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Legal Ethics
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December 10, 2024
Jay-Z Says PI Atty Buzbee Has History Of False Diddy Claims
Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter's lawyers told a New York federal judge on Tuesday that the law firm of Tony Buzbee, a high-profile personal injury attorney suing the music mogul for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs, tried to pressure a different woman into leveling false sexual assault claims against Diddy.
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December 10, 2024
McGrath Kavinoky Denied Arbitration With 'Bullied' Clients
A California judge on Tuesday denied McGrath Kavinoky LLP's bid to arbitrate allegations it "bullied" clients into accepting a share of $374 million in settlements for women who say they were sexually abused by a UCLA Health gynecologist, finding the situation "presents a problem" for the firm.
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December 10, 2024
Tool Co. Fights Bid To DQ Law Firm In Whistleblower Case
A tool company pushed back on a bid to disqualify a Smith Gilliam Williams & Miles PA attorney from representing it in a former employee's False Claims Act suit, saying documents made available to the firm when a different firm attorney represented the ex-employee in a domestic matter have no bearing on the case.
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December 10, 2024
NC Law Firm, Insurer Drop Phishing Coverage Row
A law firm specializing in real estate transactions and its cyber insurer told a North Carolina federal court Tuesday they've agreed to settle their dispute over coverage for a phishing scam the firm said caused it to unwittingly wire roughly $647,000 to the hacker's bank account.
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December 10, 2024
BigLaw Firms Freed From Bankruptcy Judge Romance Suit
Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Jackson Walker LLP have officially escaped an investor's racketeering lawsuit alleging a conspiracy involving a former Texas bankruptcy judge and his secret romance with a former Jackson Walker partner.
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December 10, 2024
SEC Says Xtreme Fighting CEO And GC Defrauded Investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Xtreme Fighting Championships and CEO Steven Smith of defrauding investors by selling millions of dollars of stock in the martial arts organization without disclosing the involvement of Smith or its criminally charged general counsel, according to a Florida federal lawsuit.
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December 10, 2024
NY DA Says Trump's 'President-Elect Immunity Does Not Exist'
Prosecutors told the New York state judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money case that "president-elect immunity does not exist" and that the court could delay sentencing — or even "terminate" the case without dismissing it.
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December 10, 2024
Ex-Judge Accused Of 'Abusive Relationship' With Prosecutor
A federal prosecutor in Alaska has accused former U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred of coercing her into a sexually charged "abusive relationship" in the midst of a criminal trial that took place earlier this year, according to unsealed documents that shed new light on misconduct allegations against the jurist.
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December 10, 2024
NJ Atty Hits Law Firm With Pregnancy Bias, Retaliation Suit
A New Jersey lawyer has been hit with pregnancy discrimination and whistleblower claims by a former attorney at his firm who alleges that she was punished after announcing her pregnancy and for reporting what she believed to be fraudulent billing practices.
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December 10, 2024
Ex-Denver Juvenile Judge Censured For Drinking On The Job
Colorado justices have censured a former state judge on Denver's juvenile court after he fired an employee who reported him for drinking while he was supposed to be working.
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December 10, 2024
Ga. Justices Reject Bid To Overturn Judicial Election Win
The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a bid to overturn the May election of Jeffrey Davis as a state appellate judge because Davis allegedly wasn't a Peach State resident, finding Tuesday the challengers didn't use "every available means" to resolve their allegations prior to the election.
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December 10, 2024
Diddy's Antagonist, Atty Buzbee, Accused Of Bilking Seaman
Houston personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee — known lately for bringing sexual assault lawsuits against music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs — didn't bring the "glitz and bravado" of his high profile law practice to his representation of an injured Louisiana seaman, according to a new federal lawsuit accusing Buzbee and his firm of fraud.
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December 10, 2024
Keller Postman Seeks To DQ Jenner & Block In Tubi Fight
Keller Postman LLC wants Jenner & Block LLP sanctioned and disqualified for a "shocking pattern of unethical conduct" — which allegedly includes hiring a private investigator to interrogate the firm's clients — in a lawsuit accusing Keller Postman of filing thousands of "fraudulent" arbitration claims against streaming service Tubi Inc.
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December 10, 2024
Ex-NJ Workers' Comp Judge Loses Appeal Over Removal
The New Jersey state appeals court on Tuesday affirmed the removal of a workers' compensation judge in part over comments she made calling fellow judges "snake" and "thief," finding Gov. Phil Murphy followed the applicable rules in taking her off the bench.
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December 10, 2024
PierFerd Dropped From Suit Over Atty's Alleged Double-Cross
Pierson Ferdinand LLP has been cut loose from a recent lawsuit accusing a firm partner of helping to defraud a client he represented during stints at three other BigLaw firms including DLA Piper and Ballard Spahr LLP.
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December 10, 2024
Atty Avoids Suspension For Threatening To Sue Associate
The managing partner of a Hartford, Connecticut, personal injury and employment law firm has escaped a proposed one-year suspension after he admitted that he threatened to sue a departing associate and his new firm, with a judge calling an ethics opinion unclear and concluding the partner already learned his lesson.
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December 10, 2024
Paralegal Defends Hawley Troxell Wage, Termination Claims
A former paralegal for Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley LLP has asked an Idaho federal judge to reject a bid to dismiss wage and wrongful termination claims from her suit against the firm, arguing that it failed to take into account the entire scope of the wage claim.
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December 10, 2024
Atty Recommended For Sanctions After 'Bad Faith' Filings
A Florida magistrate judge has recommended sanctioning an attorney representing a franchisee in a contract dispute with CBD American Shaman LLC, saying his duplicate filings — including four motions to reconsider a single order — amount to bad faith.
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December 10, 2024
Biden Threatens To Veto Bipartisan Effort To Add Judgeships
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto legislation that would increase the number of federal judgeships nationwide after the measure lost support among Democrats postelection.
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December 09, 2024
Pro Se Giuliani Says 4 Attys Turned Him Down, Blames Judge
Rudy Giuliani on Monday secured extra time to fight Georgia poll workers' request that he be held in civil contempt, time Giuliani argued he needed because he's struggling to find an attorney to represent him in the case thanks to a D.C. federal judge being "biased about Trump-related matters."
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December 09, 2024
Judge Newman Says Fed. Circ. Threatened Her To Seal Filings
U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman asked the D.C. Circuit Monday to unseal supplemental documents attached to her opening brief arguing that the suspension her colleagues have imposed on her for refusing to participate in an investigation into her fitness to serve as a Federal Circuit judge was unconstitutional.
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December 09, 2024
Akin Gump 'Totally Messed Up' With Texts, Vaxart Judge Says
A California federal judge asked by Vaxart investors to impose sanctions over a hedge fund's deleted text messages in a case claiming Vaxart inflated its stock price with deceptive headlines about a COVID-19 vaccine said Monday that the fund's lawyers at Akin Gump "totally, totally messed up."
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December 09, 2024
O'Melveny Faces DQ Effort In Hyundai TM Dispute
An attorney defending computing company Hyundai Technology in its trademark dispute with Hyundai Motor Co. told a California federal judge Monday that O'Melveny & Myers LLP should be disqualified from representing the automotive giant because it retained and used a privileged document that was inadvertently shared in discovery.
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December 09, 2024
Key House Dem Thinks Biden Will Veto Bill To Add Judges
The House is poised to vote on a bipartisan bill to add the much-sought additional judgeships, but President Joe Biden's support is in question.
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December 09, 2024
5th Circ. Revives Yemeni Man's Bid To Recover Atty Payment
The Fifth Circuit on Monday revived a Yemeni man's bid to recover over $800,000 from his former attorney, saying a bankruptcy court didn't fully flesh out whether equitable tolling was warranted if the attorney secretly transferred the money elsewhere.
Expert Analysis
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024
Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Opinion
Stronger Attorney Rules Are Needed To Avoid A Jan. 6 Repeat
Given the key role lawyers played in the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, the legal profession must shore up its rules before this year’s presidential election to make clear that lawyers who undermine the rule of law will face severe penalties, including disbarment, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.
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4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year
As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.
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What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like
As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News
Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.
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Why Fed. Circ. Affirmed Attorney Fee Award In PersonalWeb
A recent Federal Circuit decision to leave a $5.2 million fee award in place in the PersonalWeb patent case underscores district courts' discretion to sanction unreasonable arguments and litigation tactics under the U.S. Code's attorney fee provision, say attorneys at Shearman.
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Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends
Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.
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The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023
A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from associate retention strategies to ethical billing practices.
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Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities
Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.
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In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023
Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.
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Opinion
Animal Rights Are About Saving Nature, And Our Own Future
The climate crisis makes it clear that animal law — conceived of as an ecocentric approach to protecting the most vulnerable nonhumans who depend on the natural environment — is essential to restoring the Earth and safeguarding the future of humanity, says Carter Dillard at the Fair Start Movement.
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The Ethics Of Accepting Advanced Legal Fees In Crypto
State and local bar associations have been weighing in on whether attorneys may accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment in advance of providing legal services, but the answer is frequently a fact-specific inquiry that demands close reading of the rules of professional conduct, say Matthew Feinberg and Jeffrey Cunningham at Goldberg Segalla.
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How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season
Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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5 Gifts That May Run Afoul Of Government Ethics Rules
As the holiday season ramps up, it’s essential to keep in mind that government officials and employees are all subject to specific gift rules, and related violations can lead to consequences far worse than coal in one’s stocking, say Mark Renaud and Rob Walker at Wiley.
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3 Defense Takeaways From The Bankman-Fried Trial
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s recent fraud conviction offers several key lessons for future white collar defendants, from the changing nature of cross-examination to the continued risks of taking the stand, say Jonathan Porter and Gregg Sofer at Husch Blackwell.