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Legal Ethics
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July 08, 2024
Fla. Judge Who Cursed From Bench Faces 60-Day Suspension
An ethics panel on Monday again recommended a 60-day suspension for a judge's intemperate conduct on the bench that included cursing out a member of the gallery in his courtroom, despite the Florida Supreme Court's previous determination that the sanction was inadequate.
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July 08, 2024
House Hearing Postponed For Trump's NY Prosecutors
The House Judiciary Committee's hearing with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and top prosecutor Matthew Colangelo on former President Donald Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts has been postponed.
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July 08, 2024
1st Circ. Nominee Cut Teeth As 'Victim-Centered' Prosecutor
Maine Superior Court Justice and First Circuit nominee Julia Lipez spent most of her legal career prosecuting federal human trafficking cases, an experience former colleagues say demonstrates her sense of fairness and a sharp focus on the well-being of victims.
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July 08, 2024
The Biggest Patent Rulings Of 2024: A Midyear Report
The Federal Circuit issued its first en banc patent decision since 2018, a circuit judge's suspension was solidified and courts shed further light on foreign damages and skinny labels. Here's a look back at these rulings and other top patent decisions from the first half of 2024.
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July 08, 2024
Biden Says Reelection Crucial To Supreme Court Reform
President Joe Biden told congressional Democrats his reelection is crucial to bringing about "real" reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court in a letter Monday rejecting calls for him to back out of the presidential race.
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July 05, 2024
Feds Slam Girardi's 'Last Ditch Effort' To Block Evidence
Prosecutors urged a California federal judge Friday to reject Tom Girardi's bid to suppress evidence collected without a search warrant from his law firm's bankruptcy trustee, arguing that the trustee had control of the firm's books and records and had the power to voluntarily produce the documents for the disgraced attorney's wire fraud case.
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July 05, 2024
Conn. Firm Sued For Repping Both Parties In Business Sale
A Connecticut law firm has been hit with a malpractice suit saying an attorney improperly represented both parties in the sale of an interest in a restaurant business and ultimately drafted an agreement that misstated the deal in favor of the seller, leading to a $750,000 claim against the buyer.
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July 05, 2024
Armstrong Teasdale Resisted Diversity, Ex-DEI VP Says
Armstrong Teasdale LLP's former vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion claims the law firm hired her to help it cultivate a more diverse workplace, but then blocked her attempts to make recommendations and improvements before wrongly firing her, according to a lawsuit recently filed in Missouri state court.
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July 05, 2024
Fired Atty Only Gets $9K From $1.5M Motorcycle Crash Deal
A Connecticut appeals court ruled Friday that $9,000 was a fair payment to a personal injury attorney who was fired after he quickly obtained a $100,000 settlement offer for a motorcyclist who eventually settled for $1.5 million.
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July 05, 2024
How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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July 05, 2024
Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review
The U.S. Supreme Court's lethargic pace of decision-making this term left the justices to issue a slew of highly anticipated and controversial rulings during the term's final week — rulings that put the court's ideological divisions on vivid display. Here, Law360 takes a data dive into the numbers behind this court term.
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July 05, 2024
High Court Flexes Muscle To Limit Administrative State
The U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of a 40-year-old judicial deference doctrine, coupled with rulings stripping federal agencies of certain enforcement powers and exposing them to additional litigation, has established the October 2023 term as likely the most consequential in administrative law history.
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July 05, 2024
The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term
The U.S. Supreme Court's session ended with a series of blockbuster cases that granted the president broad immunity, changed federal gun policy and kneecapped administrative agencies. And many of the biggest decisions fell along partisan lines.
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July 05, 2024
5 Moments That Shaped The Supreme Court's Jan. 6 Decision
When the high court limited the scope of a federal obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the justices did not vote along ideological lines. In a year marked by 6-3 splits, what accounts for the departure? Here are some moments from oral arguments that may have swayed the justices.
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July 05, 2024
The Funniest Moments Of The Supreme Court's Term
In a U.S. Supreme Court term teeming with serious showdowns, the august air at oral arguments filled with laughter after an attorney mentioned her plastic surgeon and a justice seemed to diss his colleagues, to cite just two of the term's mirthful moments. Here, we look at the funniest moments of the term.
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July 05, 2024
Judge Should Have Been Disqualified From Case, Panel Said
A Washington appeals court panel said a trial judge should have been disqualified over bias concerns raised by metro Seattle's bus agency in a worker discrimination case, according to an opinion that said the judge's order allowing an amended complaint was not a discretionary ruling in the case that would have forbid disqualification.
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July 05, 2024
Fla. Law Firm Settles Student Debtors' Suit After Mistrial
Weeks after a mistrial upended proceedings in a contentious case in which seven student debtors accused a Boca Raton, Florida, law firm of fraudulently claiming it could eliminate their private loan debt for a fee, the debtors have voluntarily and permanently dropped the claims following a settlement negotiation.
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July 05, 2024
Trump Urges Halt To Mar-A-Lago Case, Citing Immunity Ruling
Former President Donald Trump urged a Florida federal judge Friday to pause the criminal case that accuses him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving the White House, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said he might be immune to charges related to official acts.
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July 05, 2024
DQ'd Atty Denied Bid To Have Netflix Atty Held In Contempt
A California federal judge rejected a bid by a former Whitestone Law attorney to hold an attorney representing Netflix in a patent infringement case in contempt over harassment allegations, determining that the unwanted contact does not violate the order disqualifying his ex-firm.
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July 05, 2024
Rutgers Faces Contempt Bid Over Discipline In Bias Suit
A Rutgers Law School student is asking a New Jersey state court to sanction the university for moving ahead with disciplinary measures against him for defamation, bullying, intimidation and harassment, arguing it violates a protective order he received in his discrimination lawsuit.
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July 05, 2024
Mich. Atty Ethics Board Moves Trump Allies' Cases Forward
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has refused to dismiss misconduct claims against six attorneys for challenging the results of the 2020 election in the Great Lakes State and ordered their disciplinary proceedings to move forward.
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July 05, 2024
Ga. Elections Office Wants Out Of Appeals Seat Challenge
An elections office in Fulton County, Georgia's elections department asked a judge this week to be let out of a lawsuit alleging that the winner of a recent state appeals court election lied about his residency and is ineligible for the office, arguing that the suit "fails to make even a single allegation of misconduct, fraud or irregularity."
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July 05, 2024
Ex-BigLaw Atty Settles Defamation Suit Against Influencer
Former Greenberg Traurig LLP partner Allan A. Kassenoff has settled his $150 million defamation lawsuit against the social media influencer Kassenoff claims ruined his life by lying about his nightmarish divorce.
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July 05, 2024
Denver Firm Accused Of Botching Business Dispute
The Denver law firm of Fairfield and Woods PC and one of its attorneys has been accused in Colorado state court of malpractice that caused their client more than a million dollars in damages in connection with a business dispute involving the client's brother.
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July 05, 2024
Court To Weigh Scope Of Ex-Judge's Atty Romance Testimony
A Texas bankruptcy judge said he must determine the scope of a deposition over a former judge's concealed romantic relationship with an ex-Jackson Walker LLP attorney, reversing course on a stipulation and ruling he has "exclusive authority" to "authorize and set limits regarding the nature of the testimony."
Expert Analysis
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DOJ's Google Sanctions Motion Shows Risks Of Auto-Deletion
The U.S. Department of Justice recently hit Google with a sanctions motion over its alleged failure to preserve relevant instant-messaging communications, a predicament that should be a wake-up call for counsel concerning the danger associated with automatic-deletion features and how it's been handled by the courts, say Oscar Shine and Emma Ashe at Selendy Gay.
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What To Expect From A Litigation Finance Industry Recession
There's little data on how litigation finance would fare in a recession, but a look at stakeholders' incentives suggests corporate demand for litigation finance would increase in a recessionary environment, while the number of funders could shrink, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.
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Opinion
SEC Needs To Support Crypto Gatekeepers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has a significant responsibility to create and maintain a regulatory environment governing the crypto industry, but currently, crypto businesses — and their lawyers — often are punished for seeking to comply, says retired Wilson Sonsini partner Rob Rosenblum.
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Trump Docs Investigation Has Lessons For White Collar Attys
Several of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys have found themselves in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigatory crosshairs, thus illustrating the risks criminal investigations can pose to both clients and attorneys — but lawyers can employ several best practices to help mitigate these risks, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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Justices Leave Questions Open On Dual-Purpose Atty Advice
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury on grounds that certiorari was improvidently granted leaves unresolved a circuit split over the proper test for deciding when attorney-client privilege protects a lawyer's advice that has multiple purposes, say Susan Combs and Richard Kiely at Holland & Hart.
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Steps Lawyers Can Take Following Involuntary Terminations
Though lawyers can struggle to recover from involuntary terminations, it's critical that they be able to step back, review any feedback given and look for opportunities for growth, say Jessica Hernandez at JLH Coaching & Consulting and Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub.
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High Court Ax Of Atty-Client Privilege Case Deepens Split
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury as improvidently granted maintains a three-way circuit split on the application of attorney-client privilege to multipurpose communications, although the justices have at least shown a desire to address it, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
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3 Job Satisfaction Questions For Partners Considering Moves
The post-pandemic rise in legal turnover may cause partners to ask themselves what they really want from their workplace, how they plan to grow their practice and when it's time to make a move, says Patrick Moya at Quaero Group.
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4 Exercises To Quickly Build Trust On Legal Teams
High-performance legal teams can intentionally build trust through a rigorous approach, including open-ended conversations and personality assessments, to help attorneys bond fast, even if they are new to the firm or group, says Ben Sachs at the University of Virginia School of Law.
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Navigating Compensation Of Special Counsel In Bankruptcy
With professional liability litigation and disputes over attorney fees on the rise, nonbankruptcy lawyers must know how to determine if a client or opposing party is in bankruptcy, when to make such determinations, and what to do once they have that information, says Danielle Mashburn-Myrick at Phelps Dunbar.
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8 Steps To Improve The Perception Of In-House Legal Counsel
With the pandemic paving the way for a reputational shift in favor of in-house corporate legal teams, there are proactive steps that legal departments can take to fully rebrand themselves as strong allies and generators of value, says Allison Rosner at Major Lindsey.
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Procedure Rule 7.1 Can Simplify Litigators' Diversity Analysis
A recent amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1 will help trial courts determine whether the parties to a case are diverse, and may also allow litigators to more quickly determine whether they can remove certain cases to federal court, says Steve Shapiro at Schnader Harrison.
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Nimitz Patent Fight Offers Peek Behind NPE Liability Curtain
Nimitz's patent assertion campaign against BuzzFeed and others inadvertently provides unprecedented insight into how nonpracticing entities shield themselves from penalties of bad faith litigation, reminding litigants to consider pressing for disclosure of entities that control a litigation but aren't the named plaintiff, says Aakash Patel at Flaster Greenberg.
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Atty Conflict Discussions In Idaho Murder Case And Beyond
A public defender's representation of the accused University of Idaho murderer after prior representation of a victim's parent doesn't constitute a violation of conflict of interest rules, but the case prompts ethical questions about navigating client conflicts in small-town criminal defense and big-city corporate law alike, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Charles Loeser at HWG.
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Opinion
Dobbs Leak Highlights Need For High Court Ethics Code
While a recent investigation failed to identify who leaked the U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the situation underscores the need for the justices to bind themselves to the same ethics rules that constrain other federal judges, says Scott Gerber at Ohio Northern University.