandal has contributed to “turmoil” and “infighting” at the bureau. (CNN)
• Secret recordings of a suspect talking about the Clinton Foundation fueled an internal battle at the FBI. (Wall Street Journal)
• A conservative election watchdog group filed a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging that the Boston personal injury-focused Thornton Law Firm and three of its partners violated campaign finance law by tying attorney bonuses to their donations to Democratic Party political candidates. (National Law Journal)
Laterals and Moves
• New York insurance boutique Costigan Law plans to open an office in London. (The Lawyer)
• Square Inc announced it has a new general counsel, Hillary Smith, who previously had the same position at HR software startup Zenefits; Former FCC Robert M. McDowell has left Wiley Rein to join Cooley in Washington, D.C. And other recent moves. (BLB)
• White & Case confirmed plans to open offices in Melbourne Sydney, Australia, after adding three more lawyers from Herbert Smith Freehills, from which it got 10 partners in September. (Am Law Daily)
Technology
• Small data set, potentially big stakes: e-Discovery questions raised by the FBI’s review of some 650,000 emails newly found in the case of Hillary Clinton’s private server. (Legaltech News)
• A California judge Wednesday rejected the ACLU’s push for a ruling that would allow voters to take so-called ballot selfies in time for next week’s presidential election. (The Recorder)
• Facebook reported that its profits nearly tripled in the third quarter but said it doesn’t expect to be able to maintain that pace. (Wall Street Journal)
• YouTube agreed on Tuesday to pay royalties to Germany’s main music rights organization, ending a dispute that had blocked German users from seeing certain music videos. (New York Times)
• Cut-resistant killer robots or smart jeans? Researchers have developed a printable, self-healing conductive material that repeatedly fixes itself after being severed. (Techcrunch)
• How to apologize once you’ve pissed off the internet with comments to promote a new women’s focused website, from the guy who made $200 million creating and then selling Bleacher Report. Audio. (Recode)
Miscellaneous
• How are lawyers and leeches different? No one wants a lawyer who sucks. A California attorney’s new handbook offers “Comebacks for Lawyer Jokes.” (Above The Law)
• Justice is blind, and Bill Cosby’s lawyers contend their client is, too, as they fight to get a sexual assault case against the 79-year-old comedian dismissed. (Fox News)
• $100 million. The U.S. civil lawsuit against Lance Armstrong for his doping while riding for the U.S. Postal Service cycling team could cost the fallen seven-time Tour de France winner nearly that much, because of triple damages under the False Claims Act. (USA Today)
• Donald Trump is getting almost all last-minute bets placed at Ireland’s largest bookmaker, Paddy Power Betfair Plc, which could signal that the “shock of Brexit” is fresh on gamblers’ minds. (Bloomberg)
• In the deepening scandal surrounding South Korean President Park Geun-hye, prosecutors are seeking a warrant to arrest Choi Soon-sil, Park’s long-time confidant. (Bloomberg)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Gabe Friedman.