Legal Ethics

  • March 14, 2025

    Startup Investor Says Cooley Knew About Fraud Probe

    Attorneys for a dry cleaning delivery startup knew that the founder and sole director of the company had fabricated company documents and was the subject of an active securities fraud investigation in Texas as he solicited money from investors, an ex-board member said Friday in response to the law firm's bid to toss a securities fraud lawsuit.

  • March 14, 2025

    Client Who Sent Money To Fraudster Wins Suit Against Firm

    An optometrist who claims a fraudster infiltrated her lawyer's email system and tricked her into wiring $90,586 to an incorrect account has won a lawsuit against Mancini Provenzano & Futtner LLC after a Connecticut state court judge found the firm was negligent in failing to secure its system.

  • March 14, 2025

    Class Can't Re-Contest Debt Collection, Mich. Law Firm Argues

    A law firm accused of charging unlawfully high post-judgment interest rates on debt collection actions told a Michigan federal court on Thursday that several debtors have already resolved their litigation, precluding them from pressing their federal class action, and debt collection agencies blamed the rates on the law firm.

  • March 14, 2025

    NJ Firms Accused Of Losing $146K In Client Funds In Scam

    Two Garden State law firms are accused in a New Jersey state lawsuit of falling for an email scam that led to the loss of more than $146,000 received in a medical malpractice settlement and meant for a client's special needs trust.

  • March 14, 2025

    Philly Firm Decries Ex-Holland & Knight Atty's Counterclaims

    A tawdry courtroom brawl between Pennsylvania personal injury firm Fritz & Bianculli LLC and former Holland & Knight LLP partner Patrick McCabe continues to boil, as Fritz & Bianculli denies that it is only suing McCabe for leverage in a messy divorce caused by his wife's "salacious" affair with name partner Brian Fritz.

  • March 14, 2025

    Atty Gets 8½ Years For Attempted Embassy Attack

    A Florida attorney who pled guilty to damaging a San Antonio sculpture and unsuccessfully trying to detonate explosives outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., was sentenced to 8½ years Friday, after the judge overseeing the case said the defendant's own statements at the hearing likely got him more time.

  • March 14, 2025

    Ex-Greenberg Traurig Atty Ordered To Pay $15.5M To IRS

    A former Greenberg Traurig LLP attorney who was sentenced to prison for helping a musician skirt taxes owes $15.5 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, a New York federal judge ruled.

  • March 13, 2025

    Fla. Attys Disbarred, Suspended For Forgery Accusations

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday disbarred a West Palm Beach attorney for making threatening social media posts during litigation, repeatedly failing to file a viable complaint in a toxic tort case, and falsely accusing opposing counsel of forgery, an infraction that also earned his co-counsel a suspension.

  • March 13, 2025

    Judge Hits 'Reset Button' In 3M, DuPont PFAS Cleanup Case

    New Jersey's environmental regulators have tried to force EIDP and DuPont Chemours to begin remediation efforts on "forever chemical" contamination at a former facility in Salem County — which is at the center of ongoing litigation — a move that seemingly undermined a federal judge's authority and put in jeopardy a looming May trial date.

  • March 13, 2025

    Smartmatic Wants MyPillow CEO Held In Contempt

    MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell hasn't paid the sanctions he owes to Smartmatic for filing "frivolous claims" against the voting systems company, Smartmatic told a D.C. federal judge in an effort to hold him in civil contempt.

  • March 13, 2025

    Sandy Hook Families Oppose Revived Infowars Sale Bid

    Families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have urged a Texas bankruptcy judge to block an Alex Jones-affiliated company's revived bid to buy his Infowars platform, saying it will cause delays in the more than three-year-old related bankruptcy cases.

  • March 13, 2025

    Law Firm Helped Fintech CEO Undercut $1.7B Deal, Suit Says

    A fintech startup that went belly up after a $1.7 billion deal to take it public fell apart told a Texas federal court that Chapman and Cutler LLP helped the startup's CEO stab it in the back, saying in a Thursday complaint the firm breached its fiduciary duties.

  • March 13, 2025

    Md. Judges Told Not To Advise Bar Members On Trump EOs

    Maryland state judges who participate in bar association events intended to review and provide legal analysis of presidential executive orders could be seen as practicing law or engaging in partisan political activity and should avoid such activities, the state Judicial Ethics Committee says.

  • March 13, 2025

    Chaitman Wants NJ Malpractice Suit Axed For Delays

    Chaitman LLP has asked a New Jersey state judge to dismiss a long-pending legal malpractice action stemming from real estate litigation, arguing its former clients who brought the suit have repeatedly failed to produce expert witnesses for depositions, "severely prejudicing the defendants."

  • March 13, 2025

    After Court Loss, DA Willis To Turn Over Trump Probe Docs

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has told a Georgia state court that she will respond to the subpoenas from a state Senate committee investigating whether her personal relationship with a special prosecutor amounted to misconduct in her prosecution of President Donald Trump in an election interference case after previously losing her bid to quash the subpoenas.

  • March 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Sides With NLRB On Reconsidered Exxon Ruling

    The National Labor Relations Board didn't overstep by wiping out and rethinking a decision involving an Exxon Mobil unit after learning a member had a stake in the company, the Fifth Circuit said, enforcing the board's ruling that the company sabotaged negotiations with a union.

  • March 13, 2025

    Solicitor General Pick, 2 More DOJ Noms Go To Full Senate

    The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted out of committee the nomination of President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Dean John Sauer, to be solicitor general and two other nominees for major U.S. Department of Justice roles, all along party lines.

  • March 13, 2025

    ​​​​​​​Alex Jones' Sandy Hook Atty Suspended Over Info Release

    Former Alex Jones attorney Norm Pattis will be suspended from practicing law for two weeks, a Connecticut judge has ruled, capping a three-year ethics saga that started when Pattis asked an associate to send Sandy Hook families' medical records to the Infowars host's Texas bankruptcy lawyer.

  • March 12, 2025

    7th Circ. Revives Suit By Law Professor Disciplined Over Exam

    The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday revived a retaliation claim from a University of a law school professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago who was disciplined for including a redacted racist slur on an exam, saying the professor has plausibly alleged that his academic speech is protected by the First Amendment.

  • March 12, 2025

    Panel Decries Judge's Watergate Remarks, Axes $2M Verdict

    A Florida appeals court on Wednesday vacated a $2 million verdict in a slip-and-fall suit against Walmart, saying the trial court's comments that allegedly missing video evidence was akin to Nixon's actions in the Watergate scandal signaled his preconceived notion that the company improperly destroyed evidence.

  • March 12, 2025

    Ex-Atty Gets 3 Years In Prison For Using Fake IDs To Get Jobs

    A former attorney has been sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to using false identification in order to obtain jobs at multiple law firms in Florida, California and elsewhere following his disbarment in Ohio, according to federal prosecutors.

  • March 12, 2025

    COVID Test Device Maker Settles Fed. Circ. Feuds With Rival

    A company that makes saliva collection devices used for COVID-19 tests says it will drop out of Federal Circuit appeals fights with Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics stemming from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board canceling 183 of Longhorn's patent claims as a punishment for "egregious abuse of the PTAB process."

  • March 12, 2025

    Willkie Beats Malpractice Suit Over ERISA Ch. 11 Advice

    An Ohio federal judge affirmed Tuesday a bankruptcy court's decision tossing legal malpractice claims filed by a coal company executive's estate against Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, rejecting the estate's arguments it sufficiently alleged Willkie was grossly negligent in failing to warn the estate about a potential $6.5 billion ERISA liability.

  • March 12, 2025

    Kroger Waited Too Long To Seek Sanctions, Judge Says

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday denied Kroger's bid to sanction prolific consumer advocate lawyer Spencer Sheehan for filing a meritless suit over the effectiveness of its lidocaine patches, saying the amount of time it took to file the motion "is not reasonable by any stretch of the imagination."

  • March 12, 2025

    Judge Blocks Order Limiting Perkins Coie Government Access

    A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday halted enforcement of the Trump administration's executive order against law firm Perkins Coie LLP that cited issues including its representation of Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential run, calling the order "viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple."

Expert Analysis

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

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    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Series

    Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.

  • Opinion

    Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice

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    A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.

  • In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege

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    Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.

  • Applying ABA Atty Role Guidance To White Collar Matters

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    The American Bar Association’s recently published guidance, clarifying the duties outside counsel owes to both organizational clients and those organizations' constituents, provides best practices that attorneys representing companies in white collar and other investigative matters should heed, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

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    Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

  • Perspectives

    Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

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    KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.

  • AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

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    Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

  • When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law

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    In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering

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    Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.

  • Disciplinary Rule Updates Every Texas Lawyer Needs To Know

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    Sweeping amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct that recently went into effect provide essential clarity and modernity to rules governing conflicts of interest, client confidentiality and duties to prospective clients, says Robert Tobey at Johnston Tobey.

  • Series

    Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations

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    In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.

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