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Legal Ethics
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May 09, 2025
Shutts & Bowen Eyes Sanctions Over Country Club Sale Suit
Florida firm Shutts & Bowen LLP is continuing its pushback against a real estate corporation's malpractice lawsuit alleging it sank the sale of a country club, this time serving a motion for sanctions in the state court.
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May 09, 2025
Split Texas High Court Nixes Barratry Claims Against Attys
A split Texas Supreme Court said Friday that anti-solicitation claims fail against Texas lawyers who allegedly used "case runners" to pursue car accident clients in Arkansas and Louisiana because the conduct occurred outside the Lone Star State.
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May 09, 2025
A Look At David Souter's Most Significant Opinions
The retired Justice David Souter defied simple definition, viewed as a staunch conservative until he co-wrote an opinion upholding abortion rights in 1992. He did not hew to partisan lines, but reshaped the civil litigation landscape and took an unexpected stand in an extraordinarily close presidential election.
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May 09, 2025
NJ Panel Nixes Debt Adjustment Law's Limited Atty Exemption
The New Jersey state appeals court on Friday ruled that provisions of a state law exposing attorneys representing clients in debt adjustment proceedings to possible civil penalties or criminal charges is unconstitutional and "impermissibly vague."
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May 09, 2025
Justice Souter Was An Unexpected Force Of Moderation
Justice David Souter, who saw the high court as a moderating force apart from the messiness of politics, subverted the expectations of liberals and conservatives alike during his 19 years on the bench.
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May 09, 2025
Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter Dies At 85
Retired Justice David H. Souter, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 to 2009, has died at 85, the court announced Friday.Â
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May 08, 2025
5th Circ. Wipes Out Southwest Attys' Religious Training Order
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday held that a lower court overstepped by ordering several in-house Southwest Airlines attorneys to undergo "religious liberty training" following a flight attendant's win in a wrongful termination suit, finding that the training wouldn't benefit the flight attendant or persuade Southwest to comply with an earlier order.
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May 08, 2025
Pa. Judge Gives Final OK To $1.1M Inquirer Data Breach Deal
A Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing a consolidated action accusing the Philadelphia Inquirer of sharing subscribers' video viewing habits with Meta has granted final approval to a $1.1 million settlement, including nearly $375,000 in attorney's fees.
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May 08, 2025
Ramey IP Atty Likely To Get Sanctioned Over Netflix Doc Swap
A California federal judge indicated Thursday he'll likely grant Netflix's request for monetary sanctions against a prolific patent plaintiff's former counsel William Ramey and the Ramey LLP law firm for giving Netflix's confidential information to nonparty AiPi LLC, but probably won't pursue the streamer's request for a civil contempt finding.
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May 08, 2025
Judge Seems To Favor Susman Godfrey In Trump Challenge
A D.C. federal judge appeared poised Thursday to allow Susman Godfrey LLP's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting the firm to proceed or to grant the firm a summary judgment win altogether, after she pressed a government attorney on the president's basis for alleging discrimination at the firm.
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May 08, 2025
Dentons Europe, Houston Co. To Settle $4.7M Fee Dispute
Dentons Europe CS LLP and Houston-area Guidry & Associates Inc.'s $4.7 million fee dispute was dismissed Thursday after the parties notified the court of settlement talks.Â
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May 08, 2025
Musk Objects To New Job For SEC's Former Litigation Chief
Elon Musk is opposing a move by plaintiff-side firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP to hire the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's former chief litigation counsel, arguing in a court filing that the lawyer "played a personal and substantial role" in suing Musk while at the SEC.
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May 08, 2025
Apple Asks 9th Circ. To Pause New App Store Injunction
Apple has asked the Ninth Circuit to pause parts of a California federal court's new injunction mandating changes to its App Store policies, issued after finding Apple violated a previous order, saying the "punitive" measures force it to give away free access to its products.
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May 08, 2025
Ga. Atty Wins Appeal In 'Too Broadly' Applied Fees Ruling
A Georgia Court of Appeals panel on Thursday threw out a trial court order requiring an Atlanta-based family law attorney and his client to pay about $86,484 in attorney fees from a contested divorce proceeding, finding that the trial court applied a statute "too broadly" among other missteps.
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May 08, 2025
Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Calling Attorney An 'Ass'
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday accepted a recommendation from the state's judicial disciplinary body to publicly reprimand a state judge who has apologized for calling an assistant state attorney an "ass" and making other inappropriate remarks directed toward prosecutors.
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May 08, 2025
Fla. Judge Suspended For Spreading Campaign Gossip
A Florida state judge will be suspended for 10 days without pay after she admitted that actions she took during her 2022 reelection campaign violated the code of judicial conduct, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
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May 08, 2025
ABA Defends Free Speech In Response To DOJ's Grant Cutoff
The American Bar Association has told the D.C. federal court the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to cut domestic violence-related grants to the ABA violates its First Amendments rights and sets a precedent that would allow the government to "silence all manner of opposition."
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May 08, 2025
Convicted Atty In Embassy Attack Seeks To Avoid Restitution
A Florida attorney sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison for damaging a San Antonio sculpture and unsuccessfully trying to detonate explosives outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., has asked the court to eliminate his $325,000 restitution obligation because of his inability to pay.
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May 08, 2025
Miami Atty Disbarred Over Insistence Of Foreclosure Fraud
The Florida Supreme Court disbarred a Miami attorney after accusations that he misled courts, impugned judges and brought frivolous pleadings over his insistence that clients' homes were fraudulently foreclosed, despite previous suspensions from allegations of similar conduct in the past.
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May 08, 2025
Pa. Jury Awards $165K To Teachers In Equal Pay Suit
A Pennsylvania jury awarded a total of $165,000 in damages to two female teachers who claimed they had been unfairly paid less than their male counterparts in the Central Bucks School District Thursday.
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May 08, 2025
Jury Says Firm Owes Ex-HR Exec $3.27M In Retaliation Case
A Tennessee federal jury said a personal injury firm should pay $3.27 million to a former chief people officer who claimed she was fired after raising concerns that female attorneys were being paid less than men.
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May 08, 2025
Trump Replaces Martin With Pirro As US Atty Pick
President Donald Trump said Thursday he would withdraw the nomination of Ed Martin for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, replacing him with former judge and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
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May 08, 2025
Critics Warn Tenn. Middle District Rule Could 'Chill' Speech
Two public interest nonprofit law firms have expressed concerns that local rule changes proposed by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee regarding public communications by lawyers amid litigation are unconstitutionally vague and could impede attorneys' constitutional right to free speech.
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May 07, 2025
Girardi Hospitalized Ahead Of Mental Evaluation Hearing
Disbarred attorney Tom Girardi was hospitalized Wednesday for a liver problem and is unable to attend a scheduled hearing Thursday before a California federal judge who is evaluating his mental health to determine if he should be sent to prison, according to a filing with the court by his attorneys.Â
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May 07, 2025
9th Circ. Judge Suggests Sidelining Peers To Curb Injunctions
With the U.S. Supreme Court set for a seminal showdown over nationwide injunctions, observers are advocating wide-ranging outcomes, and a Ninth Circuit judge entered the fray Wednesday by proposing that district judges be blackballed for blatant overreach or perceived bias.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
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.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
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.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
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.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
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.
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Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases
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.
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Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
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.
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Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
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.
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Series
Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
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.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
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.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
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.