Legal Ethics

  • January 24, 2025

    Syngenta, Chevron Headed For October Paraquat Bellwether

    An Illinois federal judge has set an October date for Syngenta and Chevron's first trial in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the pesticide paraquat causes Parkinson's disease, after the previous dismissal of trial-selected plaintiffs and the disqualification of an expert.

  • January 24, 2025

    Feds' Madigan Theory 'Doesn't Line Up,' His Atty Tells Jury

    Counsel for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan told an Illinois federal jury Friday that prosecutors attempting to convict him of racketeering have painted an "incomplete and misleading" picture of a crooked politician at trial, but have failed to meet their burden to prove he ever acted with corrupt intent or engaged in a "this for that" exchange for his official action.

  • January 24, 2025

    Chiles Brings Fight For Bronze Medal To Swiss Supreme Court

    U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles is fighting to overturn a ruling stripping her of her Olympic bronze medal, arguing in her latest briefing to a Swiss court that prominent arbitrator Hamid Gharavi had a "blatant conflict of interest" and should not have been involved in the case.

  • January 24, 2025

    NJ Judge Rejects Bid For New Trial In Red Roof Inn Deal

    A New Jersey state judge has rejected a bid for a new trial over a deal gone wrong to purchase a Red Roof Inn, ruling two witnesses who asserted their Fifth Amendment rights outside of the jury's presence had no bearing on the jury's verdict.

  • January 24, 2025

    Dow Argues Tech Firm's IP Suit Over Software Is Time-Barred

    The Dow Chemical Co. has urged an Ohio federal judge to rule in its favor in a dispute over proprietary polyethylene manufacturing software, arguing that ControlSoft Inc.'s suit ignores their more than 20-year business relationship and that the technology firm waited too long to bring trade secrets and copyright infringement claims.

  • January 24, 2025

    Blank Rome Attys Fight Lawyer's Bid For New Trial

    A team of Blank Rome LLP attorneys accused another attorney in Pennsylvania federal court of "seeking another bite at the apple" by moving for a new trial after a jury rejected her malicious litigation claims against the team and an aviation company.

  • January 24, 2025

    Feud Heats Up Over Estate Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty

    The godson of a Georgia woman killed by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, has said her cousins shouldn't get proceeds from a settlement of an underlying wrongful death suit, calling them "strangers" to her and claiming "the redistributive windfall" they're asking for "has no place in Georgia law."

  • January 24, 2025

    Ex-Seton Hall President Says Moving Suit Was Right Call

    Seton Hall University's former president urged a New Jersey state judge on Thursday to stand by her decision to move his whistleblower suit against the school from Essex County to Hudson County in the face of a reconsideration bid from the university and an attorney at the center of the dispute.

  • January 24, 2025

    Baldoni Rebuts Atty Ethics Claims In 'It Ends With Us' Fight

    A lawyer representing Justin Baldoni has told a New York federal judge that statements his counsel has made to the press regarding the actor and director's thorny litigation with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds over the film "It Ends With Us" didn't violate ethical rules or prejudice proceedings.

  • January 24, 2025

    Judge To Inspect Winston & Strawn Docs In Malpractice Row

    A Texas state judge said Friday that he plans to personally review more than 100 Winston & Strawn LLP documents to determine whether the firm must turn them over to Houston-based energy companies in connection with their $175 million malpractice suit.

  • January 24, 2025

    Sierra Leone Must Face Jenner & Block's $8M Fee Suit

    A District of Columbia federal judge denied Sierra Leone's bid to escape a lawsuit alleging it owes Jenner & Block LLP $8 million in fees, saying the nation's arguments that it is immune from the litigation is belied by a contract term that specifically gave U.S. courts jurisdiction over disputes.

  • January 23, 2025

    Buzbee Says Jay-Z Is Who Should Be Sanctioned In Diddy Suit

    Texas attorney Tony Buzbee tore into rapper Jay-Z's request that Buzbee be sanctioned for filing a suit accusing Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs of raping a 13-year-old, arguing that Jay-Z is merely trying to intimidate the accuser and that if anyone should be sanctioned, it's Jay-Z.

  • January 23, 2025

    Atty Hit With TCPA Class Action Over Camp Lejeune Calls

    A North Carolina plaintiffs firm was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of making unsolicited calls to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry in an effort to secure a client in the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune toxic drinking water case — at least the fourth firm to face similar claims.

  • January 23, 2025

    Netflix, Litigation Funder Fight Over Docs In Subpoena Row

    Intellectual property strategy service AiPi LLC says it has been abiding by an order to produce documents relating to patent litigation against Netflix, while the streaming giant says "AiPi's attempt to appear reasonable is contrivance."

  • January 23, 2025

    AI Chatbot Co. CEO, Atty Spouse Indicted On $60M Fraud

    Federal prosecutors in California arrested the former CEO of an artificial intelligence company Thursday alongside his lawyer wife, accusing the duo of a $60 million fraud scheme in which they allegedly lied to investors about the company's financial state and diverted funds to pay for their wedding.

  • January 23, 2025

    Madigan's Law Firm Profits Drove Corrupt Acts, Jury Told

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's ownership interest in his Chicago law firm and his entitlement to 50% of its profits was behind his efforts to extort property tax business from developers who needed approvals from state and local government for their projects, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury Thursday.

  • January 23, 2025

    Combs Lodges $50M Suit Over Supposed Sex Assault Tapes

    Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a $50 million defamation suit in New York federal court on Wednesday accusing a grand jury witness, a lawyer and Nexstar Media Inc. of spreading falsities about nonexistent videos that purportedly depict the indicted hip-hop mogul sexually assaulting intoxicated celebrities and minors.

  • January 23, 2025

    GenapSys Says Paul Hastings Can't Keep Privileged Docs

    GenapSys is pushing back on Paul Hastings LLP's bid to force it to turn over documents that it had inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit alleging that the law firm improperly drafted board documents that led to the "demise and liquidation" of the genetic-sequencing company.

  • January 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes Attys' Challenge To Arizona Victim Contact Law

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a group of lawyers' constitutional challenge to an Arizona law that requires defense attorneys and their teams to initiate contact with victims through the prosecutor's office.

  • January 23, 2025

    Conflict Limits 1 Lawyer On Javice Team As Trial Date Slips

    A lawyer defending Charlie Javice on charges she swindled JPMorgan Chase into paying $175 million for a financial aid startup she founded will be limited in representing her, a Manhattan federal judge said Thursday, before pushing trial back a week.

  • January 23, 2025

    Colo. Panel Says Atty-Witness Rule Isn't Limited To Jury Trials

    A Colorado professional rule banning attorneys from advocating at trials where they are a "necessary witness" isn't limited to jury trials, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, affirming the disqualification of a lawyer who sought to represent a cannabis business that he once co-owned with his wife.

  • January 23, 2025

    Texas Atty Ethics Commission Drops Suit Against AG Paxton

    The Texas bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline has dropped its ethics complaint against Attorney General Ken Paxton over a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in other states, saying the case should end in light of a recent Texas Supreme Court decision nixing a similar case against his first assistant.

  • January 23, 2025

    Conn. Atty Suspended For 5 Years Over Estate Case Failures

    A Connecticut attorney with an already extensive disciplinary history has been suspended from the practice of law for five years for failing to file a case in probate court on behalf of his clients and for losing or misplacing the last will and testament of his clients' relative.

  • January 23, 2025

    Colo. Tenants, Eviction Law Firm Resolve Fee Suits

    Colorado tenants and Tschetter Sulzer PC have settled two class actions accusing the eviction law firm of illegally charging attorney fees before their eviction proceedings concluded, more than a year after the firm settled a separate proposed class action that alleged deceptive debt collection.

  • January 22, 2025

    Chutkan Says Trump's Pardon Can't 'Whitewash' Jan. 6 Terror

    President Donald Trump's pardon of defendants accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol "cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake," U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan wrote Wednesday in an order dismissing one such case.

Expert Analysis

  • Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year

    Author Photo

    Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.

  • What Insurers Should Know About AI Use In Litigation

    Author Photo

    As the use of artificial intelligence in litigation evolves, insurers should note standing court orders, instances of judges utilizing AI to determine policy definitions and the application of evidentiary standards to expert evidence that incorporates AI, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.

  • Series

    Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

    Author Photo

    Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Despite Political Divide, FEC Found Common Ground In '24

    Author Photo

    The Federal Election Commission, although evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, reached consensus in consequential advisory opinions, enforcement actions and regulations last year, offering welcome clarity on some key questions facing campaigns, PACs and parties, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win

    Author Photo

    Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.

  • Public Corruption Enforcement In 2024 Has Clues For 2025

    Author Photo

    If 2024 activity is any indication, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely continue to rein in expansive prosecutorial theories of fraud in the year to come, but it’s harder to predict what the new administration will mean for public corruption prosecutions in 2025, says Cathy Fleming at Offit Kurman.

  • Series

    Playing Rugby Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My experience playing rugby, including a near-fatal accident, has influenced my legal practice on a professional, organizational and personal level by showing me the importance of maintaining empathy, fostering team empowerment and embracing the art of preparation, says James Gillenwater at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Opinion

    No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.

    Author Photo

    A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

    Author Photo

    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Key Ethical Issues For Gov't Attys Moving To Private Practice

    Author Photo

    Transitioning from government service to private practice presents complex ethical challenges for attorneys, including navigating conflicts of interest, confidential information rules and post-employment restrictions, say attorneys at HWG.

  • 7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

    Author Photo

    President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

    Author Photo

    Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Series

    Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.

  • Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

    Author Photo

    Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!