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Legal Ethics
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July 10, 2024
Feds Say Guo Ran 'Fraud Empire' As Racketeering Trial Wraps
Manhattan federal prosecutors urged a jury on Wednesday to convict Chinese dissident Miles Guo for operating his political movement as a vast racketeering conspiracy that "brainwashed" supporters into spending more than $1 billion on scam investments.
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July 10, 2024
Judge Chides Troopers' No-Show Atty At Sanctions Hearing
A Washington federal judge slapped a group of state troopers with sanctions Wednesday for defying a discovery order in their case against Ford Motor Co., while also calling out their attorney who failed to show up for the hearing despite the court's repeated prodding.
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July 10, 2024
Atty Says Alaska Judge Reprimand Bolsters 4th Circ. Bias Suit
A former public defender awaiting a bench ruling on her sexual harassment claims against the federal judiciary said Wednesday that the judge deciding her case should note a recent ruling reprimanding an Alaska federal judge for his "sexualized relationship" with a clerk in which the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council determined that intent was irrelevant.
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July 10, 2024
Bang Energy Drink Co. Ex-CEO Urges DQ Of Ch. 11 Judge
The former CEO of the company that makes Bang energy drinks urged the disqualification of a Florida federal bankruptcy judge and called for an investigation, alleging that the judge committed misconduct in the company's Chapter 11 case, according to a complaint filed with the Eleventh Circuit.
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July 10, 2024
Margolis Edelstein Fights Bid To Revive Malpractice Suit
An attorney representing Margolis Edelstein told the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday that an insurer's malpractice suit against the law firm shouldn't be revived as the firm's purported negligence wasn't the reason the insurer settled an underlying dispute for $1.2 million.
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July 10, 2024
NY Judge Slams 'Whopping' Brief In Terror Suit As Dickensian
A New York federal magistrate judge lectured attorneys in a lawsuit alleging a Pakistani bank funded terrorism, saying a recent joint status letter exceeded the limit by 70 pages and the parties are turning the case into a modern Jarndyce v. Jarndyce from the Charles Dickens classic "Bleak House."
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July 10, 2024
Walmart IP Foe May Face $2.9M Penalty After Jury Win Tossed
Counsel for a food tech startup that saw its $115 million patent infringement verdict against Walmart nixed may be ordered to pay the retail giant's $2.9 million legal bill due to misrepresentations about a key piece of evidence, an Arkansas federal judge said.
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July 10, 2024
Ocasio-Cortez Seeks Impeachment Of Justices Thomas, Alito
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed articles of impeachment against U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Wednesday following a year of revelations about their repeated failures to disclose the acceptance of luxury travel and gifts, refusals to recuse in certain cases and other purported ethics violations.
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July 10, 2024
Ga. Judge Shakes Off YSL Bid To Step Aside From DQ Fight
A Georgia state judge has rejected a request from Atlanta rapper Young Thug that she step aside from handling his motion seeking another judge's recusal from his racketeering trial for allegedly colluding with prosecutors in a closed-door meeting with a key witness.
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July 10, 2024
Giuliani Urges DC Court Not To Disbar Him Over Trump Work
Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday urged the D.C. Court of Appeals to let him keep his law license, saying he did not commit misconduct in his work on former President Donald Trump's challenge to Pennsylvania's 2020 presidential election.
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July 10, 2024
Former Conn. Top Public Defender Claims Bias Led To Ouster
The former chief public defender in Connecticut has filed a second action challenging her June 4 ouster for misconduct, lodging an administrative appeal in state court that claims racial bias.
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July 10, 2024
Former McElroy Deutsch CFO Hits Ch. 11 Amid Theft Cases
McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter's former chief financial officer filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey this week as he awaits sentencing for embezzling over $1.5 million from the firm over a period of years via fraudulent bonuses.
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July 10, 2024
2 Roundup MDL Cases Axed After Plaintiffs Fail To Act
A California federal judge presiding over multidistrict personal injury litigation related to the Monsanto herbicide Roundup has ended two of the numerous cases, with one tossed for failure to prosecute and the second ending in an early win for Monsanto after the plaintiff failed to file a response, amid ongoing concerns that plaintiffs' attorneys are overtaxed.
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July 10, 2024
Pa. Developer's Heirs, Foundation Can't Appeal Fee Denial
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania won't take up a fee dispute stemming from a disagreement over the control of a foundation established by Pittsburgh developer Jack Buncher.
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July 10, 2024
Conn. Justices Told Banking Agency's Probe Overstepped
The Connecticut Department of Banking's investigation into Commonwealth Law Group and Commonwealth Servicing Group LLC's debt negotiation practices violated the constitutional separation of powers, because only the state's judicial branch has regulatory authority over legal services provided to clients by their attorneys, the firms told the state Supreme Court.
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July 09, 2024
Texas Chief Justice Calls Pulling IDs Over Fines 'Stupid'
The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a Tuesday hearing on funding civil legal aid that the practice of revoking a person's driver's license for an inability to pay court fees was "stupid."
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July 09, 2024
4th Circ. Finds No Judicial Bias In DOD Contractor's Sentence
The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a nine-year prison sentence for a North Carolina woman who fraudulently obtained military contracts valued at over $2.2 million, rejecting her argument that the district judge should've recused himself for bias and calling his admonishment during her sentencing "'ordinary,' albeit strongly worded."
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July 09, 2024
Disbarred Ohio Atty Cops To Landing Law Jobs With Fake IDs
A disbarred Ohio attorney admitted Tuesday to using false identities — including information belonging to his father, girlfriend and a dead man — to snag high-paying gigs or job offers from at least seven different law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
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July 09, 2024
NY Judge In Trump Case OKs Narrow Subpoena For Atty
An attorney who told reporters he held an impromptu hallway conversation with a New York state judge in the lead-up to February's $464.6 million civil fraud judgment against Donald Trump must turn over any communications he had with the court regarding the underlying action, according to a Tuesday ruling.
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July 09, 2024
FTC Is Denied Amazon's Instructions On Signal Use, For Now
A Washington federal judge refused Tuesday to give the Federal Trade Commission a peek into what it contends is the extensive use of Signal by Jeff Bezos and other top Amazon.com executives to hide communications relevant to a monopolization lawsuit, preferring to order deposition testimony on that use first.
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July 09, 2024
Dems Request Special Counsel To Probe Justice Thomas Gifts
Two Democratic senators have asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose various gifts received during his tenure on the high court amounts to chargeable ethics violations or tax crimes.
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July 09, 2024
Amazon Judge Offers To Quit COVID Pay Case
A Colorado federal judge urged Amazon and workers suing the company over unpaid COVID-19 screenings to file briefs on whether he should recuse himself from the case, disclosing that his son works for what he believes is an Amazon affiliate.
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July 09, 2024
No Conflict For Ballard Spahr In Ex-Union Leader's Bribe Case
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday rejected a claim by former Philadelphia union leader and convicted felon John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty that his Ballard Spahr LLP defense team marred its representation of him in a bribery prosecution because of a conflict of interest with Comcast.
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July 09, 2024
Ex-DOJ Atty Tells Guo Jury Of Illicit Extradition Campaign
Prominent Chinese Communist Party critic Miles Guo capped off his defense to $1 billion fraud charges Tuesday with testimony from a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney, who admitted to participating in a plot to lobby the U.S. government for Guo's extradition to China.
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July 09, 2024
Judge Calls Cost Of DOJ's Assa Abloy Market Study 'Insane'
A D.C. federal judge took the U.S. Department of Justice and its monitoring trustee to task Tuesday for their pursuit of an open-ended look at Assa Abloy's books to check for anticompetitive harms from a 2023 merger, excoriating budget estimates pricing the investigation at a minimum of $1.7 million.
Expert Analysis
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4 Ways To Reboot Your Firm's Stalled Diversity Program
Law firms that have failed to see real progress despite years of diversity initiatives can move forward by committing to tackle four often-taboo obstacles that hinder diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, says Steph Maher at Jaffe.
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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.