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Legal Ethics
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March 21, 2025
3rd Circ. Axes Ethics Claim Against Judge Critical Of Trump
A D.C. federal judge who criticized then-candidate Donald Trump in a CNN interview last spring has escaped judicial misconduct charges, with the Judicial Council of the Third Circuit finding that the judge had not violated judicial canons in his statements regarding Trump's social media posts amid a pending legal action.
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March 21, 2025
Colo. Disbars 'Unregulatable' NY Atty For Abandoning Clients
An immigration attorney licensed in New York may no longer practice in Colorado federal courts due to her track record of abandoning clients, disciplinary authorities have ruled, with the order set to be enacted next month.
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March 21, 2025
DOJ Seeks To DQ Judge From Perkins Coie's Exec Order Suit
The U.S. Department of Justice moved Friday to disqualify the D.C. federal judge presiding over Perkins Coie LLP's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting the firm for its diversity-focused hiring efforts and its political representation.
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March 21, 2025
Wright Says Defamation Suit Did Not Violate Anti-SLAPP Law
Onetime Federal Trade Commission member and law professor Joshua Wright, who recently dropped a $108 million defamation suit against two attorneys who accused him of sexual misconduct, is now fighting a sanctions bid brought by one of the women, arguing it hinges on "selective — and largely misleading — presentation of evidence."
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March 21, 2025
No Suspension Pause For Ex-Alex Jones Atty, Ethics Boss Says
A former Alex Jones attorney's two-week suspension from practicing law in Connecticut should not be halted amid an impending appeal, but he should get credit for a previous weeklong suspension he served over the same mishandling of confidential information about family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims, the state's chief legal ethics official said in a new filing.
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March 21, 2025
Ex-Buzbee Client Says Roc Nation Can't Exit Conspiracy Suit
Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter's company Roc Nation can't exit a lawsuit that claims his company conspired to "finance" malpractice suits against attorney Tony Buzbee because it was "an integral and driving force" behind the alleged misconduct, according to a response filed in Texas federal court to a motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds.
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March 21, 2025
Musk Atty Spiro Evading Subpoena, Twitter Investors Say
A class of investors suing Elon Musk over allegations he tried to smear Twitter to lower the price of his $44 billion acquisition of the site says one of Musk's Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP attorneys and close advisers has refused to accept service of a subpoena to be deposed and should be served by alternative means.
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March 21, 2025
Judge Accused Of Bias Expresses Regret Over MDL Remarks
The chief judge of the Eleventh Circuit has dismissed a judicial ethics complaint alleging that a Florida federal judge had shown impermissible bias in favor of women leading the multidistrict litigation over the hormonal contraceptive drug Depo-Provera, after the judge said she "regrets any misunderstanding" and took steps to address the issue.
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March 21, 2025
Conn. Firm Appeals Client's Win In Suit Over Email Scam
The Connecticut law firm Mancini Provenzano & Futtner LLC says it will appeal a negligence verdict won by a client after a fraudster infiltrated one of its attorney's emails and tricked the client into wiring $90,586 to an incorrect account.
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March 21, 2025
Pa. Attorney's Discovery Dispute Leads To Sanction Threat
A plaintiffs attorney's discovery demands and insistence that a defendant follow his firm's "mandatory" electronic discovery procedures have led a Pennsylvania federal judge to threaten sanctions over the lawyer's alleged failure to try to resolve disputes in good faith, according to court filings in a pregnancy-discrimination case.
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March 21, 2025
High Court Says Misleading Statements To FDIC Not Criminal
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Seventh Circuit ruling that upheld the conviction of a former Chicago alderman for making false statements about loans from a defunct bank, clarifying that the federal law in question criminalizes false statements but not those that are merely misleading.
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March 20, 2025
Trump Rescinds Paul Weiss Order After Firm Strikes Deal
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will rescind an executive order suspending security clearances held by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP employees after the law firm agreed to not adopt DEI hiring practices and to provide $40 million worth of pro bono services to support administration initiatives.
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March 20, 2025
Fox News Host Wins Atty Fees Over Failed Defamation Row
A New York federal judge on Thursday ordered a former business associate of Hunter Biden and an attorney to pay more than $331,000 in attorney fees to a Fox News analyst they targeted in a failed defamation lawsuit, saying the analyst's counsel didn't engage in "duplicative" and "opportunistic" billing practices.
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March 20, 2025
9th Circ. Judge Takes Aim At Calif. Gun Ruling On YouTube
A Ninth Circuit judge on Thursday took to YouTube to issue a dissent over the court's decision to ban in California all high-capacity magazines for weapons, a move that several of his fellow judges lamented as "wildly improper" and said they needed to address "lest the genre proliferate."
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March 20, 2025
LA Hit With Sanctions Request In Encampment Sweep Lawsuit
Homeless residents accused the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office of hiding documents they requested in their suit challenging the constitutionality of encampment sweeps, asking a California federal court for case-ending sanctions for the second time in two weeks.
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March 20, 2025
Payday Lender Gets Appeal On Lawyer's Blackmail Conflict
The Second Circuit has decided to let a former payday lending executive, now incarcerated on charges that he ran a fraudulent $2 billion lending scheme, move ahead with a new appeal after hearing that his trial counsel faced blackmail from another client.
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March 20, 2025
Philadelphia Inquirer Gets OK For Data Breach Class Deal
A Pennsylvania federal judge has given the final okay to a $525,000 settlement that resolves litigation against the Philadelphia Inquirer alleging the paper failed to protect the personal information of over 25,000 people compromised by a cyberattack.
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March 20, 2025
Faegre Drinker Faces Sanctions Bid In Trump IP Song Suit
Isaac Hayes' estate urged a Georgia federal judge Thursday to sanction a conservative political group and its Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath counsel in a copyright lawsuit over President Donald Trump's playing of Hayes' "Hold On, I'm Comin'" hit song at rallies, arguing they filed a "frivolous" dismissal bid.
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March 20, 2025
Attys Suing FIFA Appear To Have Used AI In Fighting DQ Bid
A Puerto Rico federal judge is threatening sanctions for attorneys accusing soccer's international governing body, its Puerto Rican affiliate and a regional soccer association of trying to block local rivals, after the attorneys appeared to use artificial intelligence to help write briefs containing citations to nonexistent cases.
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March 20, 2025
Ga. Judge Defends 'Daddy Issues' Detention In Divorce Case
An Atlanta trial judge facing allegations that she intervened on behalf of her uncle in a legal proceeding and had a woman locked in a cell during her parents' divorce hearing called Wednesday for the ethics charges against her to be dismissed, arguing her due process rights were violated by a watchdog commission.
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March 20, 2025
Former Ohio Atty Admits To Lying To FBI In Trafficking Probe
A former Columbus, Ohio, criminal defense attorney pled guilty in federal court to making false statements to the FBI regarding a cooperating witness he represented in a drug and sex trafficking probe the bureau was pursuing, acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti announced Thursday.
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March 20, 2025
Fla. Judges Cleared To Open Flight School, Join Condo Panel
In separate opinions, Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee said it would be OK for a judge to open a flight training school, and for a judge to volunteer on the subcommittee for a condominium association's board of directors.
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March 20, 2025
Feds Seek 3-Year Sentence For Med Mal Atty's Extortion Ploy
Federal prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence for a prominent Baltimore attorney found guilty of a $25 million extortion attempt against the University of Maryland Medical Center over false claims that the hospital knowingly transplanted "diseased" and rejected organs into patients.
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March 20, 2025
Berger Singerman Rips Bid To Save Fla. Malpractice Suit
Berger Singerman LLP and one of its attorneys have asked a Florida state court once again to toss a malpractice lawsuit related to hurricane damages brought by former client ARC Resorts LLC, saying the business is seeking to "dodge dismissal through obfuscation."
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March 20, 2025
NJ Firm Can't Force Arbitration Of Ex-Leader's Firing Suit
New Jersey personal injury firm Ginarte Gonzalez & Winograd LLP cannot steer a former managing partner who claims the firm retaliated against him for protected activity into arbitration after it waived the right to arbitrate his claims before a judge, a state appellate court ruled Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Series
Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.
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Opinion
Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits
With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.
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How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program
During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.
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Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.