Legal Ethics

  • July 30, 2025

    11th Circ. Revives Ga. Atty's Race Bias Suit Against State Bar

    The Eleventh Circuit has revived a Georgia attorney's suit accusing the state's bar association of racial bias, finding that a district court wrongly dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.

  • July 30, 2025

    TMX Customers Seek Final OK Of $42M Data Breach Suit Deal

    Customers of the title loan and payday lender TMX Finance have asked a Georgia federal judge to grant final approval of their $42 million settlement of claims arising from a data breach that affected an estimated 4.8 million people.

  • July 30, 2025

    Calif. Sens. Slam Trump's US Atty 'Hijacking' To Keep LA Ally

    California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff issued a statement Wednesday condemning the Trump administration's decision to "circumvent the law" and appoint Bill Essayli as acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, in a move echoing the recent appointment of Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey.

  • July 30, 2025

    Insurer Atty 'Error' Dooms Arbitration Bid In Fla. Injury Suit

    A Florida appellate court on Wednesday agreed with a trial court that a West Palm Beach prep school has abandoned its right to arbitrate cheerleading injury claims brought by a student by filing a response to the complaint, rejecting the school's argument that its insurer-provided lawyer was unauthorized to represent it.

  • July 30, 2025

    Black Atty Alleges McDermott Fired Her Because Of Her Race

    McDermott Will & Emery LLP failed to address racist comments made during a diversity presentation, kept Black attorneys out of leadership and fired a Black associate who complained that she was repeatedly sidelined because of her race, the former employee alleged Wednesday in Illinois federal court.

  • July 30, 2025

    Workday Wants Firm DQ'd Over Privileged Info In Atty's Suit

    Attorneys at Webb Law Group APC should be disqualified from representing an ex-Workday Inc. attorney in his bias suit against the company and should face sanctions for their "egregious behavior" in disclosing privileged information in a publicly filed document, Workday told a California federal magistrate judge.

  • July 30, 2025

    DC Judge Demands More Details On Atty's Fake Citations

    In a minute order entered Wednesday, the Washington, D.C., federal judge presiding over a former executive's qui tam False Claims Act suit against a government contractor ordered plaintiff's counsel to provide more information on how nine citation errors came to be included in a motion last week, calling explanations to date "wholly inadequate."

  • July 30, 2025

    NJ Judge Accused Of Berating Truant Teens Called One 'Vile'

    A New Jersey municipal court judge is accused of berating children in truancy hearings, threatening their families with deportation, and questioning their immigration status in open court — actions the state's judicial watchdog said violated multiple canons of judicial conduct.

  • July 30, 2025

    Family In Row With McCarter & English Wants $4.6M Set-Aside

    A deceased Connecticut shopping mall developer's family members want McCarter & English LLP and the estate of Laurence Rubinow, a lawyer with connections to the firm, to set aside $4.6 million in case they prevail in a lawsuit alleging mismanagement of the developer's estate and trust.

  • July 30, 2025

    2nd Circ. Hands Clerk Another Shot At Free Speech Firing Suit

    A Second Circuit panel reinstated a suit Wednesday from a court clerk who claimed she was fired for aiding an investigation into an ethics complaint against her former boss, ruling the lower court incorrectly found that her duties as a government worker shielded her from constitutional protection.

  • July 30, 2025

    Atty Sues Leech Tishman Over Referral Amid Girardi Scandal

    An attorney at Hunt Ortmann Palffy Nieves Darling & Mah Inc. has sued Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman in California state court for allegedly refusing to pay her a $300,000 referral fee after she convinced her CEO father to hire the firm to represent him.

  • July 30, 2025

    Ga. Law Firm Fights Bid To Keep Fee Fight Out Of Arbitration

    Georgia law firm Herman Jones LLP has pushed back on a former client's claim that it waived arbitration in a dispute over unpaid legal fees, arguing the trial court should not have had to rule on a free speech motion before sending the case to arbitration.

  • July 29, 2025

    Jackson Walker Gets Another Deal On Judge-Romance Claims

    Jackson Walker LLP has reached another settlement with former bankruptcy clients to resolve fee disputes related to the concealed romance of a former partner with the firm and former Texas bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones, according to a motion filed Tuesday in Texas federal court.

  • July 29, 2025

    Miss. AG Says Judge's TRO Over State DEI Ban Full Of Errors

    Mississippi's attorney general wants a federal judge to explain "indisputable factual inaccuracies" in his decision pausing enforcement of a state law prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools, saying Monday that the judge's original order contained nonexistent allegations, wrongly identified plaintiffs and defendants, and quoted terms that don't appear in the legislative text.

  • July 29, 2025

    Conn. Prosecutors' Misstatements Doom Murder Conviction

    A Connecticut man who confessed to killing his apartment superintendent will get a second murder trial after the state's top court ruled in a split opinion Tuesday that prosecutors misstated the law about the defense's central theory during closing arguments and rebuttal.

  • July 29, 2025

    Posner Wage Theft Claims Should Be Revived, 7th Circ. Told

    A former staffer for retired U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner has asked the Seventh Circuit to review federal court rulings in his loss of wage theft claims against the ex-judge, arguing an Indiana federal judge permitted a botched discovery process and prematurely dismissed claims while fact issues remained.

  • July 29, 2025

    Senate Confirms DOJ Official Emil Bove To 3rd Circ.

    The Senate voted 50-49 on Tuesday night to confirm Emil Bove, one of President Donald Trump's former attorneys and a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

  • July 29, 2025

    Md. Bar Warns DOJ Suit Risks Undermining Legal Norm

    The Maryland State Bar Association on Tuesday warned of sweeping impacts if a federal judge doesn't dismiss the Trump administration's suit over a standing order that prohibits the immediate removal of immigrants challenging their detention, saying it will compromise cornerstone pillars of the legal system.

  • July 29, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs Ex-CTA Worker's Sanction Over Deleted Chats

    The Seventh Circuit has affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a former Chicago Transit Authority employee's retaliation lawsuit as a sanction for spoiling evidence, saying his explanation about how electronic phone messages were deleted changed over time and concluding that he wasn't entitled to an evidentiary hearing or jury review.

  • July 29, 2025

    Attys Blast 'Chilling Message' Of Judge Shopping Sanctions

    Three attorneys sanctioned for judge shopping while challenging an Alabama statute that criminalizes gender-affirming care have asked the Eleventh Circuit to clear their names, castigating the process that led to their censure as "so extraordinary as to approach unprecedented."

  • July 29, 2025

    Law Firm Beats NJ Atty's Fraud Suit Under Anti-SLAPP Law

    Maurice Wutscher LLP got an attorney's fraud suit against it thrown out under New Jersey's anti-SLAPP law on Tuesday, allowing the firm to escape complex litigation across multiple venues stemming from the breakdown of a former New Jersey firm.

  • July 29, 2025

    Disbarred Pa. Atty Admits Forging Federal Judge's Signature

    A disbarred central Pennsylvania attorney has admitted to federal charges of forging a U.S. district judge's signature on fake court orders he gave to a client showing he had been awarded monetary sanctions in a case that was never actually filed, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

  • July 29, 2025

    Judge Breaks Up Review Of Challenge To New Jersey US Atty

    The chief judge for Pennsylvania's Middle District, who is overseeing a drug trafficking case in New Jersey, on Tuesday evening issued a directive bifurcating a challenge to acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba's authority in order to analyze whether the defendants are entitled to relief if she was illegally appointed.

  • July 29, 2025

    Ga. Senators Accuse DA Of 'Stonewalling' In Testimony Fight

    A Georgia Senate committee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' prosecution of President Donald Trump and others in an election interference case told the state's Supreme Court that her bid to escape its subpoena for her to testify before the committee seeks "to reward her stonewalling" and "delay tactics."

  • July 29, 2025

    DOJ Says Wis. Judge Not Immune To Charges In ICE Incident

    A Wisconsin state judge cannot duck criminal charges for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest in her courtroom, because judicial immunity applies only to civil suits and official judicial acts, the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal judge Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    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.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    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.

  • Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories

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    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.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    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.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    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.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    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.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    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.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    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.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    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.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    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.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

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