Legal Ethics

  • August 02, 2024

    Fla. Atty Cops To Attempted DC Bombing, Explosion In Texas

    A Florida criminal defense attorney pled guilty on Friday to federal charges stemming from an attempted bombing outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2023 and the bombing of a satirical sculpture of communist leaders in San Antonio, Texas, in 2022.

  • August 02, 2024

    Cognizant Bribery Trial Delayed Again — Until 2025

    Trial in a five-year-old case alleging two former Cognizant executives authorized a bribe to a government official in India has been delayed again, this time by six months, so prosecutors can complete necessary depositions in that country, according to a federal court order handed down Friday.

  • August 02, 2024

    Mich. Judge DQ'd Over 'Disdain' Of Ineffective-Counsel Claims

    A Michigan state judge showed bias in favoring a criminal defendant's trial counsel who had previously clerked for the court, a state appeals court found Thursday, disqualifying the judge from presiding over the defendant's ineffective-assistance of counsel hearing.

  • August 02, 2024

    St. Louis Attys Can't Get Acquittal In $4M Tax Avoidance Case

    Two Missouri-based attorneys, a father and daughter duo found guilty of participating in a $4 million tax avoidance scheme, will not be granted a new trial or an acquittal, despite their assertions that a number of errors tainted their trial, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Friday.

  • August 02, 2024

    Defamation, Assault Suit Among Ex-Atty Colleagues Trimmed

    A Pennsylvania federal judge this week tossed part of a former Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP attorney's defamation suit against two former colleagues, saying the statements the colleagues made about his actions were found credible by a Delaware court when it confirmed a protection for abuse order.

  • August 02, 2024

    Manhattan DA Slams Trump's 'Regurgitated' Recusal Bid

    The Manhattan district attorney pilloried Donald Trump's renewed request for the judge overseeing his hush money case to recuse himself, branding it a "regurgitated" attempt to rehash issues the court already decided without any new facts — besides Kamala Harris' presidential bid.

  • August 02, 2024

    Ex-Lewis Brisbois Partner's Pay Bias Suit Sent To Arbitration

    Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP can arbitrate its former partner's gender discrimination suit claiming she was retaliated against for raising concerns about the firm's "unethical billing practices," a California state court judge ruled Friday, staying the entire case pending arbitration.

  • August 02, 2024

    Prosecutors To Remain On Young Thug Trial, Judge Rules

    Two of the prosecutors in the long-running gang trial of rapper Young Thug will be allowed to stay on the case over defense attorneys' objections that they should be disqualified for their role in a secret meeting with the trial's former judge, the case's new presider ruled Thursday.

  • August 01, 2024

    Lewis Brisbois Slams RICO Claims Alleging 'Sham' Suits

    Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has urged a California federal judge Tuesday to toss Chinese investors' accusations that its attorneys filed lawsuits to cover their failure to read "draconian" contract terms that led the investors to lose their $92.5 million stake in a $2.5 billion Los Angeles mixed-used development.

  • August 01, 2024

    Georgia Judge Can't Order Woman To Pay For Jury Costs

    A Georgia appeals court on Thursday said a trial court erred when it ordered a woman who voluntarily dismissed a personal injury suit during jury selection to pay more than $2,000 for jury and bailiff costs, saying there is no statute authorizing such an order.

  • August 01, 2024

    Duane Morris Atty Says White Men Get Unfair Leg Up On Pay

    A Black attorney sued Duane Morris LLP in California federal court, alleging the firm systemically underpaid female and nonwhite attorneys while also engaging in an employee misclassification scheme that allowed it to offload firm expenses onto nonequity partners.

  • August 01, 2024

    No Sanctions In Mom's $13.4M Feud With Conn. Group Home

    A Connecticut state court judge has ruled that no sanctions are immediately necessary in a post-verdict feud between a group home accused of dodging depositions and an 81-year-old mother seeking to collect a $13.4 million judgment surrounding her son's death.

  • August 01, 2024

    Colo. Judges Can't Tell Magistrates To Redo Rulings

    Colorado state courts that reject a magistrate's order can't send it back to the magistrate for reconsideration, a state appellate panel ruled Thursday, stating in a published opinion that district judges must issue a new ruling themselves.

  • August 01, 2024

    Reed Smith Says NJ High Court Ruling Limits Ex-Atty's Claims

    A recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling "dramatically changes the landscape and scope" of a former Reed Smith LLP attorney's discrimination suit, the firm has told a state court judge in a brief asking that discovery and damages be limited and one claim be dismissed.

  • August 01, 2024

    Judge Maintains Bulk Of Ex-Rutgers Law Student's Bias Suit

    A New Jersey state judge on Thursday rebuffed for the most part an attempt by Rutgers University to prune a former law student's lawsuit alleging antisemitic discrimination, saying dozens of passages the school sought to excise from the 260-paragraph complaint are relevant to the case.

  • August 01, 2024

    DC Panel Wants 2-Year Sanction For Ex-DOJ Atty Jeffrey Clark

    A Washington, D.C., attorney disciplinary panel on Thursday recommended a two-year suspension for former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, finding he acted "with truly extraordinary recklessness" when he sought to promote former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election.

  • August 01, 2024

    Fla. Justices Sanction Paralegal For Immigration Practice

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday told a paralegal and the immigration legal services businesses she has operated that she must reimburse clients who were misled into believing they were working with licensed attorneys.

  • August 01, 2024

    Feds Urge Against Steve Bannon's En Banc Rehearing Bid

    The federal government is urging the D.C. Circuit not to revisit its long-standing precedent on the meaning of the contempt of Congress law as former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon looks to undo his conviction under the statute.

  • August 01, 2024

    Former NC Paralegal Gets 30 Months For $2M Embezzlement

    A former paralegal was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Thursday for embezzling more than $2 million from the clients of a North Carolina law firm, with a federal judge agreeing to reduce the government's recommended 41-month prison sentence.

  • August 01, 2024

    6th Circ. Dashes Appeal Of Mich. Township's Ex-GC

    A Michigan township's former general counsel was not denied due process when his position was eliminated in 2020, the Sixth Circuit has ruled, agreeing with the district court that the attorney's employment agreement did not guarantee him a job.

  • August 01, 2024

    NY Appeals Court Upholds Trump Gag Order

    A New York appeals court on Thursday rejected Donald Trump's bid to strike down a gag order that bars him from threatening court and district attorney staff in his criminal hush money case ahead of his scheduled sentencing next month, as the former president renewed his bid to vacate his conviction following the U.S. Supreme Court's immunity ruling.

  • August 01, 2024

    Schumer And Senate Dem Bill Would Reverse Trump Immunity

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and more than 30 of his Democratic colleagues introduced a bill on Thursday to undo the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that former President Donald Trump has immunity for official acts.

  • July 31, 2024

    DOD Says 9/11 'Mastermind,' 2 Accomplices Reach Plea Deals

    The man accused of planning the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and two of his accused accomplices have reached plea agreements in their military commission cases, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

  • July 31, 2024

    Live Nation Says In-House Attys Can't Access DOJ Docs

    As it warned would be the case, Live Nation is telling a New York federal judge that it has no in-house counsel that will be able to meet his rules on counsel access to highly confidential material in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust suit against the live events company.

  • July 31, 2024

    Lewis Brisbois TM Foe Can't Ax Injunction, 5th Circ. Says

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday upheld an injunction against three Texans accused of ripping off the Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP name, saying it's clear the only reason the defendants created the infringing entity "was to ride on the back" of the BigLaw firm's reputation.

Expert Analysis

  • Don't Forget Alumni Engagement When Merging Law Firms

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    Neglecting law firm alumni programs after a merger can sever the deep connections attorneys have with their former firms, but by combining good data management and creating new opportunities to reconnect, firms can make every member in their expanded network of colleagues feel valued, say Clare Roath and Erin Warner at Troutman Pepper.

  • Without Stronger Due Diligence, Attys Risk AML Regulation

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    Amid increasing pressure to mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing risks in gatekeeper professions, the legal industry will need to clarify and strengthen existing client due diligence measures — or risk the federal regulation attorneys have long sought to avoid, says Jeremy Glicksman at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

  • Insureds' Notice Pleading May Be Insufficient In Federal Court

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    A recent New Jersey federal court ruling in Bauman v. Hanover Insurance held that bare-bones notice pleading was insufficient and dismissed the policyholder's coverage complaint, a reminder that courts may require more than an expression of general disagreement with an insurance company's denial letter to proceed with the case, says Eugene Killian at The Killian Firm.

  • Every Lawyer Can Act To Prevent Peer Suicide

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    Members of the legal industry can help prevent suicide among their colleagues, and better protect their own mental health, by learning the predictors and symptoms of depression among attorneys and knowing when and how to get practical aid to peers in crisis, says Joan Bibelhausen at Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.

  • Building On Successful Judicial Assignment Reform In Texas

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    Prompt action by the Judicial Conference could curtail judge shopping and improve the efficiency and procedural fairness of the federal courts by implementing random districtwide assignment of cases, which has recently proven successful in Texas patent litigation, says Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper.

  • Opinion

    Ga. Needs To Resolve Cannabis Counsel Confusion

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    Georgia’s medical cannabis regulator finally adopted rules for low-THC oil last month, but a 2021 ethics ruling prohibits lawyers from advising participants in the state’s legal program and creates a confounding landscape that the state bar and courts must address, say Whitt Steineker and Mason Kruze at Bradley Arant.

  • Patent Litigants Should Be Vigilant After Rare Retrial Order

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    A California federal court's recent unusual order for a new trial for attorney misconduct in Pavemetrics v. Tetra Tech should remind patent litigants to be careful about arguments that frame an infringement case in a way that does not fairly reflect the dispute at hand, say Ranganath Sudarshan and Yuval Mor at Covington.

  • DOJ's Compensation Reforms Pit Cos. Against Their Execs

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s new policy, incentivizing compliance-focused corporate compensation programs and prompt disclosures of misconduct, will complicate the relationship between companies and their executives, and create potential ethical conflicts for counsel, say Solomon Shinerock and Annika Conrad at Lewis Baach.

  • Do Videoconferences Establish Jurisdiction With Defendants?

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    What it means to have minimum contacts in a foreign jurisdiction is changing as people become more accustomed to meeting via video, and defendants’ participation in videoconferencing may be used as a sword or a shield in courts’ personal jurisdiction analysis, says Patrick Hickey at Moye White.

  • Opinion

    Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts

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    The worrying tendency for judges to say "it's just the law talking, not me" in American decision writing has coincided with an historic decline in respect for the courts, but this trend can be reversed if courts develop understandable legal standards and justify them in human terms, says Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.

  • 3 Reasons Why Congress Should Stay Out Of NY Trump Probe

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    Congress members should reconsider their investigation of the Manhattan district attorney’s indictment of former President Donald Trump for several key reasons — and if they persist, future congressional leadership should adopt a rule prohibiting this kind of local interference, say Kenyen Brown and Kevin Carroll at Hughes Hubbard.

  • Don't Let Client Demands Erode Law Firm Autonomy

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    As clients increasingly impose requirements for attorney hiring and retention related to diversity and secondment, law firms must remember their ethical duties, as well as broader issues of lawyer development, culture and firm integrity, to maintain their independence while meaningfully responding to social changes, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Opinion

    Federal Judge's Amici Invitation Is A Good Idea, With Caveats

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    An Arkansas federal judge’s recent order — inviting amicus briefs in every civil case before him — has merit, but its implementation may raise practical questions about the role of junior attorneys, economic considerations and other issues, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

  • Fox Ex-Producer Case Is A Lesson In Joint Representation

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    A former Fox News producer's allegations that the network's lawyers pressured her to give misleading testimony in Fox's defamation battle with Dominion Voting Systems should remind lawyers representing a nonparty witness that the rules of joint representation apply, says Jared Marx at HWG.

  • Opinion

    Stanford Law Protest Highlights Rise Of Incivility In Discourse

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    The recent Stanford Law School incident, where students disrupted a speech by U.S. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, should be a reminder to teach law students how to be effective advocates without endangering physical and mental health, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada.

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