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Legal Ethics
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June 04, 2024
Chief Justice's Leadership Is Falling Short, Schumer Says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday criticized U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for what he sees as lackluster efforts to address ethical impropriety among high court members.
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June 04, 2024
J&J Owes $260M To Ore. Talc Mesothelioma Patient, Jury Says
An Oregon state jury has ruled that Johnson & Johnson owes $260 million to a woman who said she developed mesothelioma from breathing in asbestos during daily talcum powder use.
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June 04, 2024
Franchise Co. Faces Sanctions For 'Frivolous' 7th Circ. Appeal
The Seventh Circuit has upheld a district court's order that restaurant franchise company Sun Holdings Inc. must pay insurer American Zurich a roughly $1.1 million arbitration award plus interest and attorney fees in a dispute over a workers' compensation policy, and ordered Sun Holdings to show cause for why further sanctions aren't warranted for a "frivolous appeal."
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June 04, 2024
Northrop Fights Retirees' 9th Circ. Bid For New Judge
Northrop Grumman has asked the Ninth Circuit to keep a proposed ERISA class action in U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II's courtroom, arguing it would be inappropriate to accept the retirees' bid to move the case before a different judge after two appellate court panels overturned Judge Wright's previous dismissals in the matter.
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June 04, 2024
Tax Law Firm Can't Kick Ex-Clients' Class Suit To Arbitration
Former clients of a Florida-based tax law firm who live in Wisconsin can move forward with their proposed class action accusing the firm of malpractice and charging illegal fees, a Wisconsin federal judge ruled Tuesday, rejecting the firm's requests to toss the suit or move it to arbitration.
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June 04, 2024
Netflix Settles Central Park 5 Defamation Case Ahead Of Trial
Netflix has settled a lawsuit alleging one of its docuseries defamed a Manhattan prosecutor who was involved in the Central Park Five case, agreeing Tuesday to donate $1 million to a nonprofit dedicated to preventing wrongful convictions.
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June 04, 2024
Garland Defends DOJ Integrity, Demurs On Justices' Ethics
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday defended the Department of Justice's independence, deflecting questions about ethics scandals at the U.S. Supreme Court and rejecting Donald Trump's "conspiracy theory" that federal prosecutors were the real force behind his recent conviction.
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June 04, 2024
County Says Exec Can't Pin Firing On Lawyer Bashing
A fired county executive's letter calling the county's legal counsel incompetent was sent as part of his official job duties, a Michigan county said Monday, arguing that the comments were not protected speech and can't give rise to a retaliation claim.
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June 04, 2024
Jury Still Deadlocked Over Carhartt Atty's Embezzlement Trial
A Detroit-area jury remained deadlocked Tuesday as it deliberated for the second day on embezzlement charges against a Michigan attorney who is accused of stealing millions from Carhartt heiress Gretchen Valade when he was trustee of her irrevocable trust.
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June 04, 2024
Clinton Says Dismissal Of Trump's RICO Suit Was Warranted
Hillary Clinton and members of the Democratic National Committee urged the Eleventh Circuit not to revive Donald Trump's suit alleging they conspired to push false claims of Russian election interference in 2016, arguing that the dismissal and resulting sanctions for pursuing the frivolous suit should be kept in place.
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June 04, 2024
Liberty Mutual Wants NJ Judge Removed From Accident Case
Liberty Mutual urged a New Jersey federal judge to recuse himself from a construction accident coverage case Monday arguing that he failed to disclose at the beginning of litigation that he holds multiple policies with the insurer dating back to 1980 and was previously investigated over a missing jewelry claim.
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June 04, 2024
Aircraft Engine Co. Aims To Sink Suit Of Its Former Attorney
An aircraft engine manufacturer sued by its former attorney over what she said was a malicious lawsuit against her for leaving to represent plaintiffs suing the company has asked a federal judge to toss her Dragonetti Act case.
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June 04, 2024
Paxton Asks Texas Justices To End Bar's Political 'Lawfare'
The Texas bar's ethics lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton over his challenge to the 2020 presidential election violates the state constitution's separation of powers and is barred by sovereign immunity, Paxton told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday, calling the case "politically motivated lawfare" in an announcement.
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June 04, 2024
Mondelez, BCLP Must Face Negligence Claims Over 2023 Breach
An Illinois federal judge has trimmed the majority of claims in proposed data privacy class actions brought by Mondelez workers against their employer and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP stemming from a 2023 data breach, although the company and law firm couldn't shake the cases entirely.
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June 04, 2024
Buchanan Ingersoll Denies Deceit Over Harrisburg Incinerator
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC didn't give Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, bad advice when it set up a debt deal that allowed construction to continue on a controversial incinerator project that sent the state capital into financial distress, an attorney for the firm told the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Tuesday.
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June 04, 2024
Baldwin Prosecutors Seek Immunity For Armorer's Testimony
New Mexico state prosecutors asked a judge Monday to grant immunity to a convicted "Rust" film armorer in a bid to compel her to take the stand during actor-producer Alec Baldwin's upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial in the on-set shooting death of a cinematographer.
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June 04, 2024
Houston IP Firm Settles Trade Secrets Case With Ex-Law Clerk
Houston-based intellectual property law firm Lloyd & Mousilli PLLC and a former law clerk accused of stealing confidential information while working virtually from California reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the firm in a Texas federal court.
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June 03, 2024
Colo. Defendants Must Show Real Need To Make DAs Testify
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled that criminal defendants must have a "compelling and legitimate need" for forcing their prosecutor to testify, concluding that a trial court judge in Boulder County was wrong to force such testimony in an assault case.
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June 03, 2024
5th Circ. Mulls Acts Vs. Belief In Anti-Abortion Worker's Firing
The Fifth Circuit on Monday seemed torn over whether it should "split hairs" between religious conduct and religious belief as it weighed whether to uphold a Southwest flight attendant's win in a wrongful termination suit over graphic anti-abortion messages she sent her union president.
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June 03, 2024
No Sanctions For 'Fraudulent' Signatures In 3M Earplug MDL
A Florida federal judge has decided against sanctioning two law firms that signed documents in place of their clients but chastised their lawyers' "obviously improper" act, which could have cut their clients out of their share of the $6 billion settlement in the 3M combat earplugs multidistrict litigation.
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June 03, 2024
Burford-Sysco Plaintiff Swap Stays Nixed In Price-Fixing Case
A Minnesota federal judge refused Monday to let a unit of legal investment firm Burford Capital substitute for Sysco Corp. as plaintiff in sprawling price-fixing lawsuits against pork and beef producers, agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusions that allowing a litigation funder to dictate antitrust settlements "could have a detrimental impact."
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June 03, 2024
NY 'No-Fault' Insurance Fraudster Gets 10 Years
A federal judge on Monday sentenced the ringleader of an insurance fraud scheme to the maximum term of 10 years in prison for what prosecutors say was a bribery-fueled, 14-year, $60 million scam that exploited New York's no-fault laws.
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June 03, 2024
Surgeons Denied Early Exit From GEICO's Bogus Injury Suit
A pair of orthopedic surgeons can't escape GEICO's lawsuit claiming they conspired with a personal injury attorney to file inflated insurance claims for car accident victims based on bogus medical documents, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Drug Cos. Can Depose DC AG In Drug Price-Fixing Row
A Connecticut federal judge reluctantly ordered the District of Columbia Attorney General's Office to be deposed by the drug companies wrapped up in more than 40 states' claims over an alleged price-fixing conspiracy, noting that he would not have done so but for the case being remanded from a sprawling multidistrict litigation in Pennsylvania.
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June 03, 2024
Chicago Restaurant Biz Can Fix Testimony Without Sanctions
A Cook County judge on Monday refused to order the management group behind celebrated Chicago eatery Maple & Ash to produce thousands of documents that it claims are subject to attorney-client privilege as a sanction for misstating when an engagement letter was signed in sworn testimony, saying the issue was concerning but deeming the relief sought inappropriate.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Why The Original 'Rocket Docket' Will Likely Resume Its Pace
Though the Eastern District of Virginia, for decades the fastest federal trial court in the country, experienced significant pandemic-related slowdowns, several factors unique to the district suggest that it will soon return to its speedy pace, say Dabney Carr and Robert Angle at Troutman Pepper.
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Crypto Coverage After FTX Fall: Crime And Custody Coverage
Cryptocurrency firm FTX's recent implosion provides a case study for potential crypto exposure under traditional insurance policies, and suggests carriers should ask some basic underwriting questions, including whether a company engages in transactions involving cryptocurrencies or holds digital assets in custody, says Anjali Das at Wilson Elser.
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The Discipline George Santos Would Face If He Were A Lawyer
Rep. George Santos, who has become a national punchline for his alleged lies, hasn't faced many consequences yet, but if he were a lawyer, even his nonwork behavior would be regulated by the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and violations in the past have led to sanctions and even disbarment, says Mark Hinderks at Stinson.
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Why FERC's Proposed Duty Of Candor Rule Is Problematic
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering adopting a new regulation that would prohibit the submission of any inaccurate or false information when communicating with the agency, which would raise significant due process and First Amendment concerns, say attorneys at Skadden.
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A Litigation Move That Could Conserve Discovery Resources
Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben proposes the preliminary legal opinion procedure — seeking a court's opinion on a disputed legal standard at the outset, rather than the close, of discovery — as a useful resource-preservation tool for legally complex, discovery-intensive litigation.
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Litigators Should Approach AI Tools With Caution
Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT hold potential to streamline various aspects of the litigation process, resulting in improved efficiency and outcomes, but should be carefully double-checked for confidentiality, plagiarism and accuracy concerns, say Zachary Foster and Melanie Kalmanson at Quarles & Brady.
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Crypto Coverage After FTX Fall: Accountant And Atty Liability
The recent fall of cryptocurrency firm FTX highlights complexities regarding accounting and tax reporting for digital assets, and reveals lawyers’ potential liability exposure when providing services to crypto firms — as a result, insurers may face unintended vulnerabilities related to this nebulous landscape, say Anjali Das and Farzana Ahmed at Wilson Elser.