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Legal Ethics
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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.
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January 07, 2025
Judge Sanctions Match For Glitch Ahead Of FTC Ad Trial
A Texas federal judge on Tuesday sanctioned Match Group after the company failed to turn over sensitive emails to the Federal Trade Commission on time in a suit over alleged shady business practices, saying that the mistake was honest, but that the company still had not surrendered the documents in a timely manner.
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January 07, 2025
Ex-Ill. Speaker Madigan Testifies In His Racketeering Trial
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan took the stand in his own defense Tuesday, testifying that he neither traded his public office for private gain nor demanded or accepted anything valuable in exchange for his official action, adding that he was "very angry" to learn that people who he'd recommended for jobs did little to no work.
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January 07, 2025
Calif. Justices Urged To Rescue Malicious Prosecution Claims
A fugitive recovery agent urged the California Supreme Court on Tuesday to revive malicious prosecution claims that a lower court struck under the attorney-malpractice law's one-year statute-of-limitations, arguing that he never had an attorney-client relationship with the defendant and so the two-year statute-of-limitations for tort claims must apply.
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January 07, 2025
Keller Postman Drops Suit Against Jenner & Block, For Now
Keller Postman LLC has dismissed its suit accusing Jenner & Block LLP of using unethical tactics to gain leverage in mass arbitration against the streaming service Tubi but requested the complaint be dismissed without prejudice.
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January 07, 2025
Google Avoids Data Destruction Sanctions In Ad Privacy Suit
A California federal judge has declined to sanction and hold Google in contempt for purportedly intentionally destroying key evidence in a putative class action claiming the company's ad auction practices violate privacy rights, saying the consumers' motion came too late after fact discovery closed.
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January 07, 2025
Biotech Co. Urges NC Panel To Revive Legal Malpractice Suit
A biotech company that lost a $22 million libel suit brought by a pharmaceutical executive has asked a North Carolina appeals panel for another shot at legal malpractice claims against its former legal counsel, arguing that a savings provision expands the statute of repose for the voluntarily dismissed claim to be revived.
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January 07, 2025
Ex-Knick, Ex-MSG Security Head Spar Over Deposition
Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley and the former chief of security for Madison Square Garden have reached an "impasse" over a subpoena for the ex-chief's documents and deposition in a suit over Oakley's ejection from a February 2017 NBA game.
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January 07, 2025
Law Firm Sought To Collect Expired Debts, 3rd Circ. Told
A New Jersey woman has urged the Third Circuit to revive her proposed class action against Garden State law firm Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP over its debt collection practices, arguing a lower court was too loose with its standard for the timeliness of the two lawsuits involved.
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January 07, 2025
Quinn Emanuel Says NAFTA Case Irrelevant In DQ Bid
A Mexican oil company and its subsidiaries cannot add "undisputedly irrelevant" supplementary information about former counsel Quinn Emanuel amid a disqualification bid, the law firm has told a Miami federal court, arguing that the requested documents, including the dismissal of a NAFTA arbitration Quinn Emanuel brought against Mexico, are either unrelated to the underlying litigation or duplicative.
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January 07, 2025
Fla. Judge Denies Attys' Recusal Bid In Malpractice Case
A Florida state judge has denied a request to recuse himself in a legal malpractice case by the victim of a car accident, rejecting the defense's argument that he should be disqualified because he oversaw the underlying matter.
Expert Analysis
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
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.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
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.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
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.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
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.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
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.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
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.
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Series
Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Opinion
Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits
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.
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How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program
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.
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Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
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.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
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.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
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.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
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.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
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.