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Legal Ethics

  • June 23, 2025

    Conn. Firm's Claims Against Restaurant Attys Trimmed

    Connecticut employment law firm Hayber McKenna & Dinsmore LLC may advance vexatious litigation claims, but not abuse of process claims, against attorneys for several restaurants who previously accused the firm of violating state unfair trade practices laws to target potential clients, a state trial court judge has ruled.

  • June 23, 2025

    Justices To Review Liability For Forcing Prisoner's Haircut

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a former Louisiana prisoner's case for damages after guards forcibly shaved his head, removing the dreadlocks he maintained as part of his Rastafarian religion.

  • June 20, 2025

    Mich. Judge Denies Ethics Charges, Says He Was Spied On

    A Michigan state judge accused of disparaging the district court's chief judge during official proceedings as well as secretly recording a conversation with her has responded to formal charges against him, refuting the allegations and additionally claiming the court has spied on him.

  • June 20, 2025

    Atty Interaction Prompts Recusal In Google AI Suicide Suit

    A Florida federal judge and former Gunster shareholder has recused himself from a suit accusing Character.AI and Google of causing the suicide of a teen who was addicted to an artificial intelligence chatbot, after a Munger Tolles & Olson LLP attorney said he discussed the case with the then-attorney last year.

  • June 20, 2025

    Off The Bench: Lakers Sale, NASCAR Antitrust, NIL Appeals

    In this week's Off The Bench, the Lakers fetch a $10 billion valuation as a new owner takes control of the franchise, a federal judge urges litigants in the NASCAR antitrust brawl to settle, and appeals pile up against the NCAA's landmark $2.78 billion athlete compensation settlement.

  • June 20, 2025

    Attys Face Sanctions For 'Sweeping' Copying Of Firm's Motion

    A California federal judge has ordered The Neil Jones Food Co.'s defense counsel to explain why she shouldn't sanction them for filing a dismissal motion that appears to plagiarize a losing motion filed by another firm in another case in the district, slamming the "sweeping copy and paste" conduct as "patently unacceptable."

  • June 20, 2025

    Wash. Municipal Judge Fights State Board's Removal Petition

    A suspended Washington municipal court judge has urged the state Supreme Court to reject a judicial board's recommendation that she be removed from the bench for allegedly mistreating staff and attorneys, saying she has been unfairly punished for her former attorney's actions "in a racially charged environment."

  • June 20, 2025

    Veterans Can't Stop Defendant's Outreach To Potential Class

    A group of veterans can't stop a consulting firm from contacting potential class members for help with the firm's defense in a lawsuit alleging it charged millions of dollars in illegal fees, a North Carolina federal magistrate judge has ruled from the bench.

  • June 20, 2025

    New Trial Ordered Over $25M Fee Split In Verizon Injury Case

    A New Jersey appellate panel has ordered a new jury trial to decide how to split a $25 million fee award stemming from a $125 million personal injury settlement with Verizon, finding several errors in a previous lower court bench trial.

  • June 20, 2025

    Florida Judge Barred From Keeping Police Credentials

    Florida's judicial ethics watchdog said a sitting judge who was formerly a police officer in the same county in which the judge presides may not recertify law enforcement credentials, saying it could affect the judge's impartiality.

  • June 20, 2025

    Conn. Atty Agrees To Suspension After Court No-Shows

    A Connecticut estates attorney has agreed to an interim suspension of her law license and will undergo a medical examination after failing to attend scheduled court dates four times in the last 60 days, records in her professional discipline case show.

  • June 20, 2025

    NJ Court Greenlights Beasley Allen Attys In Talc Litigation

    A New Jersey state judge will allow two Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys to represent a California couple in their suit accusing Johnson & Johnson of selling carcinogenic talc-based baby powder and appear pro hac vice despite the company's vehement opposition.

  • June 20, 2025

    Mich. Judge Won't Step Aside In Atty Voting Machine Case

    A Michigan state judge on Friday said he would not remove himself from overseeing criminal charges against an attorney who is accused of accessing voting machines after the 2020 presidential election, finding there was no evidence to support her claims that he is biased.

  • June 20, 2025

    Patent Suit Against Alibaba Dropped After Sanctions Bid

    Cooperative Entertainment Inc. has ended its patent lawsuit against Alibaba Cloud US LLC after the latter company sought to have the case thrown out earlier this month as a sanction for what it said was "extreme" conduct by opposing counsel.

  • June 20, 2025

    Boies Schiller Fights DQ Bid In Law Firms' Fee Dispute

    Boies Schiller Flexner LLP pushed back on a bid to disqualify the firm in a Florida state court case between pharmaceutical mass tort firms and their former counsel, in which Boies Schiller is both representing itself as a defendant and its co-defendants, arguing there is no conflict because all their defenses are the same.

  • June 20, 2025

    Wisconsin Judge Gets Court To Weigh Dismissal Before Trial

    A Wisconsin federal judge overseeing the government's prosecution of a state judge for allegedly helping an unauthorized immigrant evade arrest canceled a jury trial scheduled for July, saying he will rule on her motion to dismiss first.

  • June 18, 2025

    Toyota Says DOJ Has Closed Thai Bribery Probe

    Toyota said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice has closed a long-running Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation concerning allegations of bribery at its Thai subsidiary, the latest such probe to be dropped under the Trump administration.

  • June 18, 2025

    Nurse Staffing Exec Can't Nix Conviction, Sanctions Floated

    A Nevada federal court has refused a nurse staffing executive's bid to undo his conviction on wage-fixing and wire fraud charges, and threatened his attorneys with sanctions for allegedly making repeated misrepresentations to the court.

  • June 18, 2025

    Ex-Drug Exec Must Testify, But Keeps 5th Amendment Rights

    Sandoz, Teva, Actavis and Taro can again subpoena the deposition testimony of a former Actavis and Teva executive, but a Pennsylvania federal judge is still allowing the witness to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, even though the Justice Department dropped the criminal charges against him.

  • June 18, 2025

    Pa. Injury Atty With 'No Idea Who He Is Suing' Faces Discipline

    A Pennsylvania federal judge reprimanded Simon & Simon attorneys Tuesday for letting paralegals file a "cookie-cutter" slip-and-fall lawsuit against Walmart without a presuit investigation and adding store managers as a ploy to beat federal jurisdiction, criticizing counsel for racing through courts "wearing blinders" with "no idea who he is suing."

  • June 18, 2025

    Atty Accused Of Forgery, Stealing Client's Settlement

    An attorney and his firm have been accused by a former client in Colorado state court of negotiating a settlement without his knowledge, forging his signature on the deal and keeping the money for himself.

  • June 18, 2025

    Judge Warns Overeager Samsung, ZTE Attys Not To Bug Staff

    A California federal judge has issued a short, stern warning to counsel in Samsung's antitrust fight against ZTE over its standard essential patents' licensing practices, telling counsel not to contact court staff again about the status of their pending stipulation and noting "future improper communications to court staff may result in sanctions."

  • June 18, 2025

    FTC, Amazon Trade Blows Over Attempts To End Prime Case

    The Federal Trade Commission and Amazon have slammed one another in federal court filings over their competing bids to win regulators' case targeting Prime subscription enrollment practices, continuing to spar over the applicability of a consumer protection law shielding online shoppers.

  • June 18, 2025

    NJ Justices Take On Shielding Atty ID In Public Records Case

    The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed this week to weigh in on whether a municipal prosecutor must turn over the identity of a third-party attorney who provided her with collegial legal advice in a traffic infraction case under public records access laws.

  • June 18, 2025

    Atty Told To Fix AI 'Train Wreck' In Multiple Fla. Courts

    A Florida federal judge expressed outrage toward an attorney's reliance on artificial intelligence to draft filings with fake legal citations, ordering counsel in a fight over a $5 million Canadian judgment to submit supplemental briefs in order to fix a "train wreck" that spans several cases in multiple courts.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Teaching Business Law Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Teaching business law to college students has rekindled my sense of purpose as a lawyer — I am more mindful of the importance of the rule of law and the benefits of our common law system, which helps me maintain a clearer perspective on work, says David Feldman at Feldman Legal Advisors.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery

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    The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.

  • Alternative Business Structures Raise Ethics Questions

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    The new KPMG law firm, launched in Arizona following that state's repeal of the prohibition on fee sharing with nonlawyers, raises a number of important practice questions, both for the firm and those law firms seeking to partner with it, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O’Connor.

  • Series

    Playing Guitar Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a lawyer not only requires logic and hard work, but also belief, emotion, situational awareness and lots of natural energy — playing guitar enhances all of these qualities, increasing my capacity to do my best work, says Kosta Stojilkovic at Wilkinson Stekloff.

  • Crisis Management Lessons From The Parenting Playbook

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    The parenting skills we use to help our kids through challenges — like rehearsing for stressful situations, modeling confidence and taking time to reset our emotions — can also teach us the fundamentals of leading clients through a corporate crisis, say Deborah Solmor at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Cara Peterman at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From NY Fed To BigLaw

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    While the move to private practice brings a learning curve, it also brings chances to learn new skills and grow your network, requiring a clear understanding of how your skills can complement and contribute to a firm's existing practice, and where you can add new value, says Meghann Donahue at Covington.

  • Top 3 Litigation Finance Deal-Killers, And How To Avoid Them

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    Like all transactions, litigation finance deals can sometimes collapse, but understanding the most common reasons for failure, including a lack of trust or a misunderstanding of deal terms, can help both parties avoid problems, say Rebecca Berrebi at Avenue 33 and Boris Ziser at Schulte Roth.

  • How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients

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    Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.

  • Opinion

    Third-Party Funding Transparency Is Key In Patent Suits

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    Third-party litigation funding is a growing industry that could benefit from enhanced disclosure standards to ensure transparency, as challenges in obtaining discovery of such funding can complicate patent litigation against nonpracticing entities, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • 3 Steps For In-House Counsel To Assess Litigation Claims

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    Before a potential economic downturn, in-house attorneys should investigate whether their company is sitting on hidden litigation claims that could unlock large recoveries to help the business withstand tough times, says Will Burgess at Hilgers Graben.

  • Series

    Teaching College Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving as an adjunct college professor has taught me the importance of building rapport, communicating effectively, and persuading individuals to critically analyze the difference between what they think and what they know — principles that have helped to improve my practice of law, says Sheria Clarke at Nelson Mullins.

  • Atty Insurance Implications Of Rising Nonclient Cyber Claims

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    As law firms are increasingly targeted in cyberattacks, claims by clients as well as nonclients against lawyers are also on the rise, increasing the scope of exposure that attorneys face in their practice, say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

  • Why Attys Should Get Familiar With Quantum Computing

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    Quantum computing is projected to pose significant updates to current practices in cryptography, making the issue relevant to policymakers and the legal profession generally, particularly when it comes to data storage, privacy regulations and pharmaceutical industry market changes, say professors at the University of San Francisco.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Enviro To Mid-Law

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    Practitioners leaving a longtime government role for private practice — as when I departed the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental enforcement division — should prioritize finding a firm that shares their principles, values their experience and will invest in their transition, says John Cruden at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • Legal Ethics Considerations For Law Firm Pro Bono Deals

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    If a law firm enters into a pro bono deal with the Trump administration in exchange for avoiding or removing an executive order, it has an ethical obligation to create a written settlement agreement with specific terms, which would mitigate some potential conflict of interest problems, says Andrew Altschul at Buchanan Angeli.

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