Legal Ethics

  • February 25, 2025

    Newman Says Fed. Circ. Doctors Undermine Suspension Case

    Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman has said the court's other judges have undermined their claims about why they suspended her, by retaining experts who questioned reports from her own doctors finding her fit to serve as a judge.

  • February 25, 2025

    Judge Says Brazilian Justice's Orders Not Properly Served

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday denied a request by President Donald Trump's media company and online video sharing platform Rumble Inc. for a temporary restraining order blocking a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice's gag orders, ruling that the companies are not obligated to comply with the Brazilian justice's directives because they were not properly served.

  • February 25, 2025

    Insurer Says No Coverage For Atty In $1.4M Bank Scam Suit

    An insurer urged a Connecticut federal court to find that it has no duty to defend or indemnify an attorney accused of participating in a scheme to steal $1.4 million from a New Jersey-based development company, saying the underlying allegations don't trigger the attorney's homeowners policy.

  • February 25, 2025

    3 Attys Reprimanded, 2 DQ'd In Ala. Judge Shopping Probe

    An Alabama federal judge on Tuesday publicly reprimanded three attorneys for judge shopping during their legal efforts against a state law criminalizing gender-affirming care, saying that the trio practiced in bad faith and dropping two of them from litigating the case.

  • February 25, 2025

    Kroger Seeks More Sanctions For Prolific Consumer Atty

    Kroger is urging an Illinois federal judge to sanction prolific consumer advocate lawyer Spencer Sheehan for filing a meritless suit over the effectiveness of its lidocaine patches, citing his "history of filing frivolous lawsuits across the nation" and a "troubling pattern of recklessness and abuse of the federal judiciary" for which he has been sanctioned three other times.

  • February 25, 2025

    Petrochemical Cos. Want Judge Out Of Plastic Recycling Row

    Petrochemical companies called on a Missouri federal judge to recuse himself from a proposed class action accusing them of misleading customers about the recyclability of plastic, saying his wife has a direct interest in the case as a Kansas City city council member.

  • February 25, 2025

    Ga. County Collected Too Late On Theft Claim, Panel Says

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has stripped a state county of a nearly $350,000 judgment it won from insurer Old Republic Surety Co. to cover a court employee's theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public coffers, ruling the county filed its claim well after the statute of limitations had run.

  • February 25, 2025

    Ex-NJ Judge Says Judiciary Still Retaliating In Pension Fight

    A former New Jersey Superior Court judge has asked a state court to amend her suit challenging the denial of her disability pension application a second time, alleging that the state judiciary has further retaliated against her by requiring her to spend over $200,000 to qualify for a deferred early retirement pension.

  • February 25, 2025

    Federal Judiciary Repeats Request For More Judges

    A federal circuit judge, speaking on behalf of the federal judiciary, repeated on Tuesday the need for more federal judges to alleviate the overwhelmed courts after President Joe Biden vetoed legislation late last year that would have added seats to the bench.

  • February 25, 2025

    NJ Atty Suspended Over Secret Outside Legal Work

    A Garden State lawyer has been suspended for two years by the state's Supreme Court for surreptitiously accepting payments for legal services while never opening a file at his former firm for the clients or sharing profits with the firm, but instead had clients pay him directly.

  • February 25, 2025

    Referral Co. Barred From $5.54B Swipe Fee MDL Settlement

    A New York federal judge has blocked a referral partner of a claims filing service from any role in the $5.54 billion settlement of long-running multidistrict litigation accusing Visa and Mastercard of charging improper merchant fees, after the referral partner allegedly improperly used class member information to submit claims.

  • February 25, 2025

    Masimo Aims To DQ Hueston Hennigan As Ex-CEO's Counsel

    Masimo Corp. is urging the Delaware Chancery Court to disqualify Hueston Hennigan LLP from representing its founder and former CEO in a lawsuit over his quest for a $450 million payout from the medical technology company, arguing the firm has a conflict of interest.

  • February 25, 2025

    Family Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty Still Fighting For Funds

    The cousins of the woman killed by her former BigLaw partner husband urged a Georgia state court to reject a bid to deprive them of the settlement proceeds from the underlying wrongful death suit, saying the court shouldn't rely on the ex-lawyer's assertions that she wanted the funds to go to her godson.

  • February 25, 2025

    Calif. Bar Touts Reduction In Racial Disparity In Atty Discipline

    The State Bar of California has reported what it calls "significant" shifts toward equity in attorney discipline in the five years since a watershed study showed a decades-long trend of disparity, including that Black male attorneys were more than three times as likely to be placed on probation or disbarred compared to their white counterparts.

  • February 25, 2025

    Patent Exec Says Starbucks Is Liable For Atty's Statements

    A patent-licensing company executive pushed back on Starbucks Corp.'s attempt to exit his defamation lawsuit over statements from counsel for Starbucks, arguing the Florida federal court has jurisdiction partly because the executive lives in the district.

  • February 25, 2025

    King & Spalding Beats Bias Suit Over Summer Program

    King & Spalding LLP won't have to face a discrimination suit filed by a straight white woman who says she was dissuaded from applying to a summer associate program open only to "diverse" applicants, a Maryland federal court has ruled, saying she has not sufficiently demonstrated a real intent to apply to the position and therefore lacks standing.

  • February 25, 2025

    Lawyer Who Became Client's 'Punching Bag' Scores Case Exit

    A Connecticut attorney who claimed he became his Massachusetts client's "punching bag" can exit her medical negligence lawsuit against two doctors accused of misplacing or destroying her embryos, a Milford judge ruled Tuesday.

  • February 25, 2025

    10th Circ. Asked To Rethink Denying Atty's Racing Deductions

    A Denver personal injury lawyer asked the Tenth Circuit to reconsider its decision barring his $300,000 tax deduction for car-racing costs as professional advertising, saying the court deprived him of due process in dismissing his argument that the IRS wrongly denied him a chance to settle.

  • February 25, 2025

    High Court Orders New Trial In Okla. Death Row Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for an Oklahoma inmate whose conviction and death sentence for a 1997 murder, the state confesses, was the product of prosecutors withholding evidence and knowingly presenting false testimony.

  • February 24, 2025

    Ex-Judge Hopes To Avoid Testimony In Atty Romance Probe

    Former Texas bankruptcy judge David R. Jones said Monday that he's been talking with the U.S. Trustee with the aim of avoiding "live trial testimony" in the probe of his undisclosed romantic relationship with a former Jackson Walker LLP partner, arguing that he's already given a deposition.

  • February 24, 2025

    Injury Attys Sanctioned Over AI-Hallucinated Case Citations

    A Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart sanctioned the plaintiffs' attorneys from Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group after they filed pretrial motions containing case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence, but acknowledged Monday their "remedial steps, transparency and apologetic sentiments."

  • February 24, 2025

    Okla. Attorneys Say Tribes Can't Intervene In Jurisdiction Row

    Two Oklahoma district attorneys are fighting bids by the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations to intervene in the federal government's challenges to the DAs' attempts to prosecute tribal citizens for crimes committed in Indian Country, saying the tribes are adequately represented by the United States.

  • February 24, 2025

    Judge Who Ordered Pages Restored Put On Impeachment List

    A Republican U.S. congressman announced Monday he has introduced articles of impeachment against a Washington, D.C., federal judge, following the judge's ruling ordering public health agencies temporarily to restore the web pages they took down in response to a Trump administration order to scrub pages of "gender ideology."

  • February 24, 2025

    Lloyd's Says Cadwalader's Suit Claims Nonexistent Tort

    A Lloyd's of London syndicate has urged a North Carolina judge to toss part of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP's coverage lawsuit stemming from a data breach, saying there's no tort remedy for the allegation that the insurer exposed the firm's confidential information in a court filing.

  • February 24, 2025

    Trump Media Co. Wants TRO Against Brazilian Justice

    President Donald Trump's media company and online video sharing platform Rumble Inc. have asked a Florida federal court for a temporary restraining order blocking a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice's gag orders, arguing they illegally suppress political speech in the United States.

Expert Analysis

  • The Ethics of Using Generative AI In Environmental Law

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    The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools is challenging environmental lawyers, consultants and government agencies to determine when and how these tools can be responsibly, ethically and productively integrated into their practices to streamline research, predictive analytics and regulatory compliance, say Ahlia Bethea and Pamela Esterman at Sive Paget.

  • What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires

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    Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.

  • Replacing The Stigma Of Menopause With Law Firm Support

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    A large proportion of the workforce is forced to pull the brakes on their career aspirations because of the taboo surrounding menopause and a lack of consistent support, but law firms can initiate the cultural shift needed by formulating thoughtful workplace policies, says Barbara Hamilton-Bruce at Simmons & Simmons.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers certification cases touching on classwide evidence of injury from debt collection practices, defining coupon settlements under the Class Action Fairness Act, proper approaches for evaluating attorney fee awards in class action settlements, and more.

  • Planning Law Firm Content Calendars: What, When, Where

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    During the slower month of August, law firms should begin working on their 2025 content calendars, planning out a content creation and distribution framework that aligns with the firm’s objectives and maintains audience engagement throughout the year, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.

  • Crypto Gatekeepers May Be The Next Front Of Enforcement

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    Lawyers and other professionals who advise cryptocurrency companies should beware regulators' increasing focus on gatekeeper accountability, and should take several measures to fulfill their ethical and legal obligations, including implementing a robust vetting mechanism when representing crypto clients, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Xinchen Li at Selendy Gay.

  • Series

    Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.

  • Law Firms Should Move From Reactive To Proactive Marketing

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    Most law firm marketing and business development teams operate in silos, leading to an ad hoc, reactive approach, but shifting to a culture of proactive planning — beginning with comprehensive campaigns — can help firms effectively execute their broader business strategy, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Opinion

    The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address

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    A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union

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    As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • 5 Defense Lessons From Prosecutors' Recent Evidence Flubs

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    The recent dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges, and the filing of an ethics complaint against a former D.C. prosecutor, both provide takeaways for white collar defense counsel who suspect that prosecutors may be withholding or misrepresenting evidence, say Anden Chow at MoloLamken and Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Unpacking Executive Privilege, Contempt In Recent Cases

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    The U.S. House of Representatives’ recent move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress is the latest example in a growing trend of executive privilege disputes, and serves as a warning to private citizens and corporate leaders who are in communication with the president, says Kristina Moore at Womble Bond.

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