ĂŰĚŇĘÓƵ

Legal Ethics

  • 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.

  • June 18, 2025

    California Bar Exam Woes Latest Chapter In Ongoing Scrutiny

    Recent headline-grabbing blunders with the February California bar exam represent a stumbling block in a yearslong effort to reshape the exam, with an eye toward equity and accessibility for the more than 10,000 applicants who sit for the exam each year.

  • June 18, 2025

    Jeanine Pirro Faring Better Than Earlier Pick For DC US Atty

    President Donald Trump's second pick for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, former judge and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, seems to be having an easier time than the previous contender, Ed Martin.

  • June 18, 2025

    Trump Organization Taps DLA Piper Atty As Ethics Adviser

    President Donald Trump's family business said Wednesday that it has named a leader of DLA Piper's government affairs and public policy practice as its outside ethics adviser.

  • June 18, 2025

    Firm Can't Keep Atty's Fla. Whistleblower Suit​ In Federal Court

    A Florida judge sent a whistleblower's lawsuit against her former law firm Matthiesen Wickert & Lehrer SC to state court, finding that the firm failed to prove the amount in controversy exceeded a $75,000 threshold to stay in federal court.

  • June 18, 2025

    NJ Judiciary Hit With Pregnancy Bias Suit From Court Exec

    A court executive has claimed that the New Jersey judiciary is guilty of retaliating and discriminating against her by allegedly reducing her pay raise because she went on maternity leave, according to a new state complaint.

  • June 18, 2025

    NC Bar Lacks Power To Punish NY-Licensed Atty, Panel Rules

    The North Carolina State Bar can't discipline lawyers who may reside in the state but are not licensed to practice there, a state appellate panel ruled Wednesday in reversing the disbarment of an immigration attorney who lives in the Tar Heel State but is licensed in New York.

  • June 18, 2025

    Loss Of Ga. Immunity Doctrine A Blow To Malpractice Defense

    Lawyers in the Peach State are expected to have a tougher time defending against legal malpractice claims now that the Georgia Supreme Court has thrown out an attorney judgment immunity doctrine that was more than 30 years old, rejecting a bid from more than two dozen law firms to keep it alive.

Expert Analysis

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

    Author Photo

    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

    Author Photo

    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

    Author Photo

    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

    Author Photo

    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases

    Author Photo

    Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Legal Ethics archive.