Legal Ethics

  • January 23, 2025

    Madigan's Law Firm Profits Drove Corrupt Acts, Jury Told

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's ownership interest in his Chicago law firm and his entitlement to 50% of its profits was behind his efforts to extort property tax business from developers who needed approvals from state and local government for their projects, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury Thursday.

  • January 23, 2025

    Combs Lodges $50M Suit Over Supposed Sex Assault Tapes

    Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a $50 million defamation suit in New York federal court on Wednesday accusing a grand jury witness, a lawyer and Nexstar Media Inc. of spreading falsities about nonexistent videos that purportedly depict the indicted hip-hop mogul sexually assaulting intoxicated celebrities and minors.

  • January 23, 2025

    GenapSys Says Paul Hastings Can't Keep Privileged Docs

    GenapSys is pushing back on Paul Hastings LLP's bid to force it to turn over documents that it had inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit alleging that the law firm improperly drafted board documents that led to the "demise and liquidation" of the genetic-sequencing company.

  • January 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes Attys' Challenge To Arizona Victim Contact Law

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a group of lawyers' constitutional challenge to an Arizona law that requires defense attorneys and their teams to initiate contact with victims through the prosecutor's office.

  • January 23, 2025

    Conflict Limits 1 Lawyer On Javice Team As Trial Date Slips

    A lawyer defending Charlie Javice on charges she swindled JPMorgan Chase into paying $175 million for a financial aid startup she founded will be limited in representing her, a Manhattan federal judge said Thursday, before pushing trial back a week.

  • January 23, 2025

    Colo. Panel Says Atty-Witness Rule Isn't Limited To Jury Trials

    A Colorado professional rule banning attorneys from advocating at trials where they are a "necessary witness" isn't limited to jury trials, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, affirming the disqualification of a lawyer who sought to represent a cannabis business that he once co-owned with his wife.

  • January 23, 2025

    Texas Atty Ethics Commission Drops Suit Against AG Paxton

    The Texas bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline has dropped its ethics complaint against Attorney General Ken Paxton over a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in other states, saying the case should end in light of a recent Texas Supreme Court decision nixing a similar case against his first assistant.

  • January 23, 2025

    Conn. Atty Suspended For 5 Years Over Estate Case Failures

    A Connecticut attorney with an already extensive disciplinary history has been suspended from the practice of law for five years for failing to file a case in probate court on behalf of his clients and for losing or misplacing the last will and testament of his clients' relative.

  • January 23, 2025

    Colo. Tenants, Eviction Law Firm Resolve Fee Suits

    Colorado tenants and Tschetter Sulzer PC have settled two class actions accusing the eviction law firm of illegally charging attorney fees before their eviction proceedings concluded, more than a year after the firm settled a separate proposed class action that alleged deceptive debt collection.

  • January 22, 2025

    Chutkan Says Trump's Pardon Can't 'Whitewash' Jan. 6 Terror

    President Donald Trump's pardon of defendants accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol "cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake," U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan wrote Wednesday in an order dismissing one such case.

  • January 22, 2025

    'Unicorn Prosecution' Could Upend Legal Practice, Court Told

    Brown & Connery LLP partner William Tambussi told a New Jersey state judge Wednesday that the entire practice of law in the Garden State rests on his impending decision on the charges against him in the state's sweeping racketeering case targeting power broker George E. Norcross III, arguing that a lawyer has never been prosecuted for routine legal work.

  • January 22, 2025

    Fla. Court Proposes $19M In Damages In Spinal Products Suit

    A Florida federal judge has recommended that the principal of spine medical equipment companies pay $19.3 million in damages after allegedly breaching an agreement and forming a direct competitor to a business he previously contracted with for exclusive distribution of its products.

  • January 22, 2025

    Attorneys Botched Arbitration Win, Texas Property Cos. Claim

    A group of property owners in Texas told a Harris County judge a law firm and five attorneys helped them secure a $1.7 million arbitration award but never took action when the award misidentified their names, making them unable to collect.

  • January 22, 2025

    Drug Co. Wants To Keep Judge On Alopecia IP Case

    The developer behind an Eli Lilly & Co. alopecia drug has called allegations the company's lawyers deliberately hired a New Jersey federal judge's former law clerk both "low and baseless" and a "transparent attempt to remove the judge who decided against it."

  • January 22, 2025

    Reed Smith Rips Claim Firm Is 'Causing Chaos' In $102M Suit

    Reed Smith fought back Tuesday against allegations by the purported new owners of Eletson Holdings that the BigLaw firm is "causing chaos" by refusing to withdraw as counsel of record in $102 million breach-of-contract litigation, arguing that ownership of the international shipping group is "hotly contested" and being litigated in multiple jurisdictions.

  • January 22, 2025

    Madigan Used ComEd As 'Personal Piggy Bank,' Jurors Told

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his devoted surrogate Michael McClain conspired to enhance and preserve Madigan's power and line his pockets, both by steering business to the ex-speaker's law firm and rewarding his political allies with do-nothing jobs, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury during closing arguments Wednesday.

  • January 22, 2025

    Mich. Justices Doubt Boss Can 'Trap' Workers In Meeting

    Michigan Supreme Court justices struggled with the proposition Wednesday that a supervisor has some ability to keep employees in a meeting by force, during oral arguments in a former assistant county prosecutor's whistleblower appeal.

  • January 22, 2025

    Colo. Judge 'Dumbfounded' Oil Co. Hasn't Disclosed Deal

    A Colorado state judge on Wednesday said she was "totally dumbfounded" by an oil and gas exploration company's failure to disclose a deal that it appeared to have entered into while telling the court that it had no deals, in a suit brought by an Anschutz oil subsidiary alleging theft of trade secrets.

  • January 22, 2025

    #MeToo Claims Against Ex-Defender's Boss To Stay Sealed

    A federal judge on Wednesday shot down a former assistant public defender's renewed attempt to lay bare certain #MeToo complaints against her one-time employer as part of a long-running case casting a spotlight on the judiciary's internal complaint process for workplace misconduct.

  • January 22, 2025

    Unum Unlawfully Cut Disability, Hughes Hubbard Worker Says

    Insurance company First Unum Life Insurance unlawfully halted a Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP manager's long-term disability benefits and decided to solely follow in-house doctors' recommendations, a suit filed in New Jersey federal court claims.

  • January 22, 2025

    5th Circ. Sends Beck Redden Malpractice Suit To State Court

    The malpractice suit a disbarred Texas attorney brought against his former counsel belongs in state court, the Fifth Circuit has determined, declining to reconsider a December ruling that remanded a Texas federal judge's order throwing out claims against Beck Redden LLP, finding the Southern District of Texas lacked jurisdiction.

  • January 22, 2025

    DC Judge Declines To DQ Jenner & Block In Casino Dispute

    A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid from three Native American tribes to disqualify Jenner & Block LLP from a lawsuit that seeks to block the operation of a new casino in Oregon.

  • January 22, 2025

    Feds Drop Case Against Atty's Accomplice In COVID Loan Fraud

    A Savannah, Georgia, man who conspired with two attorneys to defraud the federal pandemic relief effort of $300,000 has had the charges against him in Georgia federal court dropped, after he completed a year of a pretrial diversion program.

  • January 22, 2025

    Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Slam Baldoni Atty's 'Media Blitz'

    Counsel for celebrity couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds told a New York federal judge that Justin Baldoni's attorney from Liner Freedman Taitelman & Cooley LLP has violated ethical rules with an "all-out media blitz" during their thorny litigation over the movie "It Ends With Us."

  • January 22, 2025

    Connell Foley Fights DQ Bid In Investment Firm's Bias Suit

    A group of current and former New Jersey state officials blasted a motion to disqualify their counsel at Connell Foley LLP in a discrimination suit from a Black-owned investment firm in New Jersey federal court, calling the move a frivolous and bad faith stalling tactic.

Expert Analysis

  • Crypto Gatekeepers May Be The Next Front Of Enforcement

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    Lawyers and other professionals who advise cryptocurrency companies should beware regulators' increasing focus on gatekeeper accountability, and should take several measures to fulfill their ethical and legal obligations, including implementing a robust vetting mechanism when representing crypto clients, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Xinchen Li at Selendy Gay.

  • Series

    Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.

  • Law Firms Should Move From Reactive To Proactive Marketing

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    Most law firm marketing and business development teams operate in silos, leading to an ad hoc, reactive approach, but shifting to a culture of proactive planning — beginning with comprehensive campaigns — can help firms effectively execute their broader business strategy, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Opinion

    The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address

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    A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union

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    As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • 5 Defense Lessons From Prosecutors' Recent Evidence Flubs

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    The recent dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges, and the filing of an ethics complaint against a former D.C. prosecutor, both provide takeaways for white collar defense counsel who suspect that prosecutors may be withholding or misrepresenting evidence, say Anden Chow at MoloLamken and Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Unpacking Executive Privilege, Contempt In Recent Cases

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    The U.S. House of Representatives’ recent move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress is the latest example in a growing trend of executive privilege disputes, and serves as a warning to private citizens and corporate leaders who are in communication with the president, says Kristina Moore at Womble Bond.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Teaching Scuba Diving Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a master scuba instructor, I’ve learned how to prepare for the unexpected, overcome fears and practice patience, and each of these skills – among the many others I’ve developed – has profoundly enhanced my work as a lawyer, says Ron Raether at Troutman Pepper.

  • Lawyers Can Take Action To Honor The Voting Rights Act

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    As the Voting Rights Act reaches its 59th anniversary Tuesday, it must urgently be reinforced against recent efforts to dismantle voter protections, and lawyers can pitch in immediately by volunteering and taking on pro bono work to directly help safeguard the right to vote, says Anna Chu at We The Action.

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