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Legal Ethics
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April 29, 2024
Ga. Judicial Watchdog Sets Date For Judge's Ethics Trial
The ethics hearing of a Georgia judge accused of calling litigants names, sexually harassing attorneys and courthouse employees, and trying to get a friend's children out of legal trouble is set for June, according to an order filed Friday in the Georgia Supreme Court.
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April 29, 2024
Pa. County Counters Sanctions Bid In Dominion Suit
Local officials in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, have urged a federal judge to punish Dominion Voting Systems Inc. for its motion filed last month calling for sanctions against two county commissioners for filing an amended complaint in a breach of contract suit.
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April 29, 2024
Smollett Atty Wants Sanctions Over Missing Therapy Records
An attorney for Jussie Smollett has asked an Illinois federal judge for another round of sanctions after two brothers who allegedly helped stage a hate crime against the actor failed to turn over discovery, saying they've refused to turn over records or answer questions in the defamation suit pertaining to their mental health treatment.
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April 29, 2024
NJ Legal Groups Fight Ban On Out-Of-State Atty Referral Fees
The New Jersey State Bar Association and other Garden State professional legal groups are looking to reverse guidance from a New Jersey Supreme Court ethics committee prohibiting the state's certified attorneys from paying referral fees to out-of-state lawyers.
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April 29, 2024
NJ Justices Spell Out Atty Fee Rules In Fee-Shifting Cases
The New Jersey Supreme Court has put out rules governing fee agreements for attorneys representing clients in statutorily based fee-shifting cases, capping off years of ethical debate stemming from a case where an individual client was charged $286,000 for legal work on a discrimination lawsuit.
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April 29, 2024
11th Circ. Should Nix Tax Court Judges' Shield, Widow Says
The widow of a supermarket butcher told the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court not only wrongly upheld tax liabilities against her stemming from her husband's tax filings but also erroneously affirmed unconstitutional job protections for its judges.
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April 29, 2024
Venezuela Says It Has Proof Of Special Master Improprieties
Venezuela has asked a Delaware federal judge to disqualify the special master overseeing the sale of Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s parent company to repay billions of dollars in Venezuelan debt, saying it now has proof he engaged in improper advocacy before the Biden administration.
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April 29, 2024
Turkey Cos. Seek Swift Appeal Of Burford's Ability To Sue
Some of the country's largest turkey producers have asked an Illinois federal court for permission to immediately appeal a March ruling that allows a Burford Capital investment unit to pursue price-fixing allegations against them, arguing the Seventh Circuit should weigh in on whether the investor is permitted to bring such a claim.
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April 29, 2024
Feds Accused Of 'Outrageous' Misconduct In Ozy Media Case
Ozy Media and the defunct startup's founder want a New York federal judge to toss a criminal fraud case against them, accusing the government of prosecutorial misconduct and violating attorney-client privilege protections.
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April 26, 2024
Law360 Reveals Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar
In the past year, plaintiffs have won settlements and judgments for millions and billions of dollars from companies such as Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Facebook and Fox News, with many high-profile cases finally wrapping up after years of fighting. Such cases — involving over-the-top compensation packages, chemical contamination, gender discrimination and data mining — were led by attorneys whose accomplishments earned them recognition as Law360's Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar for 2024.
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April 26, 2024
Trump Casts Tabloid Deal As 'Standard Operating Procedure'
Donald Trump's attorneys tried to undermine Manhattan prosecutors' lead witness in his criminal trial on Friday, casting his deal to boost his presidency with the help of a friendly tabloid baron as nothing more than a savvy business relationship that was perfectly legal.
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April 26, 2024
L'Occitane's Claim Zimmerman Reed Weaponized Law Tossed
A California federal judge has thrown out L'Occitane's allegations that Zimmerman Reed LLP and thousands of clients conspired to "weaponize" a California wiretapping law against the luxury retailer, while chastising both sides' counsel in a footnote for their "overwrought, unjustified and misguided" arguments during litigation.
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April 26, 2024
Wash. Judge To Resign, Denies Domestic Abuse Allegations
A Washington state superior court judge announced he will resign next month after the state judicial conduct commission accused him last fall of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and a court clerk, saying the commission has pressured him to admit to wrongdoing that never happened.
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April 26, 2024
Confusion Over Law Led To Doc Fight, Astroworld Judge Says
A special master appointed to the civil litigation stemming from the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival told attorneys Friday that a "good faith misunderstanding" of criminal statutes has likely led to several discovery disputes, encouraging the parties to try to come to an agreement about what portion of the Houston Police Department's investigative file on the tragedy is discoverable.
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April 26, 2024
Texas Justices Rule Trial Court Must Admit Out-Of-State Attys
An El Paso court that barred two out-of-state attorneys from appearing pro hac vice because they seemed to have signed a filing prior to being admitted must let the lawyers into the case, the state high court ruled Friday, finding the trial court abused its discretion in blocking them.
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April 26, 2024
50 Cent's GC Beats Wiretap Claim In Liquor Feud, For Now
A Manhattan judge on Friday threw out a claim that the general counsel for rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson illegally recorded a former Beam Suntory Inc. sales contractor during an embezzlement investigation, but allowed the consultant to revise his pleading.
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April 26, 2024
Latham, Akin Beat NJ Suit Over Alleged IP Theft Scheme
A New Jersey federal court on Friday tossed a lawsuit claiming attorneys from Latham & Watkins LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP manipulated patent litigation to steal a former Cornell University graduate student's DNA sequencing intellectual property, calling that graduate student's claims "conspiracy theories."
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April 26, 2024
Coverage Recap: Day 4 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial
Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from day four.
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April 26, 2024
11th Circ. Finds No Anti-Black Juror Bias In Murder Trial
The Eleventh Circuit has denied a new trial to a Mexican man arguing prosecutors used all but one of their peremptory strikes to exclude potential jurors who were Black or Hispanic at the trial in Georgia where he was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a whistleblower connected to his work.
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April 26, 2024
Ex-NY Court Atty Slapped With Fine After Misconduct Verdict
A Manhattan judge hit a former appeals court attorney with a $55,000 fine Friday after a jury found that she unlawfully used her position to help her husband and his law firm earn that same amount from a well-heeled client.
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April 26, 2024
Locke Lord Strikes $12M Deal To End Claims Over Gas Fraud
Locke Lord LLP will likely pony up $12.5 million to settle claims it stood by as its clients carried out a fraudulent $122 million oil and gas scheme, with a Texas federal magistrate judge recommending approval of the settlement at a hearing in Fort Worth.
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April 26, 2024
Senators Urge ABA To Look Into Rape Questions On Bar Apps
Several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to the American Bar Association on Friday urging it to study how state bar applications require would-be attorneys to disclose sexual violence.
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April 26, 2024
NJ Judicial Info Law Dodges Free Speech Challenge, For Now
A New Jersey law intended to protect the personal information of judges, prosecutors and police officers could be headed to the state Supreme Court after an appellate panel ruled Friday that it does not unconstitutionally violate the free speech rights of a local journalist.
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April 26, 2024
NH Atty Disbarred After Failed Try At Creating False Evidence
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ordered the disbarment of an attorney who created false documents and later destroyed evidence in a years-long attempt to duck disciplinary proceedings over his alleged mishandling of client funds.
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April 26, 2024
Mass. Justices Dash Deported Man's Hope For Remote Retrial
Massachusetts' high court ruled Friday that a man deported to the Dominican Republic cannot appear remotely for his retrial on charges that the justices previously vacated, citing court rules.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Thorny Legal Issues Surround NY Prosecutor's Trump Tell-All
As the Manhattan district attorney's office empanels a grand jury in its ongoing Donald Trump investigation, it is seeking to pause publication of a book by former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz that focuses on Trump's indictment — an unusual situation that raises issues of prejudice, contractual responsibility and legal ethics, says John Harris at Frankfurt Kurnit.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Jan. 6 Panel Transcripts Highlight Attorney Ethics Issues
Recently released transcripts of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee demonstrate that there is always a lurking conflict when someone other than the client is paying the fee, and that disclosure must therefore be painstaking and extensive, says Steven Lubet at Northwestern University.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Del. Justices' Reversal Of Boardwalk Award May Apply Widely
The Delaware Supreme Court's recent Boardwalk Pipeline v. Bandera Master Fund decision that a general partner wasn't liable for willful misconduct is likely to have wide applicability for noncorporate entities, which courts are unlikely to view as entitled to more protection than Boardwalk's public unit holders, say attorneys at Fried Frank.