Ed. be aware: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson again to the pages of Above the Regulation. Subscribe to her Substack, Authorized Ethics Roundup, here.
Welcome to what captivates, haunts, conjures up, and surprises me each week on this planet of authorized ethics.
Be a part of me LIVE this week on the College of Houston’s digital program “Attorneys Who Lead: Ethics, Affect, and Affect” on Thursday 10/16 from 3-5PM central. Study extra and register here. Different audio system embrace H. Stephen Grace Jr. (President and Founder H.S. Grace & Co.) and Andrew Gratz (Founding father of the Initiative on Attorneys as Leaders).
Now in your headlines.
Highlights from Final Week – Prime Ten Headlines
#1 “Court docket Leans Towards Permitting Trial Judges to Restrict Legal professional-Consumer Discussions Throughout In a single day Recesses.” From SCOTUSBlog: “At the very least among the justices at Monday morning’s oral argument in Villarreal v. Texas look like prepared to allow trial courts to restrict what protection legal professionals might talk about with their purchasers in a single day when the consumer continues to be on the stand. Particularly, a number of justices appear to assume the court docket might prohibit lawyer and consumer from direct discussions of the consumer’s testimony, however not collateral issues of trial technique and administration that relate to the testimony.” Learn extra here. (Full disclosure: Together with a number of different authorized ethics students, I joined an amicus brief on this matter.)
#2 “C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Changed Company’s Prime Authorized Official With Himself.” From The New York Instances: “It was not clear what was behind [Michael] Ellis’s taking private management of constructing authorized judgments for the company whereas persevering with to assist lead it, however the transfer raised alarms amongst some present and former intelligence officers. Stephen Gillers, a New York College professor of authorized ethics, known as the association ‘fairly weird.’ Pointing to guidelines {of professional} conduct for legal professionals that prohibit conflicts of curiosity, he mentioned Mr. Ellis might function C.I.A. basic counsel for issues by which he had no curiosity, however couldn’t ethically give himself authorized recommendation about points that concern him — together with whether or not coverage actions he needs to take can be lawful.” Learn extra here (reward hyperlink).
#3 “Regulation Companies’ Trump Offers Escape NY Lawyer Ethics Investigation.” From Bloomberg Regulation: “A disciplinary physique for New York legal professionals is pushing aside an ethics probe into main legislation corporations’ offers with President Donald Trump. A New York Supreme Court docket committee final month declined to take up a criticism in opposition to 9 corporations that pledged practically $1 billion in free authorized companies to White Home in trade for the removing of administrative probes and punishments, in response to paperwork obtained by Bloomberg Regulation. The criticism, filed by a gaggle of legislation professors, accused the corporations of violating ethics guidelines by ‘capitulating’ to Trump’s ‘bullying.’ ‘The enterprise choices of legislation corporations, such because the number of purchasers or the allocation of professional bono sources, typically fall outdoors the purview of this Committee,’ Jorge Dopico, chief legal professional for the committee, mentioned in a Sept. 2 letter.” Learn extra here.
#4 “New Regulation Lets California Regulation College students Be Paid for For-Credit score Externships.” From the California Lawyer Every day Journal: “What began as a scholar brainstorming session in a Sacramento classroom has now develop into California legislation. On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsomsigned AB 1155, laws requiring legislation faculties throughout the state to permit college students to be paid for skilled externships even whereas incomes tutorial credit score.” Learn extra here.
#5 “Retired Justice Kennedy Laments Coarse Discourse of Trump Period and Its Results on the Supreme Court docket.” From the Related Press: “Retired Supreme Court docket Justice Anthony Kennedy mentioned Wednesday he was troubled that partisanship appeared to be ‘creeping its means into the court docket,’ and that the state of political discourse within the nation has gotten so vulgar and vile that he worries for the nation. The tone of latest opinions bothers him greater than outcomes of instances, Kennedy mentioned in an interview with The Related Press in his court docket workplace prematurely of subsequent week’s publication of his memoir, Life, Law & Liberty. ‘The justices have to withstand considering of themselves as being partisan,’ he mentioned. ‘In our present discourse, it appears to me, partisanship is creeping its means into the court docket.’” Learn extra here.
#6 “How Letitia James Will Do Her Day Job.” From The New York Instances: “Letitia James is New York’s chief authorized officer, main an workplace of 1,700 folks, together with 800 legal professionals. And now she’s a legal defendant. After Ms. James, who has been New York’s legal professional basic since 2018, was indicted on Thursday on federal prices of financial institution fraud and false statements, she vowed to maintain doing her job main one of many nation’s largest prosecutor’s workplaces. The case’s affect on her job might be ‘zero,’ mentioned James E. Tierney, a former Maine legal professional basic who teaches in regards to the place at Harvard Regulation College. It’s not the primary time that an legal professional basic has been indicted and continued to steer, Mr. Tierney mentioned. …Stephen Gillers, a authorized ethics skilled at New York College’s College of Regulation, mentioned that moral pointers wouldn’t require Ms. James to recuse herself from these instances.” Learn extra here (reward hyperlink). And for additional commentary on the indictment, see this op-ed from Richard Zitrin (UC San Francisco) within the San Francisco Chronicle: “With the Letitia James indictment, Trump’s politics of revenge threaten to rewrite justice in America.” Learn extra here.
#7 “Golden Gate College Seeks California Accreditation to Reopen Regulation College.” From Reuters: “The Golden Gate College is aiming to revive the troubled legislation college it closed final 12 months, reopening it as a California-accredited establishment. The San Francisco-based college has requested the State Bar of California for accreditation — which might allow Juris Physician graduates of the varsity to take a seat for the bar in California however not in most different states. The state bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners is because of contemplate the college’s software on Friday.” Learn extra here.
#8 “Independence First: An Moral Check for Litigation Funding.” From Bailey Glasser: “Of the handful of ethics authorities which have issued opinions instantly addressing litigation financing, one challenge stays paramount: legal professional management of litigation and independence in legal professional judgment. Though ethics our bodies apply various ethics guidelines to handle the pertinent points, a typical theme between them is an emphasis that funding agreements might be impermissible in the event that they imperil or limit legal professional independence. Under are highlights from just a few of the states which have addressed the difficulty and prioritize the significance of defending legal professional independence.” Learn extra here.
#9 “Lawyer AI Competence: Coaching Is Changing into Necessary — However Attorneys Nonetheless Get Burned.” From Legal professional at Work: “In case you assume figuring out one thing about synthetic intelligence is non-compulsory for legal professionals, assume once more. A rising variety of U.S. legislation faculties have determined that AI coaching just isn’t a luxurious or an elective — it’s turning into a requirement. In the meantime, legal professionals proceed to face self-discipline or fines as a result of they lack primary AI competence. The distinction couldn’t be extra stark: College students are being taught the foundations whereas training legal professionals are nonetheless struggling to know them.” Learn extra here.
#10 “Deepfakes, Knowledge, and Responsibility: Navigating AI Ethics in Regulation, with Merisa Bowers.” From Lawyerist Podcast: “Zack Glaser talks with Merisa Bowers, Loss Prevention and Outreach Counsel on the Ohio Bar Legal responsibility Insurance coverage Firm, about how synthetic intelligence is reshaping legal professionals’ moral duties. Merisa explains how deepfakes and real looking scams are creating new challenges for diligence and verification, why unregulated chatbots can by accident create attorney-client relationships, and what disclosures legal professionals ought to make when utilizing AI instruments. She additionally shares sensible steps to take care of confidentiality, defend consumer information, and apply long-standing ethics guidelines to fast-changing applied sciences.” Learn extra here.
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Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Authorized Ethics and is a Professor of Regulation on the College of Houston. Take a look at extra of her writing on the Legal Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
