Expert Analysis

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Recession Or Not, Elevated Restructuring Activity Is Coming

  

  2023 is set up to be a strong year for corporate distress and reorganization, recession withstanding, but it may not be the blowout year that some are expecting — depending on whether the Fed continues its inflation fight and whether sponsors can go all out to defend investments, says Michael Eisenband at FTI Consulting.

• 5th Circ. Confidential Witness Ruling Is A Big Change

  

  The Fifth Circuit's recent ruling in Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System v. Six Flags that confidential witness claims can be sufficient to establish scienter is a significant message that anonymous witness allegations should be credited, and plaintiffs should feel more confident including these claims in their securities fraud complaints, say James Christie and David Saldamando at Labaton Sucharow.

• 5 Ways Attorneys Can Use Emotion In Client Pitches

  

  Lawyers are skilled at using their high emotional intelligence to build rapport with clients, so when planning your next pitch, consider how you can create some emotional peaks, personal connections and moments of magic that might help you stick in prospective clients' minds and seal the deal, says consultant Diana Kander.

• 5 Keys To A Productive Mediation

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  Cortney Young at ADR Partners discusses factors that can help to foster success in mediation, including scheduling, preparation, managing client expectations and more.

• How Attys Can Prep Latin American Brands For US Entry

  

  Attorneys representing Latin American franchise systems entering the U.S. in 2023 should craft a careful strategy built around the dual-regulatory franchise scheme, intellectual property protection and other laws that may affect franchising, says Marc Lieberstein at Kilpatrick.

• Evaluating The Legal Ethics Of A ChatGPT-Authored Motion

  

  Aimee Furness and Sam Mallick at Haynes Boone asked ChatGPT to draft a motion to dismiss, and then scrutinized the resulting work product in light of attorneys' ethical and professional responsibility obligations.

• 7 Tips To Increase Your Law Firm's DEI Efforts In 2023

  

  Law firms looking to advance their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts should consider implementing new practices and initiatives this year, including some that require nominal additional effort or expense, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Gina Rubel at Furia Rubel.

• Series

  Keys To A 9-0 High Court Win: Get Back To Home Base

  

  When I argued for the petitioner in Morgan v. Sundance before the U.S. Supreme Court last year, I made the idea of consistency the cornerstone of my case and built a road map for my argument to ensure I could always return to that home-base theme, says Karla Gilbride at Public Justice.

• Proposed Immigration Fee Increases May Have A Silver Lining

  

  The recent proposal to increase immigration filing fees may help U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services improve efficiency, and even the 2,050% increase in the cost of registering for the H1-B lottery may have an upside, say Rebecca Bernhard and Mike Sevilla at Dorsey & Whitney.

• Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target

  

  Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.

• 5 Gen X Characteristics That Can Boost Legal Leadership

  

  As Generation X attorneys rise to fill top roles in law firms and corporations left by retiring baby boomers, they should embrace generational characteristics that will allow them to become better legal leaders, says Meredith Kahan at Whiteford Taylor.

• 6 Questions For Boutique Firms Considering Mergers

  

  To prepare for discussions with potential merger partners, boutique law firms should first consider the challenges they hope to address with a merger and the qualities they prioritize in possible partner firms, say Howard Cohl and Ron Nye at Major Lindsey.