Several Fifth Circuit judges seemed keen Wednesday to clarify what activity in state court would bar litigants from removing their cases to federal court, as the full appeals court reconsidered a remand order for a Houston firm's poaching suit.
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Legal Ethics
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Case Removal Rules Aimed At Fairness, Ex-Atty Tells 5th Circ.

By Catherine Marfin

Several Fifth Circuit judges seemed keen Wednesday to clarify what activity in state court would bar litigants from removing their cases to federal court, as the full appeals court reconsidered a remand order for a Houston firm's poaching suit.

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'Unicorn Prosecution' Could Upend Legal Practice, Court Told

By George Woolston

Brown & Connery LLP partner William Tambussi told a New Jersey state judge Wednesday that the entire practice of law in the Garden State rests on his impending decision on the charges against him in the state's sweeping racketeering case targeting power broker George E. Norcross III, arguing that a lawyer has never been prosecuted for routine legal work.

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#MeToo Claims Against Ex-Defender's Boss To Stay Sealed

By Hayley Fowler

A federal judge on Wednesday shot down a former assistant public defender's renewed attempt to lay bare certain #MeToo complaints against her one-time employer as part of a long-running case casting a spotlight on the judiciary's internal complaint process for workplace misconduct.

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Mich. Justices Doubt Boss Can 'Trap' Workers In Meeting

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan Supreme Court justices struggled with the proposition Wednesday that a supervisor has some ability to keep employees in a meeting by force, during oral arguments in a former assistant county prosecutor's whistleblower appeal.

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Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Slam Baldoni Atty's 'Media Blitz'

By Rachel Scharf

Counsel for celebrity couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds told a New York federal judge that Justin Baldoni's attorney from Liner Freedman Taitelman & Cooley LLP has violated ethical rules with an "all-out media blitz" during their thorny litigation over the movie "It Ends With Us."

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

By Lauren Berg

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.

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WHITE COLLAR

Feds Drop Case Against Atty's Accomplice In COVID Loan Fraud

By Ryan Boysen

A Savannah, Georgia, man who conspired with two attorneys to defraud the federal pandemic relief effort of $300,000 has had the charges against him in Georgia federal court dropped, after he completed a year of a pretrial diversion program.

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Madigan Used ComEd As 'Personal Piggy Bank,' Jurors Told

By Celeste Bott

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his devoted surrogate Michael McClain conspired to enhance and preserve Madigan's power and line his pockets, both by steering business to the ex-speaker's law firm and rewarding his political allies with do-nothing jobs, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury during closing arguments Wednesday.

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Committee's Trump Probe Subpoenas Are Moot, Willis Says

By Emily Johnson

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has urged a Georgia state court to quash a bid to enforce subpoenas from a state Senate committee investigating her handling of the prosecution of President Donald Trump, arguing the subpoenas are moot because "the old special committee no longer exists."

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LITIGATION

Reed Smith Rips Claim Firm Is 'Causing Chaos' In $102M Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

Reed Smith fought back Tuesday against allegations by the purported new owners of Eletson Holdings that the BigLaw firm is "causing chaos" by refusing to withdraw as counsel of record in $102 million breach-of-contract litigation, arguing that ownership of the international shipping group is "hotly contested" and being litigated in multiple jurisdictions.

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Captive Insurance Co. Head Seeks Tax-Shelter Fine Refund

By Anna Scott Farrell

A tax attorney who heads a business that creates captive insurance companies said the IRS wrongly accused him of promoting an abusive tax shelter, telling an Ohio federal court the agency owes him a refund of penalties he handed over.

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Unum Unlawfully Cut Disability, Hughes Hubbard Worker Says

By Irene Spezzamonte

Insurance company First Unum Life Insurance unlawfully halted a Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP manager's long-term disability benefits and decided to solely follow in-house doctors' recommendations, a suit filed in New Jersey federal court claims.

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5th Circ. Sends Beck Redden Malpractice Suit To State Court

By Emily Sawicki

The malpractice suit a disbarred Texas attorney brought against his former counsel belongs in state court, the Fifth Circuit has determined, declining to reconsider a December ruling that remanded a Texas federal judge's order throwing out claims against Beck Redden LLP, finding the Southern District of Texas lacked jurisdiction.

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Fla. Attys Face Ethics Charges For Settling Dead Client's Suits

By Emily Sawicki

Two Boca Raton, Florida-based lawyers cannot escape ethics charges after they conditionally admitted to settling cases after their client had died, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled, denying their proposed consent judgments, which would have suspended them for a period of nine months.

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Colo. Judge 'Dumbfounded' Oil Co. Hasn't Disclosed Deal

By Thy Vo

A Colorado state judge on Wednesday said she was "totally dumbfounded" by an oil and gas exploration company's failure to disclose a deal that it appeared to have entered into while telling the court that it had no deals, in a suit brought by an Anschutz oil subsidiary alleging theft of trade secrets.

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DC Judge Declines To DQ Jenner & Block In Casino Dispute

By Ali Sullivan

A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid from three Native American tribes to disqualify Jenner & Block LLP from a lawsuit that seeks to block the operation of a new casino in Oregon.

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Attorneys Botched Arbitration Win, Texas Property Cos. Claim

By Tom Lotshaw

A group of property owners in Texas told a Harris County judge a law firm and five attorneys helped them secure a $1.7 million arbitration award but never took action when the award misidentified their names, making them unable to collect.

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Connell Foley Fights DQ Bid In Investment Firm's Bias Suit

By Jake Maher

A group of current and former New Jersey state officials blasted a motion to disqualify their counsel at Connell Foley LLP in a discrimination suit from a Black-owned investment firm in New Jersey federal court, calling the move a frivolous and bad faith stalling tactic.

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Drug Co. Wants To Keep Judge On Alopecia IP Case

By Andrew Karpan

The developer behind an Eli Lilly & Co. alopecia drug has called allegations the company's lawyers deliberately hired a New Jersey federal judge's former law clerk both "low and baseless" and a "transparent attempt to remove the judge who decided against it."

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Despite Political Divide, FEC Found Common Ground In '24

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.

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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

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.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

The 2025 In-House Counsel Satisfaction Survey

Law360 Pulse asked in-house counsel about their jobs, workplace and career prospects. Find out how satisfied corporate lawyers are with their schedules, hours, work-life balance, opportunities for advancement and more.

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BigLaw Firms Report Record Lobbying Revenues For 2024

By Alison Knezevich

Several BigLaw firms pulled in record federal lobbying revenues in 2024, and now the change at the White House and in Congress has lobbyists gearing up for another busy year.

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Ex-Solicitor General Prelogar Joins Harvard Law

By Katie Buehler and Jeff Overley

Former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, acclaimed for her oral advocacy in the U.S. Supreme Court's biggest cases during the Biden administration, has temporarily joined Harvard Law School, where she will teach a class called "Changing Paradigms in the Supreme Court," Law360 confirmed Wednesday.

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DOJ Aims To Prosecute Local Officials Who Impede Removals

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Justice instructed its staff to investigate and take enforcement actions against state and local officials who interfere with the Trump administration's plans to deport unlawfully present immigrants, according to an internal agency memo.

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Kirkland Adds 5 Skadden Attys As Firm Plans Philly Launch

By James Boyle

National law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP has announced plans for a new Philadelphia office to be helmed by a civil litigator who is one of five attorneys moving their practices to the firm from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Kentucky, New Mexico Federal Judges To Take Senior Status

By Lynn LaRowe

Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky and U.S. District Judge James O. Browning of the District of New Mexico announced this week that they are taking senior status over roughly the next year.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abraham Watkins

Advisors LLC

Akin Gump

Archer & Greiner

Armbrust & Brown

Balbo & Gregg

Beck Redden

Breen & Pugh

Brown & Connery

Brown Rudnick

Brownstein Hyatt

Chiesa Shahinian

Connell Foley

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Critchley Kinum

Cummings McClorey

Dechert LLP

Dentons

Farah & Farah

Finnegan

Frazer Ryan

Galanda Broadman

Gibbons PC

Gibson Dunn

Goulston & Storrs

Green Savits

Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Hart

Holland & Knight

Hughes Hubbard

Jenner & Block

Jones & Keller

Jones Day

Jurek Law Group

K&L Gates

Kassab Law Firm

Katten Muchin

Kellogg Hansen

Kirkland & Ellis

Krovatin Nau

Latham & Watkins

Law Offices of Barbara B. Comerford

Liner Freedman

Manatt Phelps

Marino Tortorella

Martin Disiere

Mastromarco Firm

Meister Seelig & Fein

Morella & Associates

O'Melveny & Myers

Parker McCay

Pitt McGehee

Quinn Emanuel

Rathbone Law PC

Ray Thomas Law Group

Reed Smith

Reyes Kurson

Rivkin Radler

Robbins Alloy

Robinson Miller

Rosati Schultz

Shepherd Prewett

Skadden Arps

Squire Patton

UB Greensfelder

Weil Gotshal

Wesp Barwell

Williams & Connolly

Willkie Farr

Womble Bond

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

Anschutz Exploration Corp.

Ares Management Corp.

BlackRock Inc.

Campaign Legal Center

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

Cliffwater LLC

Commonwealth Edison Co.

Eli Lilly & Co.

Fox Corp.

GLS Capital LLC

Incyte Corp.

Johnson & Johnson

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

Omni Bridgeway Ltd.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

The Florida Bar

The Michaels Organization

The New York Times Co.

TikTok Inc.

Umpqua Holdings Corporation

University of Virginia

Unum Group

Vanity Fair

Westfleet Advisors LLC

Wolters Kluwer

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives

Coquille Indian Tribe

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Election Commission

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Trade Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

Karuk Tribe

Michigan Supreme Court

New Jersey Attorney General's Office

New Jersey Court

New Jersey Supreme Court

Superior Court of Fulton County

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio

United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia