Ed. word: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson again to the pages of Above the Legislation. Subscribe to her Substack, Authorized Ethics Roundup, here.
Welcome to what captivates, haunts, evokes, and surprises me each week on the planet of authorized ethics.
Hiya from San Antonio, the place I attended the State Bar of Texas Annual Assembly final week. A spotlight was my husband Wallace B. Jefferson’s keynote speech delivered on Juneteenth, the place he recounted his unbelievable private story as a descendant of enslaved individuals who turned the primary African American Justice and Chief Justice on the Supreme Courtroom of Texas. You may learn extra about his story in this article revealed by Duke Legislation’s Judicature journal in 2023. Right here’s a preview:
Thirty-three years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the Lincoln Memorial, I visited Washington, D.C., for the primary time. It was Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1996 — a presidential Election Day. That morning, I argued my first case earlier than america Supreme Courtroom: Board of Commissioners of Bryan County v. Brown. … I’d stand on the identical podium the place Thurgood Marshall challenged “separate however equal” in Brown v. Board of Schooling. The ironies have been inescapable: … Brown v. Board and Board v. Brown; Thurgood Marshall and Wallace Jefferson — two legal professionals who turned the primary African American justices on their respective supreme courts. These eerie correlations jogged my memory of the “unfinished work” that Lincoln invoked in his Gettysburg Tackle: that we should dedicate ourselves to the identical noble trigger for which those that fought gave their final full measure of devotion. And our work is not completed. We aren’t but an ideal union. However we’re a union. And for our union to thrive, we should discover ways to get alongside. Divided, we can’t stand. …
I gained that case earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the primary lady ever to serve on the Courtroom, wrote the opinion. When college students at San Antonio’s Wallace B. Jefferson Center Faculty graduate, their subsequent cease is the Sandra Day O’Connor Excessive Faculty. This isn’t irony however the product of a nation that embraces the unconventional proposition that each one women and men are created equal.
And now to your headlines, which span the previous two weeks as a result of final week, after all, featured the Second Annual LER Summer Reading List. (Remember to test it out should you missed it!)
Highlights from Previous Couple of Weeks – Prime Ten Headlines
#1 “California Courtroom Upholds John Eastman’s Disbarment for Position in Trump 2020 Plot.” From Politico: “A California court docket has upheld a recommendation that lawyer John Eastman ought to lose his regulation license due to his central position in President Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. A 3-judge ‘evaluation panel’ of the California State Bar Courtroom discovered that Eastman’s conduct was so egregious — and his regret so missing — that the one treatment was to completely prohibit him from training regulation. … A choose of the State Bar Courtroom, Yvette Roland, had really useful Eastman’s disbarment final yr, a ruling that instantly resulted in Eastman’s suspension from training regulation.” Learn extra here.
#2 Puerto Rico Adopts Responsibility of Know-how Competence and Permits Non-Lawyer Possession In New Guidelines of Skilled Conduct. From Robert Ambrogi in LawSites: “I wrote yesterday in regards to the Puerto Rico Supreme Courtroom’s adoption of the responsibility of know-how competence, carried out as a part of its promulgation of recent guidelines {of professional} conduct to switch a code of ethics that had ruled legal professionals’ skilled conduct in Puerto Rico since 1970. Whereas Puerto Rico modeled its new Rules of Professional Conduct on the American Bar Association’s Model Rules, it diverged from the ABA in two important respects. One, as I defined in yesterday’s publish, was so as to add a separate rule dedicated to the responsibility of know-how competence, relatively than deal with the responsibility via a remark to the final rule on competence, because the ABA does. The opposite — and probably extra important — divergence was to revise Rule 5.4 to permit non-lawyers to have possession pursuits in regulation companies.” Learn extra here.
#3 “Trump’s Technique in Legislation Agency Instances: Lose, Don’t Attraction, But Prevail.” From the New York Instances: “The Trump administration is ordinarily fast to attraction its losses. … However administration legal professionals have carried out nothing to problem a sequence of stinging rulings rejecting Mr. Trump’s efforts to punish distinguished regulation companies for what he known as ‘conduct detrimental to vital American pursuits’ by representing shoppers and causes to not his liking. The administration’s unconventional litigation technique is telling, mentioned W. Bradley Wendel, a regulation professor at Cornell who’s an authority on authorized ethics. ‘They knew that these have been shedding positions from the start and weren’t really hoping to win in court docket, however relatively to intimidate companies into settling, as many companies did,’ he mentioned. ‘Now that they’ve racked up the 4 losses in district courts, it isn’t shocking that they aren’t interesting, as a result of I don’t assume they ever thought these have been severe positions.’” Learn extra here (present hyperlink).
#4 “American Bar Affiliation Sues to Block Trump’s Assaults on Legislation Corporations.” From Reuters: “The American Bar Affiliation sued the Trump administration on Monday, searching for an order that will bar the White Home from pursuing what the ABA known as a marketing campaign of intimidation in opposition to main regulation companies. The lawsuit, filed in federal court docket in Washington, D.C., mentioned the administration violated the U.S. Structure in a sequence of government orders focusing on regulation companies over their previous shoppers and legal professionals they employed.” Learn extra here. Obtain the grievance here, and browse the ABA’s press launch in regards to the lawsuit here.
#5 “Supreme Courtroom Disclosures Element Hundreds of thousands in Justices Guide Funds.” From The Hill: “The Supreme Courtroom justices’ annual monetary disclosures have been launched Tuesday, revealing tens of millions of {dollars} in mixed e book funds to the justices in 2024. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took in probably the most, disclosing a practically $2.07 million e book advance from Penguin Random Home, which revealed her memoir, ‘Beautiful One,’ in September. Jackson obtained practically $894,000 the yr prior.” Learn extra here.
#6 “Federal Judges are Highly effective. A few of Their Legislation Clerks Describe a Poisonous Work Tradition.” From NPR: “For greater than a yr, NPR has investigated serious misconduct in the federal judiciary — and the way tough it’s to carry judges accountable. At one finish of the spectrum, we heard from clerks who alleged they suffered sexual assaults, bullying, and being pregnant discrimination. However the energy imbalance between judges and their younger clerks additionally fuels a broader, extra insidious tradition, the place clerks are anticipated to give up management over practically each facet of their lives.” Learn extra here.
#7 “Michigan Legislation Evaluate Sued for Alleged Racial, Sexual Bias. Faculty Vows Vigorous Protection.” From the Detroit Information: “A conservative civil rights group is asking a federal choose to order the Michigan Legislation Evaluate Affiliation to cease utilizing race and intercourse preferences to pick out its members and articles and appoint a court docket monitor to supervise future choices by the nonprofit. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Courtroom in Detroit, a gaggle known as the School, Alumni, and College students Against Racial Preferences, or FASORP, accused the affiliation for the regulation journal of the College of Michigan Legislation Faculty of excluding articles from conservative White college students and utilizing race and intercourse preferences to pick out its members and articles. … The group is suing on behalf of three unnamed White male, heterosexual regulation professors who’ve submitted articles to the Michigan Legislation Evaluate up to now and have been all rejected. ‘People A, B, and C are unable to compete on an equal foundation with authors who’re ladies, racial minorities, homosexuals, or people who have interaction in gender-nonconforming habits or determine with a gender that departs from their organic intercourse,’ in response to the lawsuit.” Learn extra here. (Full disclosure: my forthcoming piece “When Legal professionals Protest” will probably be revealed by the Michigan Legislation Evaluate in 2026).
#8 Authorized Ethics Students File Amicus Temporary in Villarreal v. Texas. Together with a number of different authorized ethics students, I joined an amicus temporary filed in Villarreal v. Texas, a case the US Supreme Courtroom will take up in the course of the 2025 time period. At difficulty is whether or not a trial court docket violates a defendant’s Sixth Modification proper to counsel by prohibiting the defendant and his lawyer from discussing testimony throughout an in a single day recess. We argue {that a} ban on discussions like this jeopardizes the lawyer’s compliance with core skilled duties and undermines attorney-client privilege and the responsibility of confidentiality. Learn extra and obtain the amicus temporary here.
#9 The Ethics of Guide Awards, Legislation Course Titles, and Free Speech. Two headlines for #8. First, from the New York Instances: “A White Nationalist Wrote a Legislation Faculty Paper Selling Racist Views. It Gained Him an Award.” “Preston Damsky is a regulation scholar on the College of Florida. He’s additionally a white nationalist and antisemite. Final fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal choose on ‘originalism,’ the authorized concept favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Structure based mostly on its which means when it was adopted. In his capstone paper for the category, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had supposed for the phrase ‘We the Individuals,’ within the Structure’s preamble, to refer completely to white folks. … On the finish of the semester, Mr. Damsky, 29, was given the ‘e book award,’ which designated him as one of the best scholar within the class. In keeping with the syllabus, the capstone counted probably the most towards last grades. … The Trump-nominated choose who taught the category, John L. Badalamenti, declined to remark for this text, and doesn’t seem to have publicly mentioned why he selected Mr. Damsky for the award. That left some college students and school members on the regulation faculty, thought of Florida’s most prestigious, to surprise, and to fret: What advantage might the choose have seen in it? … In January, Carliss Chatman, an affiliate regulation professor at Southern Methodist College, started a stint as a visiting scholar on the faculty. It was not lengthy, she mentioned, earlier than quite a few Black and Jewish college students got here to her with considerations about Mr. Damsky. Ms. Chatman was struck, partially, by her personal experiences on the faculty in distinction to Mr. Damsky’s award. She had proposed educating a category throughout her time there known as ‘Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality.’ However directors on the regulation faculty modified the title to ‘Entrepreneurship, she mentioned, earlier than itemizing it within the course catalog. … ‘I simply discover it fascinating that this scholar can write an article, a sequence of articles which can be primarily manifestoes, and that’s free speech,’ Ms. Chatman mentioned, referring to Mr. Damsky, ‘however my class can’t be known as ‘Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality.’” Learn extra here (present hyperlink). Second, from Josh Blackman in The Volokh Conspiracy: “The New York Instances Launches An Unfair Assault On Decide Badalamenti.” Learn extra here.
#10 “Pam Bondi’s Brother Overwhelmingly Defeated in Heated Race to Lead the D.C. Bar.” From NPR: “Employment lawyer Diane Seltzer has gained a carefully watched contest to guide the D.C. Bar Affiliation, defeating securities lawyer Brad Bondi in a race with document turnout. Seltzer tallied greater than 90 % of the digital vote with ‘no points or irregularities’ within the voting system, D.C. Bar CEO Bob Spagnoletti mentioned in a press name Monday. Greater than 38,000 folks voted within the race, greater than 5 instances as many citizens in a typical election, he mentioned. The race turned a microcosm for the clashes and pressures on the American authorized system this yr, partially as a result of one of many two prime candidates is the youthful brother of Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi.” Learn extra here.
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Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Authorized Ethics and is a Professor of Legislation on the College of Houston. Try extra of her writing on the Legal Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
