Legal Ethics

  • January 31, 2025

    Ex-Kline & Specter Atty Drops Suit Over Departure Dispute

    A former Kline & Specter PC associate has dropped his case claiming mistreatment by his former firm, according to recent filings in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

  • January 31, 2025

    Fla. Judge Tees Up Free Speech Defense In Ethics Case

    A Florida state judge facing ethics charges related to campaign statements is going forward with a First Amendment defense in her Monday hearing, she told the state's Judicial Qualifications Commission in a prehearing statement.

  • January 31, 2025

    Conn. Justices Let McCarter Ex-Client Off $3.6M Hook

    Answering a certified question from a federal judge, the Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday ruled that McCarter & English LLP can't claw an additional $3.6 million in common law punitive damages from a nutritional supplement maker as part of a protracted fee feud, holding that the firm should have pleaded and proven an "independent tort" if it wanted to pursue the money.

  • January 31, 2025

    Reger Rizzo, Ex-Assistant Settle Race And Gender Bias Suit

    Philadelphia-based Reger Rizzo & Darnall LLP reached a settlement in a federal race and sex discrimination case filed last year by an ex-legal assistant, according to an order published Friday.

  • January 31, 2025

    Paralegal Says Race, Disability Led To Thompson Coe Sacking

    A former paralegal at Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons LLP sued her ex-employer in Texas state court, alleging she was wrongfully fired because of her race and disability while also accusing the firm of sabotaging her attempts at obtaining future employment at other law firms.

  • January 31, 2025

    Jury Instructions Tainted Ex-State's Atty's Trial, 4th Circ. Hears

    A Fourth Circuit decision from 1938 took center stage Friday as a seemingly divided appellate panel debated whether a jury that found former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby guilty of mortgage fraud had been improperly instructed on where the crime occurred.

  • January 31, 2025

    NJ Firm Blasts Pier Investment Suit As 'Shameless Fiction'

    Hankin Sandman Palladino Weintrob & Bell has urged a New Jersey federal court to toss a Garden State couple's legal malpractice lawsuit over their investment in an Atlantic City Boardwalk amusement park, arguing that their claims are barred by the state's entire controversy doctrine and are "premised on knowing falsities and fail on the merits."

  • January 31, 2025

    LegalZoom Hit With Racial Bias Suit From Ex-Employee

    A former human resources employee at LegalZoom has hit the legal services company with a discrimination suit in Nevada federal court, alleging she was underpaid compared to her white colleagues doing the same work and retaliated against when she brought up her concerns.

  • January 30, 2025

    Pharmacy Says Its Ex-GC Destroyed Trade Secrets Evidence

    Texas-based Empower Pharmacy on Thursday pressed for sanctions against its former general counsel — who also happens to be a former assistant district attorney in San Antonio — claiming that the lawyer intentionally destroyed a hard drive that contained evidence relevant to Empower's trade secrets suit against a rival pharmacy.

  • January 30, 2025

    Jay-Z Blasts Buzbee For 'Reputation-Destroying Allegations'

    Rapper Jay-Z has doubled down on his bid for sanctions against Texas attorney Tony Buzbee for filing a lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old with Sean "Diddy" Combs more than 20 years ago, saying the attorney has "weaponized" baseless accusations via social media and TV interviews.

  • January 30, 2025

    Paramount Settles Fee Suit Over Pacquiao-Mayweather Fight

    Paramount Global has settled a nearly decade-old lawsuit over a finder's fee for the lucrative 2015 boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., according to a Thursday notice in California state court.

  • January 30, 2025

    2nd Circ. Sees No Skadden Conflict In Pharma Merger Work

    The Second Circuit on Thursday declined to revive an investor suit alleging a merger between Sumitomo Pharma America Inc. and Myovant Sciences Ltd. was undervalued because the lawyers from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP who helped negotiate the deal had undisclosed conflicts of interest.

  • January 30, 2025

    Colo. Panel Says Atty Errors May Sink Contempt Sanctions

    In a precedential ruling Thursday, a Colorado Court of Appeals panel determined that a party facing a contempt sanction may bring a motion to reconsider premised on challenging the effectiveness of their legal representation.

  • January 30, 2025

    Ga. Businesses 'Over The Moon' With Tort Reform Proposals

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled a long-awaited tort reform package Thursday that, if passed, would limit businesses' premises liability, limit plaintiffs' attorneys' rhetoric around damages and require increased disclosures for third-party litigation funding, among a slew of other proposals.

  • January 30, 2025

    Mich. Judge Says 'Dial It Down' As Insults Fly In DQ Hearing

    A Michigan state court hearing over a motion to compel and disqualify an attorney defending a care facility in a wrongful termination lawsuit devolved into a volley of insults Thursday as lawyers who say they have a history of difficulty with each other slung personal jabs. 

  • January 30, 2025

    Greenberg Traurig Beats Suit From 'Vexatious Litigant' Attorney

    A Florida state appeals court upheld the dismissal of an attorney's lawsuit against Greenberg Traurig PA over its handling of a complaint against him on behalf of the Florida Bar.

  • January 30, 2025

    Atty Should Lose License In Billing Scandal Case, Judge Says

    A San Fernando Valley attorney colluded with attorneys for the city of Los Angeles in a water utility class action for which he received a $1.65 million fee and later sought to hire hackers to spy on the judge presiding over the class suit, a State Bar of California judge has found.

  • January 30, 2025

    Beasley Firm Must Face Ex-Client's Suit Over Med Mal Claim

    A New Jersey appellate panel on Thursday reinstated a legal malpractice lawsuit accusing The Beasley Firm LLC of mishandling a medical malpractice lawsuit, saying the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to the law firm.

  • January 30, 2025

    Muscogee Nation Sues Oklahoma DAs In Sovereignty Dispute

    The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has filed a pair of lawsuits against Oklahoma District Attorneys Carol Iski and Matthew Ballard, accusing them of illegally prosecuting Native Americans for conduct committed on tribal lands despite the Supreme Court's 2020 McGirt ruling, days after the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations moved to intervene in similar U.S. government complaints.

  • January 30, 2025

    SCOTUSblog Publisher Can't Shield Home From Forfeiture

    SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein won't be able to shield his Washington, D.C., residence from forfeiture by substituting various properties in South Carolina as he battles charges that he dodged taxes and used his law firm's money to pay off gambling debts.

  • January 30, 2025

    Storage Co. Says Rothman Gordon Left Behind Files, Big Bills

    The defunct Pittsburgh law firm Rothman Gordon PC has left thousands of file boxes in storage at a contractor's warehouse without paying, and is insisting that the contractor go through the stored records to return files to former clients, according to a lawsuit the storage company filed in Pennsylvania state court.

  • January 29, 2025

    Jones Day Told To Provide Ex-Attys Family Leave Memo

    Jones Day must hand over a memo from December 1993 to two ex-associates suing the firm over its allegedly discriminatory family leave policy, a D.C. federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the firm had placed it "at issue" in the case and waiving any privilege that might have shielded the document.

  • January 29, 2025

    Turkey Producers Say Burford Unit's Suit Is Purely Profit-Led

    Turkey producers fighting consolidated price-fixing claims in Illinois urged a federal judge Tuesday to kick a Burford Capital Investment unit's claims out of the case on summary judgment, arguing the action exists solely because of the litigation funder's drive to profit from a lawsuit.

  • January 29, 2025

    Mich. Judge Doubts Discovery Dispute Should DQ Firm

    A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday said a law firm's alleged "bad behavior" doesn't necessarily mean it can't represent a former CEO of a solar energy company, telling residents who sought to disqualify the firm because of a supposed conflict that their complaints may be better dealt with through discovery motions.

  • January 29, 2025

    Tom Goldstein Seeks To Shield DC Home In Tax Crimes Case

    Appellate lawyer and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein asked a Maryland federal judge Wednesday if he could put up three South Carolina properties as collateral for his pretrial release in place of his Washington, D.C., home as he faces charges of tax evasion and mortgage fraud.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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'

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    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

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    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.

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