Legal Ethics

  • April 30, 2024

    Atty Sanctioned Over Missed Depo During Solar Eclipse Trip

    A Florida lawyer whose client missed his own deposition while the attorney was solar eclipse viewing has been ordered to pay related attorney fees incurred by AAA as the business fights a gender discrimination lawsuit.

  • April 30, 2024

    DC Bar Prosecutors Say Jeffrey Clark 'Betrayed His Oath'

    Attorney disciplinary authorities in Washington, D.C., have urged an ethics hearing committee to recommend disbarring former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, saying he "betrayed his oath" to the Constitution by aiding former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 elections, and "is not fit to be a member of the District of Columbia Bar."

  • April 30, 2024

    Judge Says $4.5M Davis Wright Deal Should Be Approved

    An Oregon federal magistrate judge has recommended approval of a $4.5 million deal resolving investor claims against Davis Wright Tremaine LLP for its role in endorsing an alleged real estate securities scheme.

  • April 30, 2024

    Ethics Probes Take Mental Toll On Solo, Small Firm Attorneys

    Facing a disciplinary complaint can take a toll on any attorney’s mental health. But for solo practitioners and small firm lawyers, who typically juggle all aspects of their business from handling client matters to administrative tasks like managing trust accounts, it can threaten to upend their lives.

  • April 30, 2024

    Atty, Pot Entrepreneurs Get Conspiracy Claims Thrown Out

    A California state appeals court has thrown out claims against a group of attorneys and cannabis entrepreneurs that they were part of a "straw man practice" conspiracy to monopolize the San Diego cannabis market, finding the complaint failed to allege they did anything illegal.

  • April 30, 2024

    Ga. High Court Tosses Atty's Road Rage Murder Conviction

    The Supreme Court of Georgia threw out the murder conviction of a former corporate lawyer who was convicted of killing a real estate developer in a road rage incident, ruling Tuesday that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the attorney's defense that the death was accidental.

  • April 30, 2024

    Trump Held In Contempt For Trashing Witnesses In NY Trial

    A New York state judge on Tuesday found former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for repeatedly violating a gag order in his criminal hush money case by publicly attacking expected witnesses, including his former attorney Michael Cohen.

  • April 30, 2024

    Coverage Recap: Day 5 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

    Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from day five.

  • April 29, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives Co.'s Malpractice Suit Against Ohio Firm

    The Sixth Circuit on Monday revived a Texas real estate developer's legal malpractice claim against an Ohio law firm, remanding the case back to a lower court to consider the viability of certain professional negligence claims.

  • April 29, 2024

    Maker Of 'Let's Go Brandon' Coin Seeks Lawsuit Transfer

    An attorney behind the digital asset inspired by the "Let's Go Brandon" meme urged a Florida federal judge to hand off to another court a securities fraud lawsuit against him, arguing Monday that the remaining parties in the suit have no connection to the district where the action was filed.

  • April 29, 2024

    Chicago IP Firm Sues Again Over Atty Impersonation

    Intellectual property law firm Greer Burns & Crain Ltd. has filed a second trademark infringement suit claiming an unknown defendant has been using a nearly identical website domain name to impersonate its attorneys and request the release of court-ordered asset restraints, after winning a similar case last year.

  • April 29, 2024

    1st Circ. Slashes Atty's Convictions In Email Fraud Case

    An Illinois lawyer convicted of receiving proceeds from a business email compromise scheme had three of six counts vacated Monday by the First Circuit, which ruled that Massachusetts wasn't the right venue for those charges.

  • April 29, 2024

    NY Atty Gets 10 Years In Prison For Trying To Have Ex Killed

    A New York attorney convicted of arranging to pay a hitman to murder the mother of his two young children has been sentenced in California federal court to 10 years behind bars, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.

  • April 29, 2024

    Dentons, Boies Schiller Hit With $300M Fraud Suit

    The owner of a company that attempted to contract with Senegal to develop a power plant in the African nation has filed a $300 million racketeering suit against Dentons and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, accusing the BigLaw firms of fraud and extortion in connection with their allegedly botched representation of the company.

  • April 29, 2024

    Colo. Judge Moves Toward Eastman DQ Over Calif. Discipline

    A Colorado federal judge has ordered former Donald Trump lawyer John C. Eastman to explain why he shouldn't be disqualified from representing plaintiffs in a civil suit after a California disciplinary judge suspended his law license and recommended disbarment in March.

  • April 29, 2024

    4th Circ. OKs Sanctions Against Law Firm In Bestwall Ch. 11

    A split Fourth Circuit panel on Monday refused to overturn more than $402,000 in sanctions against a law firm and its clients as part of bankruptcy proceedings for a Georgia-Pacific unit, saying the contempt and sanctions orders can't be appealed because they aren't final judgments.

  • April 29, 2024

    Ga. Judicial Watchdog Sets Date For Judge's Ethics Trial

    The ethics hearing of a Georgia judge accused of calling litigants names, sexually harassing attorneys and courthouse employees, and trying to get a friend's children out of legal trouble is set for June, according to an order filed Friday in the Georgia Supreme Court.

  • April 29, 2024

    Pa. County Counters Sanctions Bid In Dominion Suit

    Local officials in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, have urged a federal judge to punish Dominion Voting Systems Inc. for its motion filed last month calling for sanctions against two county commissioners for filing an amended complaint in a breach of contract suit.

  • April 29, 2024

    Smollett Atty Wants Sanctions Over Missing Therapy Records

    An attorney for Jussie Smollett has asked an Illinois federal judge for another round of sanctions after two brothers who allegedly helped stage a hate crime against the actor failed to turn over discovery, saying they've refused to turn over records or answer questions in the defamation suit pertaining to their mental health treatment.

  • April 29, 2024

    NJ Legal Groups Fight Ban On Out-Of-State Atty Referral Fees

    The New Jersey State Bar Association and other Garden State professional legal groups are looking to reverse guidance from a New Jersey Supreme Court ethics committee prohibiting the state's certified attorneys from paying referral fees to out-of-state lawyers.

  • April 29, 2024

    NJ Justices Spell Out Atty Fee Rules In Fee-Shifting Cases

    The New Jersey Supreme Court has put out rules governing fee agreements for attorneys representing clients in statutorily based fee-shifting cases, capping off years of ethical debate stemming from a case where an individual client was charged $286,000 for legal work on a discrimination lawsuit.

  • April 29, 2024

    11th Circ. Should Nix Tax Court Judges' Shield, Widow Says

    The widow of a supermarket butcher told the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court not only wrongly upheld tax liabilities against her stemming from her husband's tax filings but also erroneously affirmed unconstitutional job protections for its judges. 

  • April 29, 2024

    Venezuela Says It Has Proof Of Special Master Improprieties

    Venezuela has asked a Delaware federal judge to disqualify the special master overseeing the sale of Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s parent company to repay billions of dollars in Venezuelan debt, saying it now has proof he engaged in improper advocacy before the Biden administration.

  • April 29, 2024

    Turkey Cos. Seek Swift Appeal Of Burford's Ability To Sue

    Some of the country's largest turkey producers have asked an Illinois federal court for permission to immediately appeal a March ruling that allows a Burford Capital investment unit to pursue price-fixing allegations against them, arguing the Seventh Circuit should weigh in on whether the investor is permitted to bring such a claim.

  • April 29, 2024

    Feds Accused Of 'Outrageous' Misconduct In Ozy Media Case

    Ozy Media and the defunct startup's founder want a New York federal judge to toss a criminal fraud case against them, accusing the government of prosecutorial misconduct and violating attorney-client privilege protections.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Tips For Adding Value To Legal Clients' Experience In 2023

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    Faced with a potential economic downturn this year, attorneys should look to strengthen client relationships now by focusing on key ways to improve the client experience, starting with a check-in call to discuss client needs and priorities for the coming year, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • 6 Ways To Avoid Compounding Errors When Practicing Law

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    For lawyers and law firms, inevitable human error can lead to claims of malpractice or ethical violations, but the key is to avoid exacerbating mistakes by adding communication failures, conflicts of interest or insurance coverage losses, says Mark Hinderks at Stinson.

  • What Will Keep Legal Talent Professionals Up At Night In 2023

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    Hybrid work environments, high demand for lateral hires and a potential slowdown of the economy defined 2022 in the always-busy marketplace for legal talent, and as BigLaw looks at the year ahead, there are five major sources of concern for the teams charged with securing and retaining that talent, say advisers at Baretz+Brunelle.

  • The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

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    A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from the "great resignation" to potential expansion of attorney-client privilege.

  • What 3 Legal Industry Trends From 2022 Mean For Next Year

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    Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey & Africa looks back on the year in legal recruiting, including practice areas that saw the most movement, which regions seemed most ripe for new office openings and who was promoted to partner, and makes some look-ahead predictions for 2023.

  • Learning From This Year's Legal Industry Discrimination Suits

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    To limit the risk of lawsuits and make the workplace a more welcoming environment for female attorneys, it is important to reflect on lawyers' recent discrimination and sexual harassment claims against law firms and public employers, says Hope Comisky at Griesing Law.

  • The Other Side Says Your Evidence Is A Deepfake. Now What?

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    Recent trials have shown that defendants are increasingly casting doubt on the reliability of video evidence by claiming it was altered by artificial intelligence, and litigants will need to incorporate certain best practices to approach the risk of deepfakes — even if there’s no credible basis for the opposing party’s accusation, say Matthew Ferraro and Brent Gurney at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    The Future Of Legal Ops: AI Has Important Role To Play

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    Though the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted some fears about negative impact on lawyers, artificial intelligence technology can be a powerful tool for legal operations professionals if used effectively to augment their work, say Justin Ben-Asher and Gwendolyn Renigar at Steptoe, and Elizabeth Matthews at TotalEnergies.

  • 4 Proactive Strategies For 'Rocket Docket' Discovery In SDNY

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    With more than half of Southern District of New York judges now allowing four or fewer months for fact discovery, civil litigators in this aspiring "rocket docket" jurisdiction should prioritize case management methods that make the most of this compressed timeline, say Jaclyn Grodin and Nicholas Cutaia at Goulston & Storrs.

  • Opinion

    Increasing Law Firm Polarization Will Degrade Rule Of Law

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    As evidenced in recent instances of law firms separating from attorneys who represented certain industries or espoused certain views, firms and the legal practice itself have grown troublingly polarized and intolerant of dissent, says Rebecca Roiphe at New York Law School.

  • Alex Jones Cases Show It's Time To Rethink Zealous Advocacy

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    Though zealous advocacy has long been heralded as a foundational principle in the practice of law, the recent defamation trials of Infowars host Alex Jones demonstrate the practical limits of zeal in the courtroom, and attorneys would do well to consider alternative tactics for the modern era, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • How To Deal With Difficult Clients, Practically And Ethically

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    Meredith Stoma at Lewis Brisbois discusses common obstacles for counsel working with difficult clients and provides guidance on ethically managing or terminating these challenging relationships — as, for example, counsel for Ye have recently done.

  • Fed. Circ. Rulings That Gave Patent Law A New Spin In 2022

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    Keith Grady at Tucker Ellis looks at critical 2022 Federal Circuit rulings and their impact on patent law, including the February Caltech v. Broadcom decision expanding estoppel rules relating to inter partes review practices and the June Centripetal Networks v. Cisco Systems clarification on blind trusts.

  • Opinion

    Federal Courts Should Adopt Supreme Court's Amicus Stance

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    The federal courts of appeals should adopt the U.S. Supreme Court's new approach to amicus curiae briefs, which allows the friend-of-the-court submissions to be filed without consent from the court or the parties, says Lawrence Ebner at Atlantic Legal Foundation.

  • 3 Pricing Trends In Law Firm Use Of Litigation Funding

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    As BigLaw firms increasingly include litigation funding as a financing option for clients, internal pricing groups are taking the lead on standardizing and centralizing firm processes, and aggregating risk budgets, says Brendan Dyer at Woodsford Group.

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