Legal Ethics

  • March 26, 2026

    Bill To Give Admin More Control Over US Attys Advances

    A Republican-led bill that would give the executive branch more authority over the installation of U.S. attorneys was advanced out of a House committee Thursday.

  • March 26, 2026

    Troutman, Former Associate Fight Over Scope Of Bias Trial

    Weeks ahead of an anticipated May trial over discrimination and retaliation claims brought by a former Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP associate, the firm and its onetime employee are sparring over the scope of evidence that may be presented at trial.

  • March 26, 2026

    Shutts & Bowen Must Face DQ Bid In Fla. Real Estate Dispute

    A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday revived a bid to disqualify Shutts & Bowen LLP from representing a member of a real estate business in a dispute with his fellow owners, saying a trial court improperly barred certain testimony before rejecting the disqualification motion.

  • March 26, 2026

    Watchdog Suit Seeking NJ AG Ethics Training Docs Revived

    A New Jersey appellate panel on Thursday revived a government watchdog's suit over the state attorney general's office's denial of its public records request for attorney ethics training materials, ruling the trial court should have conducted an in camera review of the requested documents before dismissing the complaint.

  • March 26, 2026

    Mich. High Court Says Judge Who Struck Wife Must Retire

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a state court judge to retire on July 1 after he was convicted of domestic violence for striking his wife, while also issuing a separate order placing him on interim suspension with pay. 

  • March 26, 2026

    Attys In 'Cop City' Suit 'Better Learn' Filing Rules, Judge Says

    A Georgia federal judge castigated attorneys on both sides of a lawsuit by a documentarian who said he was prevented from filming at the controversial Atlanta "Cop City" project, striking their "inconsistent, incomplete and at times incoherent" filings and ordering them into his courtroom to explain themselves.

  • March 26, 2026

    Creek Justices Order New Update On Freedmen Citizenship

    The Muscogee (Creek) Supreme Court has ordered a second status report on how the tribe's citizenship board and principal chief are complying with a decision to give citizenship to descendants of those once enslaved by the Indigenous nation.

  • March 26, 2026

    Maduro Judge Hints US Should Reconsider Legal Fee Refusal

    A Manhattan federal judge suggested Thursday that the Trump administration should revisit its refusal to allow former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to access his country's funds to pay for his defense against narco-terrorism and trafficking charges.

  • March 25, 2026

    Law Firm Ransomware Attacks On Rise, Report Says

    Cyberattacks targeting law firms jumped in 2025, according to a new BakerHostetler report, which also highlighted recent spikes across a wide range of sectors in ransomware payments and class action lawsuits stemming from these incidents. 

  • March 25, 2026

    MyPillow CEO's Attys Face New Sanctions Over Latest Errors

    Two attorneys for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and his media company are in hot water once again as a Colorado federal judge on Wednesday ordered them to explain why they shouldn't be sanctioned for citation errors, after she previously sanctioned them for errors produced by generative artificial intelligence.

  • March 25, 2026

    Ex-Pharma GC Freed From Trade Secrets Suit Amid Ch. 7 Stay

    A Texas federal judge agreed to dismiss claims against the ex-general counsel of a Houston-based pharmaceutical services company, who was accused of helping build a competing venture using confidential information and of destroying a hard drive containing evidence he had a duty to preserve during litigation.

  • March 25, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Md. Justices, Gov. Not To Blame For Debt Writs

    A split Fourth Circuit panel has ruled that three military families cannot blame Maryland's supreme court justices or governor after state court clerks recognized allegedly defective out-of-state judgments and issued garnishment writs freezing their bank accounts.

  • March 25, 2026

    Security Co. Wants Out Of Pot Store Raid RICO Suit

    A security company is urging an Illinois federal court to throw out a dispensary's claims that it engaged in racketeering by assisting in an illegal raid by the dispensary's former business partners, saying the complaint fails to allege what it did to further the purported scheme.

  • March 25, 2026

    Warren Grills Fed's Ex-BigLaw Supervision Chief On Conflicts

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Wednesday asked former Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP veteran Randall Guynn, a recent addition to the Federal Reserve, to explain how he is dealing with potential conflicts of interest stemming from his previous role chairing the BigLaw firm's financial institutions group.

  • March 25, 2026

    Ex-Partner Seeks 2,000 Client Notices In NC Estate Firm Fight

    After nearly two hours of argument in which counsel for the founding partner of a trusts and estates law firm argued that the firm should have to notice his departure to thousands of clients, a North Carolina Business Court judge seemed a bit perplexed Wednesday as to why the parties didn't resolve the client list spat with a North Carolina State Bar ethics opinion.

  • March 25, 2026

    Conn. Atty Faces Civil Arrest Bid In $10M Trust Account Probe

    A city housing authority and its corporate development arm have asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to order the civil arrest of an attorney accused of funneling nearly $10 million in unauthorized loan proceeds into his lawyer trust account.

  • March 25, 2026

    NJ Panel Grills Judge For Berating Teens, Deportation Threats

    New Jersey's judicial disciplinary body questioned a municipal judge on Wednesday about why he believed it was appropriate to berate children and threaten their families with deportation during truancy hearings.

  • March 25, 2026

    Ramey, EscapeX Ask Justices To Review Sanctions Challenge

    EscapeX IP and its attorney William Ramey III want the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's decision backing $255,000 in fees and sanctions for what a California federal judge found to be a frivolous patent suit against Google.

  • March 25, 2026

    Lawyer's Fear Of 'Thief' Label Delayed Taking Responsibility

    A Chinese-American lawyer's cultural aversion to being branded a "thief" resulted in him waiting years to fully acknowledge wrongdoing after he paid himself $1.2 million in disputed fees from a major case, his attorney told a Pennsylvania disciplinary hearing board on Wednesday.

  • March 25, 2026

    Mass. High Court Clarifies Anti-SLAPP Standard, Atty Fees

    The top appellate court in Massachusetts on Wednesday in separate opinions clarified the standard under which suits can be dismissed under the state's anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation or anti-SLAPP laws and reversed a lower court's decision to cut an attorney fee award in an anti-SLAPP case.

  • March 25, 2026

    Del. Chancellor Pauses Tesla Suit As Musk Cites LinkedIn Post

    The Delaware Chancery Court has paused a high-profile Tesla stockholder case following a recusal bid from Elon Musk and Tesla Inc. after a judge's LinkedIn account appeared to react to a post celebrating a recent California jury verdict against Musk, including language praising efforts to stand up to "the richest man in the world."

  • March 24, 2026

    Ex-Calif. Judge Censured After Guilty Plea For Mail Fraud

    A former California state judge has been censured after agreeing to resign and plead guilty to a felony fraud charge related to an incident that happened before he was on the bench, according to an order released Tuesday.

  • March 24, 2026

    Charlie Javice Can't Get Retrial Based On Clerk Conflicts

    A New York federal judge Tuesday shot down a retrial bid from Charlie Javice, who was convicted of conning JPMorgan Chase & Co. into buying her financial aid startup Frank, rejecting her argument that there was a conflict of interest because clerks who worked on the trial accepted jobs with the bank's firm.

  • March 24, 2026

    Fla. Judge Faces Discipline For Remark About Shooting Attys

    A Florida state judge is facing a public reprimand after admitting to becoming frustrated with attorneys in an estate dispute and saying that he "would like to tell the deputy to pull his gun and shoot all three of you," according to records filed Tuesday in the state's high court.

  • March 24, 2026

    Fla. Judge Keeps Mexico Timeshare Feud In Federal Court

    A Florida federal judge declined on Monday to remand a Michigan couple's lawsuit against a Mexican resort company in a bitter feud over alleged fraud stemming from a deal to resell vacation bookings, rejecting arguments that an underlying pact containing an arbitration agreement arose out of criminal proceedings.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Teaching Logic Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Teaching middle and high school students the skills to untangle complicated arguments and identify faulty reasoning has made me reacquaint myself with the defined structure of thought, reminding me why logic should remain foundational in the practice of law, says Tom Barrow at Woods Rogers.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Resilience

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    Resilience is a skill acquired through daily practices that focus on learning from missteps, recovering quickly without internalizing defeat and moving forward with intention, says Nicholas Meza at Quarles & Brady.

  • NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools

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    Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Dispatches From Utah's Newest Court

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    While a robust body of law hasn't yet developed since the Utah Business and Chancery Court's founding in October 2024, the number of cases filed there has recently picked up, and its existence illustrates Utah's desire to be top of mind for businesses across the country, says Evan Strassberg at Michael Best.

  • 4 Quick Emotional Resets For Lawyers With Conflict Fatigue

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    Though the emotional wear and tear of legal work can trap attorneys in conflict fatigue — leaving them unable to shake off tense interactions or return to a calm baseline — simple therapeutic techniques for resetting the nervous system can help break the cycle, says Chantel Cohen at CWC Coaching & Therapy.

  • Series

    Playing Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    An instinct to turn pain into purpose meant frequent trips to the tennis court, where learning to move ahead one point at a time was a lesson that also applied to the steep learning curve of patent prosecution law, says Daniel Henry at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

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    U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

  • Presidential Pardon Brokering Can Create Risks For Attys

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    The emergence of an apparent “pardon shopping” marketplace, in which attorneys treat presidential pardons as a market product, may invite investigative scrutiny of counsel and potential criminal charges grounded in bribery, wire fraud and other statutes, says David Klasing at The Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: 5 Tips From Ex-SEC Unit Chief

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    My move to private practice has reaffirmed my belief in the value of adaptability, collaboration and strategic thinking — qualities that are essential not only for successful client outcomes, but also for sustained professional satisfaction, says Dabney O’Riordan at Fried Frank.

  • Prisoners' Access To Health Info Should Have No Bars

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    To safeguard against unnecessary deaths in custody, courts and policymakers should clarify that incarcerated individuals’ constitutional right to medical care also includes access to sufficient information about their medical conditions, lifting current restrictions that can lead to crucial information being withheld, says Jaehyun Oh at Jacob Fuchsberg Law.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: How To Start A Law Firm

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    Launching and sustaining a law firm requires skills most law schools don't teach, but every lawyer should understand a few core principles that can make the leap calculated rather than reckless, says Sam Katz at Athlaw.

  • Series

    Hosting Exchange Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Opening my home to foreign exchange students makes me a better lawyer not just because prioritizing visiting high schoolers forces me to hone my organization and time management skills but also because sharing the study-abroad experience with newcomers and locals reconnects me to my community, says Alison Lippa at Nicolaides Fink.

  • How A 1947 Tugboat Ruling May Shape Work Product In AI Era

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    Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence test work-product principles first articulated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s nearly 80-year-old Hickman v. Taylor decision, as courts and ethics bodies confront whether disclosure of attorneys’ AI prompts and outputs would reveal their thought processes, say Larry Silver and Sasha Burton at Langsam Stevens.

  • Navigating Privilege Law Patchwork In Dual-Purpose Comms

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    Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to resolve a circuit split in In re: Grand Jury, federal courts remain split as to when attorney-client privilege applies to dual-purpose legal and business communications, and understanding the fragmented landscape is essential for managing risks, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Considerations In Building Guardrails For AI Use In Arbitration

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    A recent California federal court case involving allegations of artificial intelligence ghostwriting an arbitration award, prior analogous practice on tribunal delegation, and emerging generative AI recommendations all support building a forward-looking framework for arbitration rules to minimize the risk of AI-based challenges, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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