Legal Ethics

  • February 12, 2025

    Texas Bar Suggests Limit On Atty Nondisparagement Clauses

    A proposed ethics opinion from the State Bar of Texas says lawyers licensed in the state cannot be bound by nondisparagement clauses that touch on the practice of law but that provisions dealing with their personal speech would be fair game.

  • February 12, 2025

    Ex-Client Slams Buzbee's Sanctions Bid In Fraud Suit

    A former client suing prominent Houston attorney Tony Buzbee for fraud has hit back against Buzbee's attempt to sanction him, claiming he's well within his rights to mention other instances in which Buzbee allegedly stole from clients.

  • February 12, 2025

    Morgan Lewis, Patent Specialist End Age, Race Bias Suit

    A discrimination complaint filed by a former patent prosecution specialist against her former employer, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, has been dismissed from Washington, D.C., federal court after both sides reached a settlement agreement.

  • February 12, 2025

    California Judge Chided For Entering Other Jurists' Chambers

    A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has been publicly admonished for entering other jurists' chambers after hours and without permission to access confidential files and computers, in what the state's Commission on Judicial Performance called a "serious breach of the expected trust shared among judicial colleagues."

  • February 12, 2025

    Ex-Ill. Speaker Madigan Guilty Of Bribery In Mixed Verdict

    A federal jury on Wednesday partially convicted the man who was once the most powerful politician in Illinois on federal corruption charges, finding former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan guilty of bribery conspiracy and wire fraud but deadlocking on the government's overarching racketeering charge.

  • February 11, 2025

    GAO Says Protester Wrongly Used Redacted Army Corps Info

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest over a €36.7 ($38 million) million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction contract and criticized the protester for filing claims based on improperly redacted Corps information, saying the redaction mistake didn't waive related protections.

  • February 11, 2025

    Orion Telescope Partly Revives $4M Fraudulent Transfer Suit

    A California appellate court on Monday partially revived Orion Telescope's suit accusing rival Celestron Acquisition of orchestrating a fraudulent $4.2 million transfer to help another company avoid paying a judgment owed to Orion, ruling that Orion indeed adequately alleged conspiracy or aiding and abetting a fraudulent transfer.

  • February 11, 2025

    GOP Reps. Reintroduce Litigation Funding Disclosures Bill

    Three House Republicans have reintroduced legislation that would require the disclosure of parties collecting payments in civil lawsuits, saying that transparency on so-called "third-party litigation funding" was crucial, especially in patent litigation.

  • February 11, 2025

    NY Judge Sides With Attorney In Golf Malpractice Row

    A New York federal magistrate judge has recommended summary judgment in favor of an attorney in a legal malpractice lawsuit in which he is accused of causing the plaintiffs to lose an Arizona golf course property because he failed to file the proper bankruptcy paperwork.

  • February 11, 2025

    Rodney King's Former Atty Gets Prison For $7M Tax Evasion

    A Los Angeles criminal defense and civil rights attorney who once represented Rodney King was sentenced by a California federal court Tuesday to 1½ years in prison for evading $7.2 million worth of taxes on income from his law practice.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ill. Atty Beats Wire Fraud Retrial After Privilege Violation

    An Illinois jury has acquitted a former Freeborn & Peters partner of charges that he helped a client shift assets to avoid creditors ahead of its anticipated bankruptcy filing, after a privilege violation prompted the trial judge to exclude certain evidence from the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Eaton Fire Victim Wants Sanctions Against SoCal Edison

    A victim of the recent devastating Eaton Fire in Altadena has told a California state judge that Southern California Edison and its attorneys should face sanctions for allegedly concealing efforts to reenergize electrical transmission lines while the blaze was still burning last month.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ye Sanctioned, Ordered To Sit For Depo In Fired Guard's Suit

    A California judge ordered Ye on Tuesday to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit from a former security guard at the embattled rapper's Donda Academy and sanctioned him $500 for skipping a deposition, while also scolding Ye's counsel about the attorney's apparently difficult "history" before his court.

  • February 11, 2025

    NJ Prosecutor Can Pursue Claim He Was Misled Over Resignation

    A New Jersey state judge has reinstated a claim in a lawsuit from the former Warren County prosecutor that he was deceived into resigning from his position by Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

  • February 11, 2025

    Starbucks Fights Fla. Defamation Suit Over Atty's Statements

    Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. wants out of a lawsuit brought by a patent-licensing company executive's defamation lawsuit, arguing its attorney was not speaking for the company when she made allegedly defamatory statements in an October news article.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ex-Major Lindsey Employee Must Face Firm's $4.8M Claim

    A New York bankruptcy court ruled Monday that a former Major Lindsey & Africa LLC employee embroiled in over a decade of litigation with the recruiting firm cannot discharge a $4.8 million claim it filed against her.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ex-Client May Not Appeal Morgan & Morgan Arbitration Order

    A former Morgan & Morgan PA client may not pursue legal malpractice claims against the firm in Georgia federal court, a judge ruled Tuesday, upholding an earlier order sending the matter to arbitration.

  • February 11, 2025

    Texas Bar Eyes Ban On In-House Referrals From Non-Attys

    A proposed ethics opinion from the State Bar of Texas would prohibit nonlawyer-owned for-profit companies from giving customers the option of using the business' in-house attorneys for the "actual cost" of legal services when the work is unrelated to the mission of the company.

  • February 11, 2025

    NJ Senator Seeks Answers On Departure Of Watchdog's Chief

    The New Jersey state senator who first called for the resignation of the State Commission of Investigation's chief executive following questions about her residency and a second full-time job wants to know how much the agency's commissioners knew before hiring her.

  • February 11, 2025

    NYC Mayor Says Bribery Case Is Over, Despite Silent Docket

    Amid an absence of activity on the court docket, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared Tuesday that the federal bribery case against him "will no longer continue," following reports of a U.S. Department of Justice memo directing prosecutors to drop the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Remorse, Sobriety, Therapy Help Pa. Atty Avoid Disbarment

    A Fayette County, Pennsylvania, attorney who took accountability for ethics breaches including a money laundering conviction has escaped disbarment, with the state high court agreeing with its Disciplinary Board that mitigating factors should offset more stringent punishment.

  • February 10, 2025

    Injury Attys Admit 'Embarrassment' Of AI-Hallucinated Cites

    Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group expressed "great embarrassment" Monday when they told the Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard that the pretrial motions they filed did, indeed, contain case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence.

  • February 10, 2025

    Trump Ousts Office Of Government Ethics Director

    President Donald Trump has fired David Huitema, the director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the independent agency announced on Monday, less than two months after Huitema started as the agency's head.

  • February 10, 2025

    Investigators Say Texas Atty Lied To Help Clients Hide Assets

    A pair of court-appointed independent investigators have recommended that an attorney in Fort Worth be stripped of his license to practice in the Northern District of Texas because he lied to shield his clients' assets from $9 million in judgments.

  • February 10, 2025

    GenapSys Can't Claw Back Some Docs From Paul Hastings

    A California judge ruled that GenapSys Inc. can claw back some documents it inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit against Paul Hastings LLP, but that some documents discussed during depositions cannot be clawed back because attorneys for GenapSys did not lodge proper objections during the proceedings. 

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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