Legal Ethics

  • March 07, 2025

    Atty Fights $190K Demand After Malicious Litigation Trial Loss

    A lawyer who recently lost her malicious prosecution lawsuit against three Blank Rome attorneys and an aviation parts company is fighting their demand that she pay $190,000 in costs stemming from the litigation, arguing the amount is excessive and otherwise unrecoverable.

  • March 07, 2025

    Greenspoon Marder Beats Fla. Suit After Missed Arbitration

    Greenspoon Marder LLP has secured a Florida state appellate decision that upheld the dismissal of a malpractice suit against the firm over its representation of a luxury concierge service because the business failed to comply with a court order to engage in arbitration.

  • March 07, 2025

    Dispensary Fights Lowenstein Sandler's Bid To Merge Suits

    A cannabis dispensary has urged a New Jersey state court to reject Lowenstein Sandler LLP's bid to consolidate its malpractice suit against the firm and the firm's unpaid legal fee suit against the business, saying combining the cases would "reward Lowenstein's blatant litigation tactics."

  • March 07, 2025

    Ga. Court Urged To Weigh Genealogy Of Wife Killed By Ex-Atty

    The administrator of the estate of a woman killed by a former BigLaw attorney is urging a Georgia state court to reject the woman's godson's assertion that her cousins aren't her relatives, arguing that a genealogy report proves they are her family in the dispute over the proceeds from a wrongful-death suit settlement.

  • March 07, 2025

    How A Showcase Prosecution Collapsed For New Jersey's AG

    New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin took a risk that backfired when he used over 100 pages to lay out his case accusing George E. Norcross III, one of the Garden State's most influential businessmen, of leading a racketeering enterprise to deepen his commercial footprint in a struggling city.  

  • March 07, 2025

    Mich. Atty Says Ex-Mentee Wanted Hush Money Before Suing

    A name partner who was sued by a former associate of the firm on allegations that he sexually harassed her, has filed a countersuit claiming the attorney first sought hush money before launching her claims.

  • March 06, 2025

    Ex-GMU Prof Ends Defamation Suit Against Former Students

    Former George Mason University Law professor Joshua Wright has ended his $108 million defamation lawsuit against two former students who accused him of sexual misconduct, dropping the suit late Thursday just four days before a jury trial in the case was set to begin.

  • March 06, 2025

    Amid Court Setbacks, Trump Wants Foes To Foot Legal Bills

    With judges hitting the brakes on the White House's aggressive agenda, President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to up the ante with his legal adversaries by seeking legal costs and damages if his administration ultimately prevails after initial setbacks in litigation.

  • March 06, 2025

    Ariz. Firm Urges Justices To Hear Suit Over Ad Search Terms

    A Phoenix personal injury firm is going to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing its trademark lawsuit over Google advertising search terms, warning the justices that a rival's online "bait and switch" advertising tactics have "confused hundreds, if not thousands, of potential clients."

  • March 06, 2025

    MyPillow CEO Found In Contempt For Failing To Give Up Docs

    MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was found in contempt of court by a Minnesota federal judge on Thursday for failing to produce documents in voting machine company Smartmatic's defamation suit claiming that he lied about its operations during the 2020 presidential election.

  • March 06, 2025

    Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

    Believe it or not, there's still important litigation happening that doesn't involve President Donald Trump, and the proof exists in this month's circuit court calendars. During the remaining weeks of March, arguments will explore numerous high-profile topics, including a law firm's severe punishment for alleged misconduct in 9/11 litigation and a judicial rebuke of Trader Joe's for "an attempt to weaponize the legal system."

  • March 06, 2025

    Meltzer Lippe, Fired Partner Agree To End Sex Bias Suit

    Meltzer Lippe Goldstein & Breitstone LLP and a former partner have agreed to end her New York federal court suit claiming she was fired from the firm after she complained about its sexist work environment, according to a Thursday court filing.

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurers Seek Toss Of Meta's Social Media MDL Coverage Suit

    A group of insurers urged a California federal court to either toss or stay Meta's suit seeking to pause all coverage litigation regarding underlying claims that the company deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, saying the first-to-file rule applies to the carriers' Delaware state court suit.

  • March 06, 2025

    NJ Developer, Conn. Atty Settle Suit Over Alleged $1.4M Scam

    A New Jersey real estate developer and Connecticut attorney Carole W. Briggs have settled a federal lawsuit that accused the lawyer and an associate of pulling off a business email compromise scam that caused more than $1.4 million in losses, court records show.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Tells Admin To Yank Perkins Coie Security Clearance

    Perkins Coie LLP is the latest law firm to face the ire of President Donald Trump, with Trump ordering on Thursday the immediate suspension of the firm's security clearances over its diverse hiring efforts and its representation of certain political figures, including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

  • March 06, 2025

    Ex-Conrail CEO Blames Saul Ewing For Casino Deal Fallout

    Former Conrail CEO David LeVan has sued Saul Ewing in Pennsylvania state court for legal malpractice, claiming its representation of him during the fallout of a botched deal to open a casino in Gettysburg left him open to $11 million in liability.

  • March 06, 2025

    Bove May Sidestep Discipline In Adams Scandal, Experts Say

    Ethics complaints piling up against acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove over his efforts to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams could result in disciplinary action at the state level, but it's highly unlikely that he'll face any consequences from the U.S. Department of Justice and its office charged with investigating attorney misconduct, experts say.

  • March 06, 2025

    Ga. Attys Fight Bid To 'Hijack' $44M Realtor Settlement

    Attorneys hoping to finalize a $44 million class action settlement in Georgia with four real estate brokerages urged a federal judge Thursday to reject a bid to "hijack" their litigation by the lawyers behind the series of landmark settlements with the National Association of Realtors and various brokerages over their fee inflation practices.

  • March 06, 2025

    Bankruptcy Court's Input Sought In Judge Romance Row

    A federal judge asked a Texas bankruptcy court to determine if the CEO of a now-bankrupt barge company has standing to sue over a former judge's secret romance with a Jackson Walker partner.

  • March 06, 2025

    Fake NY Lawyer Charged With Stealing $200K From Clients

    A New York man has been indicted on charges he impersonated a lawyer and stole $200,000 from clients over the course of nearly three years, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

  • March 06, 2025

    Contempt Of Atty's 'Own Making,' Judge Says In Allowing Trial

    A Dutch software company can't push back a copyright trial after one of its attorneys from Womble Bond Dickinson was held in contempt and was temporarily kicked off the case, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, finding the predicament "entirely of counsel's own making."

  • March 06, 2025

    NJ Atty Seeks Exit From Developer Suit Over Escrow Cashout

    A New Jersey attorney who served as agent on an escrow agreement asked to escape a developer's lawsuit that came after a venture capital firm failed to produce a $6 million loan to build a luxury hotel in Taos, New Mexico.

  • March 05, 2025

    Former Kaufman Dolowich Atty Settles Bias Suit Against Firm

    A former Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck LLP associate settled his lawsuit accusing the law firm of discriminating and retaliating against him after he requested accommodations for his hearing loss and urged the firm to better help attorneys with disabilities feel valued, the attorney's counsel told a Pennsylvania federal judge Tuesday.

  • March 05, 2025

    Fla. Chiropractor Bilked State Farm For $2.7M, 11th Circ. Told

    State Farm urged an Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday to find that it had shelled out $2.7 million to an unscrupulous Florida chiropractor who paid kickbacks for medically unnecessary claims, arguing that the provider should be held liable for fraud under a theory that he violated a state licensure exemption.

  • March 05, 2025

    Justices Asked To Recuse Fitbit Judge Over Google Ties

    A Silicon Valley-based patent-holding company that lost its infringement case against Fitbit is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California federal judge and her husband's financial ties to Fitbit parent Google are so strong that "if these circumstances do not warrant recusal ... then nothing does."

Expert Analysis

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Top 10 Legal Malpractice Defenses As Claims Tick Up

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    As legal malpractice claims and payouts increase, law firms should remember certain time-tested defenses, such as asserting no duty to nonclients, omissions beyond the scope of engagement or lack of proximate cause, say attorneys at Goulston & Storrs.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Immigration Atty Tips For Avoiding Prosecution Under Trump

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    Under the incoming Trump administration, immigration attorneys may need to protect themselves from prosecution when advising clients who may not qualify for relief sought by choosing their words carefully and keeping other key factors in mind, says Michele Carney at Carney & Marchi.

  • The Malpractice Perils Of Elder Abuse Liability

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    Recent cases show that the circumstances under which an attorney may be sued for financial elder abuse remain unsettled, but practitioners can avoid these malpractice claims altogether by taking proactive steps, like documenting the process of evaluating a client's directives under appropriate standards, says Edward Donohue at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Plugging Gov't Leaks Is Challenging, But Not A Pipe Dream

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    As shown by ongoing legal battles involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Sean “Diddy” Combs, it’s challenging for defendants to obtain relief when they believe the government leaked sensitive information to the media, but defense counsel can take certain steps to mitigate the harm, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Rank-And-File DOJ Attorneys Will Keep Calm And Carry On

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    Career prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice often pride themselves on their ability to remain apolitical in order to ensure consistency and keep the department’s mission afloat, and the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to upend this tradition, says Michael Landman at Bird Marella.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • What Lawyers Can Learn From High School AI Suit

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    A pending Massachusetts lawsuit regarding artificial intelligence use in an academic setting underscores the need for attorneys to educate themselves on AI technology and tools that affect their clients so they can advise on establishing clear expectations and limits around the permissible use of AI, say attorneys at Hinckley Allen.

  • Service Providers Must Mitigate 'Secondary Target' Risks

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    A lawsuit recently filed in an Illinois federal court against marketing agency Publicis over its work for opioid manufacturers highlights an uptick in litigation against professional service providers hired by clients that engaged in alleged misconduct — so potential targets of such suits should be sure to conduct proper risk analysis and mitigation, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Series

    Flying Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Achieving my childhood dream of flying airplanes made me a better lawyer — and a better person — because it taught me I can conquer difficult goals when I leave my comfort zone, focus on the demands of the moment and commit to honing my skills, says Ivy Cadle at Baker Donelson.

  • Mitigating Defamation Liability Risks Of AI-Generated Content

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    Until Congress and the courts provide clear guidance about defamation liability stemming from generative artificial intelligence tools, companies should begin building controls to prevent the creation of defamatory content, says Michael Gerrity at Accenture.

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