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Legal Ethics
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May 21, 2025
Tribes Push To Preserve Challenges To Okla. Prosecutions
The Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations are dialing up their opposition to two Oklahoma district attorneys' attempts to prosecute tribal citizens for crimes committed in Indian Country, telling a federal court that prior case law makes it "readily apparent" that these state actions can't stand.
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May 21, 2025
Judge Warns Attys Using AI To 'Advocate — Not Hallucinate'
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sanctioned two attorneys in a shipping contract dispute for filing a brief that included a nonexistent case citation added by artificial intelligence, warning lawyers that they must "carefully evaluate, elucidate and advocate — not hallucinate" in their legal briefs.
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May 21, 2025
Ga. Judge Tells Ethics Panel No Harm Meant In Family Cases
An Atlanta trial judge facing allegations that she intervened on behalf of her uncle in a legal proceeding and had a woman locked in a cell during her parents' divorce hearing took the stand Wednesday before Georgia's judicial watchdog, saying she would have done things differently in hindsight.
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May 21, 2025
Army Contract Protest Dismissed Over Filing Violations
Multiple missed filing deadlines and public filings containing confidential information, despite repeated warnings, provided grounds to dismiss a Virginia company's challenge of a U.S. Army contract award for information technology services, a Court of Federal Claims Judge said Wednesday.
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May 21, 2025
Atty's Silence Dooms FMLA Claims Against Va. City
A Virginia city is off the hook in an attorney's lawsuit claiming he was fired after requesting leave to care for his mother, a federal court ruled Wednesday, finding the attorney's failure to respond to the city's filings requires his claims be dismissed.
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May 21, 2025
Atty, Firm Sanctioned For Losing Info In RICO, Defamation Suits
An Alabama federal judge granted Drummond Co. Inc.'s request for sanctions over missing emails and other information in litigation accusing Conrad & Scherer LLP and one of its former managing partners of defamation and RICO violations.
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May 21, 2025
Girardi's Son-In-Law Was No 'Babe In The Woods,' Feds Say
The Chicago federal judge presiding over a summer client theft trial against Girardi Keese founder Tom Girardi's son-in-law should not limit the government's case based on positions it took during Girardi's California trial because its positions are consistent, and the cases are charged differently, prosecutors argued Wednesday.
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May 21, 2025
Ex-Atty's Cooperation Deal OK'd In Calif. Debt Firm's Ch. 11
A California bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a deal allowing a disbarred attorney accused of operating a fraudulent debt relief law firm to admit wrongdoing and provide information about the firm's collapse to a court-appointed trustee in an effort to recoup money for creditors.
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May 21, 2025
Solvay Wants Sanctions For 3 Firms Over Confidential Info
Lawyers at three plaintiffs law firms were hit Wednesday with a bid for sanctions by a polymer company that claims the attorneys used confidential discovery in federal multidistrict litigation in New Jersey to file a new action.
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May 21, 2025
SF Law Firms' Ex-CFO Gets 3 Years For Embezzling $1.3M
A former chief financial officer of two San Francisco law firms was sentenced to just over three years in prison Wednesday for stealing more than $1.3 million from the firms and others, after one firm's founder said the defendant appeared to enjoy "stabbing us all in the back."
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May 21, 2025
Ford Hits Calif. Firms With RICO Suit Over Lemon Law Billing
The Ford Motor Co. sued several California-based law firms and lawyers in Los Angeles federal court Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to overcharge clients and defraud major automotive manufacturers by more than $100 million by submitting falsely inflated time sheets in thousands of consumer protection cases.
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May 21, 2025
Ex-Atty For Slain Journalist Khashoggi Admits Tax Crime
An attorney who once represented the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi pled guilty to filing a false tax return, admitting that he withheld $355,000 from the Internal Revenue Service.
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May 21, 2025
Distiller Says Ex-Partner, Attys Used RICO Suit To Ruin Him
A Pennsylvania distiller claims his erstwhile partner in Pittsburgh's Kingfly Spirits launched years of litigation against him designed to ruin his reputation and career, saying in a complaint of his own that the ex-collaborator texted him "game on" before beginning his abusive legal campaign.
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May 21, 2025
Apple Lets Fortnite Back In App Store As Appeal Pends
Apple has allowed Epic Games to put its popular Fortnite video game back in the App Store, while the sides await a ruling on Apple's bid to pause an injunction mandating additional changes to its policies issued after the court found it had violated a previous order.
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May 21, 2025
Appliance Co. Says Sanctions Bid Unjust After EEOC Missteps
An appliance retailer has told a Colorado federal judge that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shouldn't be granted sanctions over unredacted medical records that were publicly filed, arguing that the agency has repeatedly made the same mistake in the disability bias lawsuit.
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May 21, 2025
Apologetic NJ Atty Gets 21 Months For $350K COVID Fraud
A New Jersey attorney sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Wednesday for claiming he was a business in order to receive nearly $350,000 earmarked for small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic apologized to the court for the "embarrassment" he caused to the legal profession.
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May 21, 2025
Atty Has Bail Revoked For Continuing Embezzlement After Arrest
A Massachusetts magistrate judge on Wednesday revoked bail for an attorney who pled guilty to embezzling more than $3 million from several companies and two family members with special needs and dementia, after prosecutors said he was still siphoning funds from victims' accounts after being charged.
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May 21, 2025
Feds Say Atty Behind Embassy Attack Can't Avoid Restitution
A Florida attorney who claimed he was unable to pay restitution for felony convictions after he detonated explosives in San Antonio and outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., cannot avoid the $325,000 bill, federal prosecutors told a D.C. federal court.
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May 21, 2025
Fla. Atty Says NC Bar Has No Power To Discipline Him
A Florida attorney facing claims he filed a baseless suit to collect attorney fees for his former firm from a pair of intellectually disabled brothers whom his ex-partner defrauded told the North Carolina state appeals court that the state bar has no jurisdiction to bring an enforcement action against him.
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May 21, 2025
Conn. Public Defender Watchdog Wants Chief's Firing Upheld
Connecticut's Public Defender Services Commission said in a state court brief that it was "significant misconduct," not racial bias, that caused it to fire the chief public defender, arguing the June 2024 firing came after a litany of complaints and a lengthy pattern of wrongdoing.
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May 20, 2025
Subpoena For Alleged Trans Care Must Stand, Texas Says
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday pressed the state to explain why the principle of sovereign immunity should stop patients who potentially received gender affirming care from trying to block a subpoena, saying during oral arguments a challenge to a subpoena seems to fall outside sovereign immunity.
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May 20, 2025
Mass. Atty Admits Stealing From Relatives With Special Needs
A Massachusetts attorney Monday pled guilty to embezzling more than $3 million from several companies for which he was working as a bookkeeper as well as from two family members with special needs and dementia, according to a plea agreement filed in Bay State federal court.
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May 20, 2025
Dem Lawmakers Reintroduce Supreme Court Ethics Bill
Two Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced bills in the House and Senate that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a binding ethics code and create new recusal and disclosure standards for the nine justices.
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May 20, 2025
DOJ Watchdog Asked To Probe AG's Trump Media Stock Sales
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday urged the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general to investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi's sale of millions of dollars' worth of shares in Trump Media just ahead of the stock market plunging.
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May 20, 2025
Music Co. Rips Apple's Sanctions Bid Over App Store Ouster
Musi Inc. and its counsel at Winston & Strawn LLP have urged a California federal judge to reject Apple's request for sanctions over accusations Musi made "false and misleading allegations" in a lawsuit over Apple's decision to boot the music streaming service from the App Store for intellectual property infringement.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Series
Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.
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Opinion
Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits
With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.
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How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program
During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.
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Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.