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Legal Ethics
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May 19, 2025
Avenatti Rips 'Draconian' Bid To Add 13 Years To Sentence
Former high-profile attorney Michael Avenatti asked a California federal judge to reject the government's request to tack on more than 13 years to his prison term, saying such a "draconian" result would conflict with a Ninth Circuit ruling wiping out a previous sentence in the fraud case.
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May 19, 2025
Pa. County Must Face Suit Over Ex-DA's Sex Assault
The government of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, can't duck a lawsuit brought by a woman who claims the county should have stopped its then-district attorney from stalking, harassing and sexually assaulting her, a federal judge ruled Monday.
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May 19, 2025
Partner Hire Kills Jurisdiction In Referral Suit, Mass. Firm Says
A Boston law firm told a Massachusetts federal court on Monday that it plans to refile its suit seeking a referral fee from a Minnesota firm that served as co-lead counsel in a salmon purchaser antitrust case, after the latter firm's hiring of a Massachusetts-based partner defeated federal court jurisdiction.
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May 16, 2025
9th Circ. Mulls DOJ Shield Of Jones Day VW Documents
A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday questioned whether it could force the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over confidential Volkswagen documents it obtained through a grand jury subpoena that were part of Jones Day's internal investigation into the automaker's 2015 emissions-cheating scandal.
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May 16, 2025
Anthropic's AI-Hallucinated Errors Taint Filing, Publishers Say
Music publishers suing Anthropic for copyright infringement accused the artificial intelligence company on Friday of downplaying the seriousness of errors in a filing caused by Anthropic's own Claude AI tool, saying the company's counsel violated a judge's standing order and arguing that the filing at issue should be tossed.
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May 16, 2025
Injured Ross Shopper Sanctioned For Discovery Violations
A woman suing Ross Dress for Less Inc. for injuries she suffered in a fall was sanctioned for failing to disclose that she received medical treatment stemming from a car accident two years prior, but a Florida federal judge stopped short of granting the "ultimate" sanction of dismissal.
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May 16, 2025
Attys With 'Borrowed' Claims Can't Skip Inquiry, Lumen Says
Telecommunications company Lumen has told the Colorado Supreme Court that attorneys still need to conduct their own "objectively reasonable inquiry" when borrowing claims from outside litigants, in the hopes of beating a shareholder suit that took allegations from other cases despite attorneys not speaking to the witnesses.
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May 16, 2025
Accused Fox Video Hacker's Attys Slammed For Fake Citations
A Florida federal judge has ordered an alleged Fox News video hacker's dismissal motion stricken from the record after finding it was full of fake legal citations and demanded an explanation from defense attorneys for the "unprofessional misrepresentations."
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May 16, 2025
Florida Ex-Financial Adviser Admits To $8.4M Elder Fraud
A former financial adviser pled guilty to a criminal charge in connection to defrauding an elderly family member out of $8.4 million, admitting to a Florida federal court he made false misrepresentations that he was buying investments on her behalf, but he was actually spending the money on himself.
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May 16, 2025
Lin Wood's Ex-Partners Awarded $11M Over Firm Split
Ex-attorney L. Lin Wood must pay his former law partners more than $11 million in a long-running fee dispute stemming from the breakup of their firm, an Atlanta jury has said, less than a year after Wood was ordered to pay his former partners $4.5 million in a related federal defamation trial.
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May 16, 2025
Calif. Atty Caught Using Claim Construction Made Up By AI
A San Francisco-based attorney representing Magpul Industries in patent litigation has been effectively removed from the case after admitting that the claim construction chart he submitted was nearly all fabricated by artificial intelligence.
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May 16, 2025
NJ, DuPont To Face Off In Landmark PFAS Trial Series
New Jersey and chemical manufacturing giant E.I. DuPont de Nemours will square off Monday over the contamination at a former Salem County manufacturing facility in a first-of-a-kind series of trials that environmental attorneys expect will impact "forever chemicals" litigation across the country.
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May 16, 2025
Progressive, Kanner & Pintaluga Slam Accident Data Suit
Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and Kanner & Pintaluga PA have filed separate motions in Texas federal court to dismiss a proposed class action accusing the two of conspiring to share auto crash victims' private information against state and federal law, with each arguing that the allegations, as the insurer put it, "make no sense."
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May 16, 2025
Porzio Bromberg Accused Of Pushing Doctor Into Bankruptcy
A Louisiana doctor claims a New Jersey law firm and one of its principals failed in their representation of him in a deal he wasn't fully informed of and which led to an involuntary bankruptcy, according to a complaint recently removed to federal court in Louisiana.
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May 16, 2025
Criminal Case Dropped Against Girardi In Illinois
An Illinois federal judge has nixed the criminal charges against disbarred attorney Tom Girardi after the government's move to dismiss the case, citing his age and conviction in California.
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May 16, 2025
Judge Questions Federal Jurisdiction In Boies Schiller Case
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and other defendants have pulled into Florida federal court a malpractice action alleging they distributed confidential information related to a law firm, but a federal judge said Thursday she is "unconvinced" that the matter belongs in federal court.
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May 16, 2025
Jackson Walker Criticizes JC Penney Fee Suit As 'Money Grab'
Jackson Walker LLP wants out of a fee suit brought by former client J.C. Penney, arguing that the bankrupt department store's wind-down debtors entered claims as a "leverage play and a money grab" after learning that a firm partner had engaged in a yearslong undisclosed relationship with a Texas bankruptcy judge.
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May 15, 2025
Ga. Atty Gets 16 Months For Role In $1.3B Tax Shelter Scheme
A Georgia attorney has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison and slammed with an $8 million bill after pleading guilty to helping orchestrate a $1.3 billion tax scheme involving fraudulent conservation easements.
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May 15, 2025
Anthropic's Atty Says Client's Own AI Created Error In Filing
A Latham & Watkins LLP associate representing Anthropic in the artificial intelligence company's copyright fight with music publishers said Thursday that she used Anthropic's own Claude.ai tool to help draft an expert's declaration that included an erroneous citation, but she argued the error was "an honest citation mistake and not a fabrication of authority."
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May 15, 2025
8th Circ. Finds No Error In Fentanyl Dealing Conviction
The Eighth Circuit has refused to grant a new trial to a North Dakota man sentenced to over 15 years in prison for selling fentanyl with his father, finding a lower court was justified in keeping his father from testifying at trial.
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May 15, 2025
Conn. Atty Convicted In Shooting Agrees To Suspension
A longtime Cramer & Anderson LLP partner who was found guilty of manslaughter for shooting and killing a man who attacked the attorney in his Litchfield, Connecticut, law firm's parking lot has agreed to an interim law license suspension, according to a proposed order noting he has no current clients and no lawyer trust account.
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May 15, 2025
Trump Could Claw Back Defense Fees Under New Ga. Law
Georgia taxpayers could end up on the hook for President Donald Trump's legal expenses in his election interference case under a newly signed, Republican-backed state law that allows defendants to seek attorney fees when prosecutors are disqualified from their case.
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May 15, 2025
Memphis Seeks Atty Sanctions In Tyre Nichols Beating Case
The city of Memphis, Tennessee, has asked a judge to impose sanctions on high-profile civil rights lawyers Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, arguing that they issued a press release that falsely said a lawsuit over the police beating death of Tyre Nichols could not bankrupt the Memphis government.
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May 15, 2025
Judicial Aide's NY Sex Abuse Suit May Survive, Panel Hints
A New York state appellate panel has voiced doubts that a former judicial secretary's sex abuse lawsuit should have been dismissed, challenging the state court system's arguments that it didn't employ her and thus can't be held liable for any harms she suffered.
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May 15, 2025
Feds' Memo In Filing Mishap Is Privileged, NY Judge Says
A New York federal judge has determined that the federal government's mistakenly filed memo in litigation over Manhattan's congestion pricing program is privileged and cannot be cited in the parties' arguments, but the memo won't be sealed because it's already been widely reported on.
Expert Analysis
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The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule
Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.
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Trump Faces Uphill Battle If He Tries To Target Prosecutors
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump promised to go after the state and federal prosecutors who had investigated and prosecuted him, but few criminal statutes would be applicable — to say nothing of the evidence required to substantiate any charges against prosecutors, says William Johnston at Bird Marella.
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Series
Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals
Excerpt from
Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Series
Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers
In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron.Â
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata
Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being
As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.
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Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes
Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.
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Series
Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.