Legal Ethics

  • September 25, 2025

    AI-Created Attack Video Among Threats Facing State Judges

    State judges sounded the alarm Thursday over "disturbing" threats leveled against them and fellow jurists across the country, from unsolicited pizza deliveries to an artificial intelligence-generated video of a jurist being murdered with a hatchet.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pence Group Backs 7th Circ. Pick Attacked By Conservatives

    Former Vice President Mike Pence's organization has come out in support of Seventh Circuit nominee Rebecca Taibleson following attacks against her from other conservative groups.

  • September 25, 2025

    Margolis Edelstein Denies Repping Insurer Claiming Malpractice

    Margolis Edelstein has asked a New Jersey state court to throw out an insurance company's malpractice suit over an alleged overvaluation in a settlement, arguing it had not represented the insurer in the settlement and therefore the malpractice claim "obviously" cannot survive.

  • September 25, 2025

    Texas Atty Loses Appeal In Ex-Client's Fraud Suit

    A Texas appellate court ruled Thursday that a Lone Star State lawyer's counterclaims against a former client suing him for fraud should be tossed under the state's free speech law, and denied the attorney's bid for dismissal under the anti-SLAPP statute because it was filed past the deadline.

  • September 25, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Revive Debt Collection Suit Against NJ Firm

    The Third Circuit rejected a bid Thursday from a woman suing Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP to revive her proposed class action over allegedly unfair debt collection practices after a federal trial court ruled that she filed her suit too late.

  • September 25, 2025

    Jackson Walker Reaches 2 New Deals Over Judge Romance

    Jackson Walker LLP has reached two new settlements to resolve claims related to a concealed romance between a former firm attorney and a onetime bankruptcy judge, marking at least five such settlements since the scandal broke.

  • September 25, 2025

    'Jailhouse Lawyer' Gets 16½ Years For Defrauding Inmates

    A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a recidivist fraudster to 16½ years in prison Thursday, saying the "jailhouse lawyer" cheated inmates out of at least $550,000 by getting them to pay for unauthorized legal filings and calling him an "incorrigible" con man.

  • September 25, 2025

    Driver Says Mazda's Sanctions Bid Is Itself Sanctionable

    The leader of a proposed class of Mazda drivers suing over an alleged oil burning defect is firing back at the automaker's call for sanctions for what it called "frivolous" postjudgment filings, saying Mazda's filing is legally baseless and filled with ad hominem attacks on his attorney, so the company is the one that should face sanctions.

  • September 25, 2025

    Bondi Faces Key 'Test' As Trump Orders Prosecutions

    Attorney General Pam Bondi has reached a crossroads less than eight months into her tenure as she faces an extraordinary directive from President Donald Trump to wield the U.S. Department of Justice against his political enemies.

  • September 25, 2025

    Coalition Urges Senate To Block Bills Threatening DC Law

    More than 270 individuals and organizations, including law firms, bar associations and advocacy groups, on Thursday urged the Senate to reject two House bills that they say would usurp the judicial selection process in Washington, D.C., and the independence of D.C.'s attorney general.

  • September 25, 2025

    NY Judge Who Left For Anderson Kill Had Faced Ethics Case

    A longtime New York judge who joined Anderson Kill last week had resigned from the bench amid ethics charges for alleged "demeaning" conduct toward his court staff and claims that he threatened retaliation against a witness and attorneys for the state's judicial ethics watchdog.

  • September 24, 2025

    Boies Schiller Partner Admits AI Errors In Scientology Case

    A Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner representing women who allege the Church of Scientology harassed them for reporting convicted actor Daniel Masterson's sexual assaults has asked a California appeals court to strike a brief containing artificial intelligence-generated citation errors, saying he "very much regrets" the errors, but they shouldn't impact his clients' case.

  • September 24, 2025

    Minn. Judge Suspended For Attempting To Boost Staffer's Pay

    A Minnesota state judge should not have presided over proceedings to increase his longtime court reporter's salary, the state Supreme Court said, disciplining him with a public censure and a suspension for nine months without pay.

  • September 24, 2025

    Trump Lawyer Chesebro Suspended From DC Circ.

    Kenneth Chesebro, the former attorney for President Donald Trump who was indicted for plotting to enlist fake electors to swing the 2020 election result, was suspended Wednesday from practicing in the D.C. Circuit.

  • September 24, 2025

    Pa. Court Will Reconsider Opinion In Probation Violation Case

    A Pennsylvania state appeals court has thrown out its ruling that a man on probation for a bar fight couldn't be found in violation of release conditions for harassing his attorney and judge without being criminally charged and will reconsider the case.

  • September 24, 2025

    DOJ Likely Crossed Line With Mangione Remarks, Judge Says

    Top officials at the U.S. Department of Justice are in hot water for linking alleged insurance CEO killer Luigi Mangione to left-wing terrorism and potentially violating his right to a fair trial, a New York federal judge said Wednesday as she threatened sanctions for future violations.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ga. Judge Rejects DQ Bid, Questions 'Quality' Of Lawyering

    A Georgia federal judge has said he harbors no bias against the four women suing comedian Katt Williams, but he has "concern about the quality of legal representation" they are receiving in light of an explanation given for a brief that contained erroneous case citations generated by artificial intelligence.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ex-Mass. Judge Fined For Giving Dad $450/Hour Role In Case

    A now-former Massachusetts Probate and Family Court justice will pay a $4,000 civil penalty for appointing his father to a $450 an hour special master role in a divorce case, the State Ethics Commission said.

  • September 24, 2025

    Dems Probing Skadden, Kirkland, Paul Weiss' Work For Trump

    Top Democratic legislators are investigating whether pro bono work reportedly being performed by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP for the U.S. Department of Commerce is in violation of federal law, according to letters the lawmakers sent the firms Wednesday.

  • September 24, 2025

    Firm Sues For $1.7M Fees In Texas Mass Shooting Case

    A Texas law firm is stepping up its litigation efforts to recover $1.7 million in fees it claims it is owed for work performed on behalf of victims of a 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, namely by filing its third lawsuit in state court this month.

  • September 24, 2025

    Conn. Judges Add 'No-Tolerance' AI Warnings To New Dockets

    Federal judges in Connecticut have begun entering warnings on new case dockets notifying litigants and their counsel of a "no-tolerance policy" when it comes to briefs that include hallucinated arguments and citations, regardless of whether artificial intelligence was used.

  • September 23, 2025

    Attys Must Pay $24K For AI Citations In FIFA Antitrust Case

    Counsel representing the now-shuttered Puerto Rico Soccer League in its antitrust suit against FIFA must pay more than $24,000 in attorney fees and litigation costs to the soccer federation and other defendants for filing briefs that appeared to contain errors hallucinated by artificial intelligence, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • September 23, 2025

    Watchdog Calls For DC, Md. Bar Investigations Into Carr

    A government accountability watchdog brought a complaint against Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr to the D.C. Bar Association on Tuesday, claiming Carr violated conduct rules when he threatened to bring FCC action against ABC if it declined to discipline Jimmy Kimmel over his remarks following Charlie Kirk's murder.

  • September 23, 2025

    No Early Out For NY Firm In Insurer's Malpractice Coverage Suit

    A New York-based law firm cannot throw out an insurance company's lawsuit seeking to be let off the hook from covering the firm against a malpractice claim, a Philadelphia federal judge has found, determining that factual questions in the case meant early dismissal was not an option.

  • September 23, 2025

    Atty-Trustee Conflicts Doom Scaife Estate's $26M Tax Refund

    A Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky attorney was also acting as Mellon heir Richard Scaife's lawyer, trustee and media executive when he signed releases that kept Scaife's spending of his inheritance secret from his children, so a resulting $200 million settlement between the children and Scaife's estate was not a bona fide tax-exempt expense, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.

  • Opinion

    Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice

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    A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.

  • In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege

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    Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.

  • Applying ABA Atty Role Guidance To White Collar Matters

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    The American Bar Association’s recently published guidance, clarifying the duties outside counsel owes to both organizational clients and those organizations' constituents, provides best practices that attorneys representing companies in white collar and other investigative matters should heed, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.

  • 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.

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