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Legal Ethics
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June 11, 2024
SEC Asks For $1.1M Insider Trading Penalty For Ex-Apple Atty
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is again urging a New Jersey federal court to levy a roughly $1.1 million civil penalty on a former Apple Inc. senior attorney who already pled guilty and was sentenced for criminal charges related to a lucrative insider trading scheme.
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June 11, 2024
NY Courts Agree To Boost Translation Services After Bias Case
New York state court officials instituted reforms and sealed an agreement with federal prosecutors on Tuesday related to claims that an upstate county denied Spanish-speaking defendants translation services in violation of their civil rights.
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June 11, 2024
Ga. Justices OK Remote Work For Attys Not Licensed In State
The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously put its stamp of approval Tuesday on an opinion stating that attorneys who reside in the Peach State but are not licensed there may provide legal services by remote means under certain circumstances.
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June 11, 2024
Mich. Court Says Insurer Can Yank Benefits For Litigation Lies
The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously reversed an appeals court decision, ruling Tuesday that misrepresentations made during discovery could prevent the family of a deceased car accident victim from recovering benefits from an insurer assigned to his claim by a state safety net program.
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June 11, 2024
Atty, Broker Look To Dismantle Guilty Verdicts In Tax Case
A St. Louis attorney convicted alongside his daughter and a North Carolina insurance agent asked Tuesday to be acquitted for their roles in a $4 million tax fraud scheme, arguing in part that the supposedly false statements they made on tax returns were actually true.
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June 11, 2024
5th Circ. Won't Adopt Rule On AI-Drafted Docs
The Fifth Circuit has decided this week not to adopt a proposed rule requiring attorneys to verify that documents were not written using generative artificial intelligence, or if they were, that they were checked for accuracy by humans.
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June 11, 2024
Wilson Elser Attys Officially Exit Airline Suit After Filing Gaffe
A Texas state judge has approved American Airlines' request for the departure of its Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP legal team that blamed a young child for a then-flight attendant's alleged covert bathroom recording, a week after the same lawyers were replaced from a similar suit in North Carolina federal court.
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June 11, 2024
NY's Trump Prosecutors To Testify Before House July 12
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and top prosecutor Michael Colangelo will appear before a House hearing on July 12, following a request from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, amid persistent criticism of former President Donald Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts.
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June 11, 2024
Immigration Firm Says Rival Poached Workers And Stole TM
A Washington immigration law firm specializing in visas for domestic violence and sex trafficking victims is accusing a competing Texas firm of poaching its employees and stealing a Spanish phrase covered by its trademark — "Arreglar sin salir!" — which translates to "fix without leaving."
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June 10, 2024
Trump Can't Nix 9 Classified Doc Charges, But Wins Trim
The Florida federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump on Monday refused to throw out nine counts challenged by the former president, yet she did agree to strike from the indictment allegations that Trump at one point shared a classified map at a golf course.
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June 10, 2024
Debevoise Aims To Sink Cognizant Bribery Trial Subpoena
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP urged a New Jersey federal judge Monday to quash defendants' trial subpoena that would require a Debevoise partner to testify in an upcoming September criminal bribery trial against ex-Cognizant Technology Solutions's chief legal officer and another former executive, arguing that the testimony is subject to attorney-client privilege.
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June 10, 2024
NYC Probation Officer Interviews Trump Ahead Of Sentence
A New York City probation officer questioned Donald Trump in a remote video interview on Monday, a month before the former president is slated to be sentenced in the wake of his felony conviction in the Manhattan district attorney's hush money case.
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June 10, 2024
Ghosting Ethics Watchdog Was No. 1 Gaffe In Conn. Last Year
The most commonly violated attorney conduct rule in Connecticut in 2023 and so far in 2024 is one that requires cooperation with professional discipline investigations, attendees of the Connecticut Legal Conference heard Monday.
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June 10, 2024
Student Debt Elimination Service Was A 'Lie,' Fla. Jurors Told
A service offered by a Boca Raton, Florida, law firm to eliminate private student loan debt in exchange for a flat fee turned out to be a lie and left clients defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars, a Florida federal jury was told Monday.
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June 10, 2024
Colo. Justice Blasts Majority Decision In Judge DQ Case
The Colorado Supreme Court reinstated a man's motor vehicle theft conviction Monday after he convinced a lower court to overturn it because the judge who presided over his trial should have been disqualified, with a dissenting justice arguing the ruling upends "long-settled law" as to when the right to seek such disqualification can be deemed to have been waived.
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June 10, 2024
Colo. DA Defends Interviewing Ex-Wife Of Murder Case Judge
A Colorado district attorney on Monday denied that she botched a high-profile murder case targeting a husband in his wife's disappearance, telling a disciplinary panel that her concerns about the judge's honesty justified sending an investigator to interview the jurist's ex-spouse.
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June 10, 2024
Colo. Justices Say Toxic Tort Plaintiffs Didn't Waive Privilege
Colorado's justices on Monday said plaintiffs suing a medical sterilization plant over exposure to a carcinogen cannot be forced to turn over communications with their lawyers related to an expert report, rejecting the plant's argument that the disclosure of a spreadsheet to an expert waived attorney-client privilege.
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June 10, 2024
Split Mich. Panel Says Attorney-Free Confession OK For Court
A split Michigan appellate panel said a judge should have admitted a video of a defendant confessing to hitting someone with his truck because the defendant signed multiple documents waiving his right to have counsel present, although a dissenting judge said police "misled" the defendant and took advantage of his confusion.
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June 10, 2024
2nd Circ. Remands Malpractice Suit Against DLA Piper
The Second Circuit on Monday sent back to state court a Chinese smart car technology company's malpractice suit against DLA Piper that accused the firm of mishandling a shareholder suit, with the appeals court panel saying federal court does not have jurisdiction over the suit.
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June 10, 2024
YSL Atty Jailed For Contempt Ruling Over 'Sacrosanct' Convo
The defense counsel for Atlanta rapper Young Thug was ordered to spend the next 10 weekends in jail after being held in contempt Monday afternoon for refusing to divulge how the attorney learned of a purported conversation behind closed doors between prosecutors, a witness and the judge presiding over the case.
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June 10, 2024
Aircraft Engine Co. Avco Wants Ex-Atty Sanctions Bid Cut
A dispute over deposition scheduling in a sanctions case filed in Pennsylvania federal court by a lawyer who formerly represented an aircraft company has led to accusations of attorneys acting in bad faith to obstruct the case and complaints of a lack of professional courtesy.
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June 10, 2024
Amid FBI Probe, Troubled Law Firm Gets Fees Win At 5th Circ.
An embattled Texas law firm has won another shot to secure fees for its work on hurricane-related cases in Louisiana, the Fifth Circuit ruled, one day after the FBI revealed it was investigating the firm over its client solicitation practices.
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June 10, 2024
Kirkland Faces Class Claims Over Breach Of File Transfer Tool
A proposed class of victims of a data breach has sued Kirkland & Ellis LLP and various other entities in a Massachusetts federal court, accusing them of failing to "properly secure and safeguard [the] plaintiff's and other similarly situated individuals' private information" in the lead-up to the massive 2023 MOVEit data breach.
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June 10, 2024
Lin Wood's Ex-Colleagues Push To Keep Fraud Claims In Trial
Former law partners of controversial attorney Lin Wood have urged a Georgia federal court to block Wood's request to exclude unadjudicated allegations he committed fraud and contract breach, arguing that the details are relevant in an upcoming trial over the ex-colleagues' claims that Wood defamed them.
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June 10, 2024
Ga. Judge's Call To Atty Friend Among Ethics Charges
A Georgia state judge is facing a host of ethics charges, including that she improperly dialed up an attorney friend and later gave her preferential scheduling in a child custody case and, in another case, took more than two years to issue an order to change custody of minor children.
Expert Analysis
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In-Office Engagement Is Essential To Associate Development
As law firms develop return-to-office policies that allow hybrid work arrangements, they should incorporate the specific types of in-person engagement likely to help associates develop attributes common among successful firm leaders, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Perspectives
A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.
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How To Recognize And Recover From Lawyer Loneliness
Law can be one of the loneliest professions, but there are practical steps that attorneys and their managers can take to help themselves and their peers improve their emotional health, strengthen their social bonds and protect their performance, says psychologist and attorney Traci Cipriano.
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Noncompetes Hold Atty Privilege Pitfalls For Health Industry
Providers negotiating with medical professionals bound by enforceable restrictive covenants must tread carefully due to not only risk of breaching physicians' covenants but also risk of wrongful conduct that pierces attorney-client privilege, says Scott O'Connell at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Should Be Mandatory
Despite the Appellate Rules Committee's recent deferral of the issue of requiring third-party litigation funding disclosure, such a mandate is necessary to ensure the even-handed administration of justice across all cases, says David Levitt at Hinshaw.
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Recalling USWNT's Legal PR Playbook Amid World Cup Bid
As the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team strives to take home another World Cup trophy, their 2022 pay equity settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation serves as a good reminder that winning in the court of public opinion can be more powerful than a victory inside the courtroom, says Hector Valle at Vianovo.
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Opinion
Guardrails Needed Against Politically Motivated Atty Discipline
As illustrated by revelations about disbarred attorney Tom Girardi’s influence, there is a need to revamp attorney discipline to protect the public, but any reforms to misconduct rules must also consider how bar-directed disciplinary hearings are increasingly used as a political weapon, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Groundbreaking Nev. Law May Alter Insurance Landscape
The Nevada Legislature recently passed a law prohibiting insurers from issuing liability policies with eroding limits provisions that has the potential to create massive shifts in the marketplace — and specifically in areas like professional liability, cyber, and directors and officers insurance, says Will Bennett at Saxe Doernberger.
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Perspectives
Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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Durham Hearing Shows Common Cross-Examination Errors
Trial attorneys can glean several key cross-examination lessons from the mistakes made by several members of the U.S. House of Representatives during a recent hearing on special counsel John Durham’s FBI probe, say Luke Andrews and Asha Laskar at Poole Huffman.
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Opinion
When Corporate Self-Disclosure Threatens Individuals' Rights
The prosecution of former Cognizant executives in New Jersey federal court demonstrates how the U.S. Department of Justice’s corporate enforcement policy can contravene the constitutional rights of individual defendants who are employed by cooperating companies, says Gideon Mark at the University of Maryland.
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Pitfalls Of Attorney AI Use In Brief Prep Has Judges On Alert
Some lawyers are attempting to leverage generative artificial intelligence as a brief drafting tool, which may serve to greatly reduce the burden of motion practice, but several recent cases show that generative AI is not perfect and blind reliance on this tool can be very risky, say Matthew Nigriny and John Gary Maynard at Hunton.
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Courts Can Overturn Deficient State Regulations, Too
While suits challenging federal regulations have become commonplace, such cases against state agencies are virtually nonexistent, but many states have provisions that allow litigants to bring suit for regulations with inadequate cost-benefit analyses, says Reeve Bull at the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management.
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Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions
As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.
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Insurance Coverage For ChatGPT Legal Fiasco: A Hypothetical
William Passannante at Anderson Kill draws on the recent case of an attorney sanctioned by the Southern District of New York for submitting a ChatGPT-authored brief to discuss what the insurance coverage for the attorney's hypothetical claim might look like.