Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Legal Ethics
-
June 13, 2025
Ex-Judges Slam DOJ Bid To Block Them In Wis. Judge Case
A group of retired judges is urging a Wisconsin federal judge to deny the U.S. Department of Justice's attempt to keep them out of a criminal case against a state judge charged with hindering an arrest by immigration authorities, saying there is "neither factual nor legal support" for their amicus brief to be declined.
-
June 13, 2025
Communication Lapses Topped Conn. Ethics Issues For Attys
Connecticut attorneys whose conduct drew attention from state disciplinary authorities over the past year were most often accused of failing to adequately communicate with clients, followed by general allegations of misconduct, a panel of ethics lawyers told a gathering of attorneys in Hartford on Friday.
-
June 13, 2025
Firms Get $275K Refund After $5M Overbilling Probe
Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP, Thornton Law Firm LLP and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP will get a total of about $275,000 back after collectively spending more than $5 million on a lengthy investigation into overbilling and other fee improprieties, a Massachusetts federal judge said Friday.
-
June 13, 2025
NJ Law Firm Accused Of Retaliation Over Maternity Leave
New Jersey law firm Ragan & Ragan PC is facing a discrimination suit filed by its former collections manager in state court, alleging that the firm and its name partner engaged in a "calculated and malicious campaign of retaliation" against her for taking maternity leave.
-
June 12, 2025
'I Want Names': YouTube Attys' MDL Redactions Face Scrutiny
A California federal magistrate judge ordered YouTube on Thursday to provide him with unredacted versions of documents it produced in sprawling multidistrict litigation over claims social media is addictive, and demanded that YouTube identify counsel who made its relevance-redaction determinations, saying. "I want names and I want teams."
-
June 12, 2025
Turkey Buyers Fight Burford Units' Objection To Cargill Deal
Direct purchasers of turkey have told the Illinois federal judge handling consolidated turkey price-fixing litigation that he should disregard two litigation funding subsidiaries' untimely attempt to lodge what they called a meritless challenge to a nearly finalized price-fixing settlement with Cargill Inc.
-
June 12, 2025
Charter Flight Co. Sanctioned In 'Hot Start' Damage Suit
A Kansas federal judge sanctioned charter flight company Sky Jet M.G. Inc. on Thursday in its suit alleging an aviation repair company improperly overhauled an engine component leading to a "hot start," finding Sky Jet deliberately tried to prevent the repair company from finding out about cockpit recordings of the incident.
-
June 12, 2025
'Bad Faith': Valve Accused Of Thwarting Arbitration It Sought
Valve Corp. is blocking consumers from arbitrating antitrust claims against the gaming company by refusing to pay $20 million in arbitration fees, a "bad faith" move that flouts a court order granting Valve's bid to compel arbitration, a game buyer told a Washington federal judge in a motion for sanctions.
-
June 12, 2025
Judge Hints Signature Is Evidence Staffer Waived Jury Trial
A New Jersey state court judge appeared skeptical Thursday of a fired Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari staffer's argument that an arbitration agreement she signed as part of the firm's onboarding process is invalid because it was never explained to her, and she has no recollection of signing it.
-
June 12, 2025
Avenatti Sheds 3 Years After 9th Circ. Orders Resentencing
A California federal judge on Thursday resentenced disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti to just over 11 years in federal prison for filching millions of dollars from his clients' settlement funds, reducing a 14-year sentence overturned by the Ninth Circuit and leaving Avenatti with about eight years left after time served.
-
June 12, 2025
Reed Smith Pushes For 2nd Circ. Stay In $102M Award Fight
Still seeking to represent prebankruptcy owners of international shipping company Eletson Holdings Inc., Reed Smith LLP has asked the Second Circuit to stay a bankruptcy proceeding and a district court action, arguing the reorganized Eletson, now allegedly under common control with a former adversary, has launched a "calculated effort" to seize the company's privileged client information.
-
June 12, 2025
Mass. Judge, On Stand, Denies Helping Immigrant Evade ICE
A Massachusetts judge accused of approving a plan to let a man elude immigration officers by letting him leave the court through a back door seven years ago testified Thursday that was not her intent when she granted a request to let him speak with an attorney in a courthouse lockup.
-
June 12, 2025
Google Fights MDL Plaintiffs' Sanctions Bid Over Lost Chats
Google is pushing back on a request for sanctions that a slew of advertisers and publishers have brought in their antitrust lawsuit over the company's advertising placement technology, saying the plaintiffs have not shown Google hid evidence amid the "mountains" of electronically stored information it provided.
-
June 11, 2025
Judge Won't Disqualify Attys In AmeriMark Control Dispute
A Utah magistrate judge declined to disqualify attorneys from Venable LLP and Parsons Behle & Latimer PC from representing Swiss plaintiffs Capana Swiss Advisors and AmeriMark Automotive in a lawsuit over who controls AmeriMark Group, finding there is no clear conflict of interest and that disqualification would unfairly disrupt the case.
-
June 11, 2025
Ga. PI Firm Says 'Distasteful' Practices Aren't Court's Concern
An Atlanta personal injury firm called on the Georgia Court of Appeals Wednesday to squash a proposed class action accusing it of stealing clients from other lawyers through shady solicitation practices, arguing that whether its business model is ethical or not, it isn't grounds for litigation.
-
June 11, 2025
Ex-Judges Urge High Court To Protect Right To Counsel
A group of six high-profile retired judges urged the Supreme Court to protect criminal defendants' right to consult with counsel during overnight trial recesses, saying a current "patchwork" of practices in this area is bad for judges as well as defendants.
-
June 11, 2025
DOJ Says Newsom Can't Ask Court To Halt Guard Deployment
The Trump administration is telling a California federal judge its decision to federalize the National Guard is unreviewable in court, calling California Gov. Gavin Newsom's effort to stop the takeover "a crass political stunt" in a new filing Wednesday.
-
June 11, 2025
11th Circ. OK's Probationer's Malicious Prosecution Suit
The Eleventh Circuit said a man can continue with his suit against two Georgia probation officers accused of filing a false warrant application for his extradition back to the Peach State, affirming that the Fourth Amendment's protections are not limited to the officers' "narrow definition" of a criminal proceeding.
-
June 11, 2025
DC Attys Say They Had Small Role In 2020 Mich. Election Suit
A pair of Washington, D.C., attorneys on Wednesday urged a disciplinary panel to dismiss ethics claims against them, telling the panel that they had no control over the filing of a complaint challenging the 2020 presidential election results that was later found to be frivolous.
-
June 11, 2025
DOJ Legal Policy Chief, Adviser On Judge Selections, Resigns
Aaron Reitz, a top U.S. Department of Justice official who works on judicial nominations, announced Wednesday he's resigning after being confirmed for the role on March 26.
-
June 11, 2025
Iraq Sanctioned After Ignoring Order In $120M Award Suit
A D.C. federal judge Tuesday slapped the government of Iraq with a $15,000 per day fine for largely ignoring a discovery order in litigation launched by a Cypriot construction and engineering firm to enforce a confirmed $120 million arbitral award stemming from a massive port facility project.
-
June 11, 2025
Queens Defenders Ex-Director Charged With Embezzling
A former executive director of Queens Defenders and her husband are charged with embezzling $60,000 from the organization and spending it on personal expenses including rent for a penthouse apartment, luxury goods, vacations and teeth-whitening procedures, prosecutors say in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court.
-
June 11, 2025
Attys For Disney Streaming Customers Vie To Lead Settlement
Days after announcing that they've reached a settlement with Disney, live TV streaming customers are looking to appoint Yavar Bathaee from Bathaee Dunne LLP to serve as the lead counsel in their proposed antitrust class action against the company over ESPN carriage agreement fees.
-
June 11, 2025
Uber Says Fla. Firm, Drivers Staged Wrecks For Profit
Uber told a Florida federal court Wednesday that at least five of its drivers faked accidents and colluded with healthcare providers and a Florida law firm to file sham litigation against the ride-hailing platform and its insurer, costing millions of dollars in legal defense and settlements.
-
June 11, 2025
Houston Atty Says Rival's Client Files Aren't Trade Secrets
A Houston attorney accused of stealing another lawyer's files in an attempt to recruit clients to file malpractice suits told a Texas appellate court that his rival "misrepresents facts to support his false narrative" that the information constituted trade secrets.
Expert Analysis
-
Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
-
Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
-
Series
Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.
-
Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
-
Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
-
It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
-
Opinion
More Guidance Needed On Appellate Amicus Recusals
Instead of eliminating the right for amici to file briefs on consent, as per the recently proposed Federal Appellate Rules amendment, the Judicial Conference's Committee on Codes of Judicial Conduct should issue guidance on situations in which amicus filings should lead to circuit judge recusals, says Alan Morrison at George Washington University Law School.
-
How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
-
Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
-
Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
-
5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.
-
Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
-
How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.
-
Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.
-
The Ethics of Using Generative AI In Environmental Law
The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools is challenging environmental lawyers, consultants and government agencies to determine when and how these tools can be responsibly, ethically and productively integrated into their practices to streamline research, predictive analytics and regulatory compliance, say Ahlia Bethea and Pamela Esterman at Sive Paget.