Legal Ethics

  • February 11, 2025

    Ill. Atty Beats Wire Fraud Retrial After Privilege Violation

    An Illinois jury has acquitted a former Freeborn & Peters partner of charges that he helped a client shift assets to avoid creditors ahead of its anticipated bankruptcy filing, after a privilege violation prompted the trial judge to exclude certain evidence from the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Eaton Fire Victim Wants Sanctions Against SoCal Edison

    A victim of the recent devastating Eaton Fire in Altadena has told a California state judge that Southern California Edison and its attorneys should face sanctions for allegedly concealing efforts to reenergize electrical transmission lines while the blaze was still burning last month.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ye Sanctioned, Ordered To Sit For Depo In Fired Guard's Suit

    A California judge ordered Ye on Tuesday to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit from a former security guard at the embattled rapper's Donda Academy and sanctioned him $500 for skipping a deposition, while also scolding Ye's counsel about the attorney's apparently difficult "history" before his court.

  • February 11, 2025

    NJ Prosecutor Can Pursue Claim He Was Misled Over Resignation

    A New Jersey state judge has reinstated a claim in a lawsuit from the former Warren County prosecutor that he was deceived into resigning from his position by Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

  • February 11, 2025

    Starbucks Fights Fla. Defamation Suit Over Atty's Statements

    Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. wants out of a lawsuit brought by a patent-licensing company executive's defamation lawsuit, arguing its attorney was not speaking for the company when she made allegedly defamatory statements in an October news article.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ex-Major Lindsey Employee Must Face Firm's $4.8M Claim

    A New York bankruptcy court ruled Monday that a former Major Lindsey & Africa LLC employee embroiled in over a decade of litigation with the recruiting firm cannot discharge a $4.8 million claim it filed against her.

  • February 11, 2025

    Ex-Client May Not Appeal Morgan & Morgan Arbitration Order

    A former Morgan & Morgan PA client may not pursue legal malpractice claims against the firm in Georgia federal court, a judge ruled Tuesday, upholding an earlier order sending the matter to arbitration.

  • February 11, 2025

    Texas Bar Eyes Ban On In-House Referrals From Non-Attys

    A proposed ethics opinion from the State Bar of Texas would prohibit nonlawyer-owned for-profit companies from giving customers the option of using the business' in-house attorneys for the "actual cost" of legal services when the work is unrelated to the mission of the company.

  • February 11, 2025

    NJ Senator Seeks Answers On Departure Of Watchdog's Chief

    The New Jersey state senator who first called for the resignation of the State Commission of Investigation's chief executive following questions about her residency and a second full-time job wants to know how much the agency's commissioners knew before hiring her.

  • February 11, 2025

    NYC Mayor Says Bribery Case Is Over, Despite Silent Docket

    Amid an absence of activity on the court docket, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared Tuesday that the federal bribery case against him "will no longer continue," following reports of a U.S. Department of Justice memo directing prosecutors to drop the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Remorse, Sobriety, Therapy Help Penn. Atty Avoid Disbarment

    A Fayette County, Pennsylvania, attorney who took accountability for ethics breaches including a money laundering conviction has escaped disbarment, with the state high court agreeing with its Disciplinary Board that mitigating factors should offset more stringent punishment.

  • February 10, 2025

    Injury Attys Admit 'Embarrassment' Of AI-Hallucinated Cites

    Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group expressed "great embarrassment" Monday when they told the Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard that the pretrial motions they filed did, indeed, contain case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence.

  • February 10, 2025

    Trump Ousts Office Of Government Ethics Director

    President Donald Trump has fired David Huitema, the director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the independent agency announced on Monday, less than two months after Huitema started as the agency's head.

  • February 10, 2025

    Investigators Say Texas Atty Lied To Help Clients Hide Assets

    A pair of court-appointed independent investigators have recommended that an attorney in Fort Worth be stripped of his license to practice in the Northern District of Texas because he lied to shield his clients' assets from $9 million in judgments.

  • February 10, 2025

    GenapSys Can't Claw Back Some Docs From Paul Hastings

    A California judge ruled that GenapSys Inc. can claw back some documents it inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit against Paul Hastings LLP, but that some documents discussed during depositions cannot be clawed back because attorneys for GenapSys did not lodge proper objections during the proceedings. 

  • February 10, 2025

    Atty Accused Of Impeding Model In Fla. NFL Player Injury Suit

    An OnlyFans model has urged a Florida state court to prevent an attorney for a Miami Dolphins wide receiver from attending a second deposition of the football player, saying the lawyer hasn't lawfully appeared in the case and is improperly interfering in the personal injury lawsuit.

  • February 10, 2025

    DOJ Brass Want Bribery Charges Against NYC Mayor Dropped

    The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to drop public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, an extraordinary development in the wake of a public courtship between the embattled mayor and President Donald Trump.

  • February 10, 2025

    Experts Sound Alarm After Musk, Vance Float Ignoring Judges

    Attorneys and constitutional experts say the warning lights "are blinking red" after Vice President JD Vance and Trump confidante Elon Musk took to social media to attack the independence of the judiciary over the weekend.

  • February 10, 2025

    Attys Shouldn't Be Sanctioned For Press Briefing, Parents Say

    The parents of a Black man police fatally shot in 2022 urged a Georgia federal judge not to sanction their Claiborne Firm PC attorneys for a holding a press conference that the city of Savannah says attempted to sway the jury that will hear the police officer's case.

  • February 10, 2025

    NJ Attys Agree To End Libel Suit Over Father's Money

    Prominent class action attorney Carl J. Mayer has settled a defamation lawsuit against his brother and two cousins that claimed the trio falsely accused Mayer of stealing money from his elderly father, leading to a drop-off in referrals from other attorneys.

  • February 10, 2025

    BCLP Received Improper OK To Challenge Ga. Fee Ruling

    A Georgia state appeals court said Monday that it improperly gave Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP the green light to appeal a trial court ruling ordering the firm to return more than $125,000 in connection to a dispute between an Atlanta attorney and an airport travel spa operator.

  • February 10, 2025

    Goldstein Rearrested After Feds Say He Hid Millions In Crypto

    U.S. Supreme Court lawyer and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein was arrested again Monday following his earlier release on criminal tax evasion charges, after prosecutors alleged that he secretly made millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions in recent days and was a serious risk to flee.

  • February 10, 2025

    Ex-FTC Commissioner's Accusers Call Damages Bid 'Fiction'

    Women who accused former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright of sexual misconduct stemming from his role as a law professor have told a Virginia judge that his damages expert in his defamation lawsuit against them failed to do his homework and his testimony shouldn't be allowed at the upcoming trial in the case.

  • February 07, 2025

    Injury Attys In Hot Water Over Possible AI-Hallucinated Cites

    Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group on Friday withdrew pretrial motions in a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard after a Wyoming federal court ordered the firms to explain why the filings contained what appears to be case law hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence.

  • February 07, 2025

    2nd Circ. Orders In-House Counsel Docs In Grand Jury Case

    The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that an in-house attorney for a publicly traded company under federal investigation in New York must turn over communications as part of a grand jury investigation under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Opinion

    Firing Of Jack Smith's Team Is A Threat To Rule Of Law

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    The acting attorney general’s justifications for firing prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases against President Donald Trump rest on a mischaracterization of legal norms, and this likely illegal move augurs poorly for the rule of law, say Bruce Green at Fordham University and Rebecca Roiphe at New York Law School.

  • Series

    Adventure Photography Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Photographing nature everywhere from Siberia to Cuba and Iceland to Rwanda provides me with a constant reminder to refresh, refocus and rethink the legal issues that my clients face, says Richard Birmingham at Davis Wright.

  • 5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates

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    In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.

  • Navigating Arbitration Confidentiality Challenges In Age Of AI

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    Artificial intelligence is already significantly involved in various aspects of arbitration and posing challenges for maintaining confidentiality, but relatively quickly implementable practices can be utilized as safeguards as AI tools continue to be integrated, says David Coher at CoherADR.

  • The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2024

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    Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2024, and explain how they may affect issues related to mass arbitration, consumer fraud, class certification and more.

  • Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year

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    Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.

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