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Legal Ethics
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January 09, 2025
Arkansas Justices At Odds Over Chief's Bid To Revive Firings
Members of the Arkansas Supreme Court are at an impasse over the chief justice's attempt to fire 10 state court employees after her fellow justices blocked the move, with her issuing an order to vacate their ruling and them saying her order is a mere dissent with no effect.
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January 09, 2025
Alito-Trump Phone Call Sparks Unanswered Calls For Recusal
Democratic lawmakers' calls for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse from considering Donald Trump's bid to stay sentencing in his New York hush money case due to a phone call the pair had shortly before the emergency application was filed went unaddressed Thursday.
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January 09, 2025
NJ Firm Accused Of Malpractice Hid Facts, Insurer Says
An insurer has told a New Jersey federal court that a law firm it insured had no coverage for malpractice allegations because it knew its attorney was accused of bilking a man's heirs out of estate assets years before the firm was sued for wrongdoing, but never told the insurer.
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January 09, 2025
Atty Survives Ex-Young Conaway Coworker's Assault Claim
A Pennsylvania federal judge said Thursday that a former Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP attorney's assault claim against a onetime colleague at the firm is unviable because substantial proof exists to show that the actions in question were done to defend another person.
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January 09, 2025
Judge Nixes Bid To Depose SEC Counsel In $73M Fraud Case
A New Jersey federal magistrate judge has denied a credit reporting agency's bid to depose four U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys and to compel the production of their witness interview notes in a civil enforcement action over an alleged $73 million fraud, ruling the information sought is protected by the work-product doctrine.
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January 09, 2025
Top Oversight Dem Seeks Report On Trump Classified Docs
The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice for a look at the special counsel report on former President Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents, days after a federal court blocked its publication.
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January 08, 2025
Consumers Get Class Cert. In Suit Over Law Firm's Robocalls
A West Virginia federal judge has granted class status to consumers who are accusing a plaintiffs' firm of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by blasting them with unsolicited calls seeking their participation in litigation against the federal government over contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
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January 08, 2025
Atty Wants Sanctions Mention Axed In NFL Merch Case
An attorney representing himself in a lawsuit seeking a court order saying he is allowed to sell unlicensed NFL merchandise took exception with a federal judge's suggestion that the league's merchandising arm may want to move for sanctions.
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January 08, 2025
Reed Smith Accused Of 'Causing Chaos' In $102M Award Fight
The new owners of reorganized international shipping group Eletson Holdings are continuing their battle with the company's former owners and their counsel at Reed Smith in litigation over a $102 million arbitral award, alleging the BigLaw firm's "obstructionist conduct" is "causing chaos."
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January 08, 2025
Madigan Denies Extorting Developers For Law Firm Business
Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan testified Wednesday that he never wanted a Chicago alderman to leverage his chairmanship of a powerful city council committee to steer business to Madigan's law firm, saying he merely asked for introductions to developers and felt "surprise and concern" when the alderman referenced a quid pro quo deal.
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January 08, 2025
Feds Ask To Release Report On Trump's DC Case, But Not Fla.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to deny Donald Trump's request to block the publication of a report on the now-abandoned federal election-meddling case against the president-elect in D.C. federal court, but said the Justice Department will hold off on releasing a report regarding the classified-documents case in Florida, where two co-defendants remain under indictment.
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January 08, 2025
Jay-Z Wants Sanctions Against Buzbee In Diddy Rape Suit
Rapper Jay-Z asked Wednesday that Texas attorney Tony Buzbee be sanctioned for filing a lawsuit accusing him and embattled rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs of raping a 13-year-old girl, claiming inconsistencies in the girl's story show Buzbee "knowingly filed a false complaint."
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January 08, 2025
Fla. Atty Can't Beat Contempt Ruling Over Failed Apology
A Florida state appeals panel on Wednesday agreed that an attorney was in indirect criminal contempt when he failed to post an apology on a consumer reporting website as part of a settlement in his former counsel's suit against him over disparaging and allegedly defamatory comments made on the site.
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January 08, 2025
Colo. Criminal Atty Censured For Harassing Comments
A Colorado criminal lawyer has been censured for sexual comments he allegedly made to two female student lawyers working for a local prosecutor.
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January 08, 2025
Judge Laments Atty's $32K Sanctions Saga In Tasty Bias Case
A Pennsylvania judge expressed disappointment Wednesday about the need for a $32,000 sanction against an attorney accused of flouting deadlines in his client's employment discrimination claims against Tasty Baking Co., noting that "it didn't have to be this way."
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January 08, 2025
Ohio Judge's License Reinstated Days After Retirement News
A former Cleveland judge's license to practice was reinstated Wednesday following a one-year suspension on ethics charges stating he pushed plea deals on defendants, made racially insensitive comments to them and ordered excessive contempt sentences for relatively minor infractions, days after the judge announced his retirement.
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January 08, 2025
Arbitrator In Virus Coverage Case Wasn't Biased, Panel Says
A New York state appeals panel affirmed a trial court's decision refusing to disqualify a Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP partner as an arbitrator in proceedings between a Zurich unit and the operator of Saks Fifth Avenue over coverage for COVID-19 losses.
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January 08, 2025
Court Won't Hear Atty's Challenge To Fee Dispute Loss
A Connecticut appeals court has turned away an attorney's challenge to his loss at a trial that pitted him against another lawyer in a dispute over the sharing of settlement funds, finding that Donald M. Brown blew past a deadline to follow a court order.
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January 08, 2025
Feds Want 2 Years In Prison For Atty In Payroll Tax Fraud
A former Ohio attorney who managed his wife's dental practice should spend at least two years in prison for causing $750,000 in federal tax losses and failing to pay employment taxes, prosecutors urged Wednesday, saying he used the business as a personal piggy bank.
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January 08, 2025
Feds Again Deny Leaks In NYC Mayor's Corruption Case
Federal prosecutors again rejected the claim that they had leaked classified information about New York City Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case to the press, telling a judge that they were not the source that allowed the New York Times to identify a grand jury witness and that Adams hadn't shown how he was prejudiced by the disclosure.
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January 08, 2025
Republican AGs Rebuke Proposed ABA Diversity Rule Change
Republican state attorneys general representing 21 states are pushing back against proposed changes to the American Bar Association's diversity and inclusion standards for law schools, cautioning that they run afoul of precedent the U.S. Supreme Court established when it struck down affirmative action in 2023.
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January 08, 2025
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Stop NY Sentencing
Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt proceedings in his New York criminal hush money case, including a sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday, as the president-elect seeks to throw out the charges and the jury's conviction.
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January 07, 2025
DOJ Watchdog Criticizes Trump Officials For COVID Leaks
The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General has found that senior Justice Department officials under the first Trump administration improperly leaked information about investigations into COVID-19 deaths in states run by Democrats shortly before the 2020 presidential election, according to a report posted Tuesday.
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January 07, 2025
Feds Say Adams' Bid For Indictment Info Would Hinder Probe
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is not entitled to more details about the charges in his corruption and bribery case, including the identities of alleged co-conspirators, federal prosecutors told a Manhattan federal court Monday, arguing that such information would prejudice the ongoing investigation and potentially lead to witness tampering.
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January 07, 2025
Ex-Prosecutor Disbarred For Fabricating Harassing Texts
A former Denver prosecutor will be disbarred after a Colorado disciplinary panel found she fabricated text messages in order to falsely accuse a coworker of sexual harassment.
Expert Analysis
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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The Fed. Circ. In February: A Reminder On Procedure Rule 28
Because the Federal Circuit does not often issue a sua sponte precedential order emphasizing an important rule of practice, it is useful to look at how the court applied the restrictions of appellate procedure Rule 28 in Promptu v. Comcast last month, and in cases that preceded it, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe Martens.
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Opinion
DOJ Press Office Is Not Fulfilling Its Stated Mission
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs’ apparent practice of issuing press releases when someone is indicted or convicted, but not when a defendant prevails, undermines its stated mission to disseminate “current, complete and accurate” information, and has negative real-world ramifications, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Needs Regulating To Meet Ethics Standards
Third-party litigation funding can provide litigants with access to the legal system, but, as recent cases show, the funding agreements carry the potential for exploitation and may conflict with core aspects of the attorney-client relationship, making the need for a balanced regulation self-evident, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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For Now, Generative AI Is Risky For Class Action Counsel
Although a recent survey showed most in-house counsel think that their outside counsel should be using generative artificial intelligence "in some way" in class action work, the technology is more a target for class actions than it is a tool to be used in practice at present, says Matthew Allen at Carlton Fields.
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When Your Client Insists On Testifying In A Criminal Case
Speculation that former President Donald Trump could take the stand in any of the four criminal cases he faces serves as a reminder for counsel to consider their ethical obligations when a client insists on testifying, including the attorney’s duty of candor to the court and the depth of their discussions with clients, says Marissa Kingman at Fox Rothschild.
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Why Preemption Args Wouldn't Stall Trump Hush-Money Case
With former President Donald Trump's New York hush-money criminal trial weeks away, some speculate that he may soon move to stay the case on preemption grounds, but under the Anti-Injunction Act and well-settled case law, that motion would likely be quickly denied, says former New York Supreme Court Justice Ethan Greenberg, now at Anderson Kill.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.