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Legal Ethics
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September 08, 2025
Split Colo. Justices Back DA's Disbarment Over Judge Probe
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled to uphold a disciplinary board's disbarment of former 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley in a split 4-2 decision that found the issue of whether the presiding disciplinary judge should have recused himself a "close call."
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September 08, 2025
9th Circ. Axes Ruling Trader Joe's 'Weaponized Legal System'
A California federal judge hastily found that Trader Joe's cooked up borderline-frivolous theories of trademark infringement to punish union organizers, the Ninth Circuit held Monday, finding that union merchandise looks "strikingly similar" to the grocer's well-known logo.
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September 08, 2025
Calif. Judge Convicted Of Murdering Wife Seeks Trial Do-Over
A California judge convicted of murdering his wife earlier this year moved for a new trial, arguing the court's denial of his request to postpone the retrial was a "miscarriage of justice" because it limited his expert witness testimony and violated his right to present his defense that the shooting was accidental.
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September 08, 2025
VLSI Argues PQA Was Formed Illegally In Renewed Fraud Suit
VLSI Technology LLC is once again trying to persuade a Virginia state judge that Patent Quality Assurance LLC owes it more than $3 million for misconduct at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, raising a new argument Monday that PQA's existence as a limited liability company was never legal.
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September 08, 2025
Atty In Judge Newman Suspension Feud Moves To DOJ
An attorney who has been representing Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman in the legal battle over her suspension has jumped from the New Civil Liberties Alliance to work at the U.S. Department of Justice.
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September 08, 2025
FDIC Bests Farella Braun In Dispute Over SVB Legal Fees
A California federal judge has sided with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a dispute over $48,800 in unpaid legal bills that Farella Braun & Martel LLP sought for work it did before Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, finding the firm's invoices lacked key details like hours and billing rates.
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September 08, 2025
FisherBroyles Can't Nix Stem Cell Patent Malpractice Claim
A California judge on Monday denied FisherBroyles LLP's motion to toss a claim in a $10 million malpractice suit brought against it by a stem cell treatment center, ruling the firm missed a deadline to file the motion.Â
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September 08, 2025
Grassley Blocked On Quick US Attorney Confirmations
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tried Monday to quickly confirm 10 nominees for U.S. attorneys, but was blocked by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
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September 08, 2025
Atty Tells Disciplinary Panel $250K Demand Wasn't Blackmail
A Pennsylvania attorney facing discipline for allegedly threatening to blackmail a client's debtor was rightfully trying to collect on a long-standing, highly litigated debt, a state disciplinary hearing panel heard Monday.
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September 08, 2025
Exotic Dancers Too Early With Quick Win Bid In Wage Suit
A former exotic dancer for an Illinois club cannot snag a partial win in a lawsuit claiming she and her coworkers were misclassified as independent contractors and faced illegal kickbacks, a federal judge ruled Monday, saying she "put the cart before the horse."
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September 08, 2025
9th Circ. Backs Trump Donor's Tax, Foreign Agent Convictions
A venture capitalist whose 12-year prison term for evading taxes and making illegal campaign contributions through foreign clients was commuted by President Donald Trump did not plead guilty to the crimes involuntarily, the Ninth Circuit found in affirming his convictions, rejecting his claim that his attorney hid information from him.
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September 08, 2025
Watchdog Wants Discipline For Atty Ensnared In Murder Case
Connecticut's legal ethics watchdog is targeting an attorney who was convicted of interfering with an officer in a high-profile murder case, saying in a court filing that he's "guilty of misconduct" and should face discipline from the state.
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September 08, 2025
Attys Accused Of Filing Fake Docs In Miss America Dispute
A real estate developer, his associates and his current and past attorneys submitted fake contracts as evidence of their ownership of the company that runs the Miss America pageant in a $500 million lawsuit and should face sanctions, the plaintiffs — who allege they're the rightful owners — told a Florida federal judge Saturday.
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September 08, 2025
Conn. Tax Atty Wants Full Appeals Court To Rethink Her Firing
Connecticut's former tax legal director has asked the full Connecticut Appellate Court to reconsider an appellate panel's ruling that found her firing was proper after she used her work computer to send unauthorized draft legislation to a lobbyist, arguing that as a case of first impression it is important for the full court to weigh in.
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September 08, 2025
Appeal Limited To NJ US Atty DQ Ruling, 3rd Circ. Told
The federal government and defense counsel have agreed that the scope of a Third Circuit appeal is limited to the disqualification of New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from overseeing two cases.
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September 08, 2025
Dems Again Ask NY Ethics Body To Investigate Bove
Two Democratic senators filed an updated ethics complaint with the New York State Courts' attorney ethics body against recently confirmed Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, citing what they called his "quid pro quo deal" to drop criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other alleged ethical violations.
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September 08, 2025
NC High Court Snapshot: Pot Smell Test, Atty's Divorce Feud
North Carolina's top court will return from its summer hiatus in September to address whether law enforcement can rely on the smell of marijuana alone in the age of legalized hemp to justify a warrantless search. Here are some highlights of the high court's September lineup.
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September 08, 2025
Mass. Justices Asked To Find Atty Had Duty To Seek Plea Deal
A man who has spent more than four decades in prison for a 1983 murder asked Massachusetts' high court Monday to find that his defense attorney's failure to pursue a plea bargain with prosecutors entitles him to a new trial, in a case that could alter the standard for finding a lawyer's work was ineffective.
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September 08, 2025
Timeshare Biz Fights Law Firm's Arbitration Bid In Fee Fight
Timeshares Direct Inc. urged a Florida federal court to reject an arbitration bid from Watstein Terepka LLP in a dispute over approximately $25,000 in legal fees because the company claimed the firm "flip-flopped" on its stance on arbitration.
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September 08, 2025
Texas Couple Fights Firm's Sanctions Bid In Crash Data Suit
A Houston couple who accused a law firm and a since-dismissed Progressive unit of conspiring to share car crash victims' private information told a Texas federal court that their suit is "neither frivolous, unreasonable, nor improper" as they pushed back against the law firm's sanctions request.Â
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September 08, 2025
Ex-Judge Says Wash. DA, Court Sabotaged Election Bid
A Washington state attorney and former pro tem judge in Seattle has filed a lawsuit alleging she was racially discriminated against when a county prosecutor's office had her disqualified from hearing cases due to rulings she made from the bench.
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September 05, 2025
OnlyFans Users May Face Sanctions Over AI 'Misuse'
OnlyFans users who have alleged the site employs professional "chatters" to impersonate content creators are facing possible sanctions in their case, as a California federal judge ordered their attorneys to appear in court for filing briefs with nonexistent citations and quotations generated by an AI chatbot.
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September 05, 2025
Munchkin Says 'Unhinged' GC Was Fired For Good Reason
Munchkin Inc. says it had multiple legitimate reasons to terminate the baby company's general counsel for cause after he launched a "retaliatory and vindictive campaign" against another executive, calling him "unhinged" and slamming his suit against the company as "harassing," according to a filing in California state court.
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September 05, 2025
DOJ Pushes To DQ Attorney Over Conflict In Fraud Case
Federal prosecutors in Georgia are seeking to disqualify an attorney from representing a defendant accused of making false statements in relation to a criminal fraud investigation of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Inc., arguing the lawyer was previously disqualified from representing the company's CEO for a conflict and that "the same is true now."
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September 05, 2025
Judge Awards Over $6M In Atty Fees In Bluetooth Co.'s IP Suit
A Colorado federal judge has awarded the attorneys representing a Bluetooth technology company more than $6 million after the company won on the bulk of its claims at trial last year in its trade secrets and breach of confidentiality case against a Massachusetts display technology company.
Expert Analysis
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.
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Series
Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.
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Opinion
Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.
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In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege
Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.
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Applying ABA Atty Role Guidance To White Collar Matters
The American Bar Association’s recently published guidance, clarifying the duties outside counsel owes to both organizational clients and those organizations' constituents, provides best practices that attorneys representing companies in white collar and other investigative matters should heed, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Series
Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.
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Opinion
Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Perspectives
Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering
Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
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Disciplinary Rule Updates Every Texas Lawyer Needs To Know
Sweeping amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct that recently went into effect provide essential clarity and modernity to rules governing conflicts of interest, client confidentiality and duties to prospective clients, says Robert Tobey at Johnston Tobey.
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Series
Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.