Ed. be aware: 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 Arizona. And comfortable early Thanksgiving. I’ve been lucky to start out the week with two of my finest girlfriends, wrapping up our lengthy weekend getaway within the Santa Catalina Mountains. This rainbow greeted us on our first day!
Many people—however not all of us—will get pleasure from a break from work or college over this vacation week. Time with household and buddies generally is a respite for some, however others could also be separated from or lacking family members. Wherever you end up, I want you a lot moments for gratitude.
I hope you know the way grateful I’m for this neighborhood. Thanks for studying, subscribing, sending me your ideas, and sharing the LER with others.
We’re wrapping up November with every week of many, many authorized ethics headlines. So that you get an additional 5. Learn on beneath.
Highlights from Final Week – High Ten Fifteen Headlines
#1 “The Unraveling of the Justice Division. Sixty Attorneys Describe a Yr of Chaos and Suspicion.” From The New York Occasions: “President Trump’s second time period has introduced a interval of turmoil and controversy not like any within the historical past of the Justice Division. Trump and his appointees have blasted via the partitions designed to guard the nation’s strongest legislation enforcement company from political affect; they’ve directed the course of prison investigations, overtly flouted ethics guidelines and induced a breakdown of institutional tradition. So far, greater than 200 profession attorneys have been fired, and hundreds extra have resigned. …We interviewed greater than 60 attorneys who just lately resigned or had been fired from the Justice Division. A lot of what they informed us is reported right here for the primary time.” Learn extra here (reward hyperlink).
“They didn’t need the ethics workplace calling them up and telling them what to do.”
Joseph Tirrell, former director of the Departmental Ethics Workplace
#2 “Trusting the Machine: Authorized Ethics within the Period of Automated Choice-Making.” From Authorized Reader: “Think about a world the place algorithms set bail, draft authorized briefs, and situation sentences. As courtroom programs discover automation in legislation, moral concerns, questions on equity, accountability, and transparency come to the fore. Can we belief machines with selections that have an effect on liberty and justice? This shift raises pressing moral points in automated decision-making and exams our dedication to authorized ethics in synthetic intelligence.” Learn extra here.
#3 “Former SCOTX Chiefs Make Case for Judicial Independence.” From The Texas Lawbook: “In a latest joint look at a public coverage discussion board in Austin, three former Texas Supreme Court docket chief justices mentioned encroachments by the legislative department on judicial independence and a rise in hot-button points being directed into state courts.” Learn extra here. (Full disclosure – I’m married to one of many former SCOTX Chiefs — Wallace B. Jefferson. In case you don’t know our “Loving” story, test it out here.)
#4 “Decide Horrified as Legal professionals Submit Proof in Court docket That Was Faked With AI.” From Futurism: “Legal professionals throughout the nation have been touchdown themselves in sizzling water for submitting botched courtroom paperwork written with the assistance of AI, in blunders that had been clear indicators of the tech’s speedy inroads into the courtroom. Nevertheless it was solely a matter of time earlier than AI wasn’t simply producing clerical errors, however precise submitted ‘proof.’ That’s what just lately performed out in a California courtroom over a housing dispute — and it didn’t finish effectively for the AI-fielding celebration. As NBC Information reviews, the plaintiffs within the case, Mendones v. Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., submitted a strange video that was purported to be witness testimony. In it, the witness’s face is fuzzy and barely animated. Apart from the uncommon blink, the one noticeable motion comes from her flapping lips, whereas the remainder of her expression stays unchanged. There’s additionally a jarring lower, after which the actions repeat themselves. In different phrases, it was clearly an AI deepfake. And in keeping with the reporting, it is likely to be one of many first documented situations of a deepfake being submitted as purportedly genuine proof in courtroom — or at the very least one which was caught.” Learn extra here.
#5 “Jerry’s Jeremiad: A Wild Dissent Roils Texas Redistricting Debate. You’ve By no means Seen a Judicial Burn Fairly Like This One.” From Politico: “When a choose warns readers to ‘Fasten your seatbelts!’ earlier than a 104-page authorized diatribe — finest to buckle up. Jerry Smith, a choose on the fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, delivered that admonition earlier than launching into an invective-laden, unusually personal excoriation of a authorized choice Tuesday throwing out congressional boundaries Texas simply redrew on the urging of President Donald Trump.” Learn extra here.
#6 “How a High DC Lawyer and Excessive-Stakes Poker Participant Dangers Dropping It All.” From Washingtonian: “[Tom] Goldstein’s issues have caught the native authorized neighborhood off guard. ‘The entire thing is extraordinarily surprising, to have a distinguished lawyer be indicted for federal crimes,’ says one Supreme Court docket lawyer. ‘I’d say it’s much less surprising that it was Tom than if it was another lawyer, simply within the sense that he’s all the time been an unorthodox man. He’s all the time been a danger taker.’ However why did considered one of Washington’s high attorneys danger all the things to play playing cards?” Learn extra here.
#7 “Federal Decide Blasts Potential ‘Authorities Misconduct’ in Comey Case.” From the Washington Submit: “A federal choose on Monday provided a blistering evaluation of the Justice Division’s case in opposition to former FBI director James B. Comey, detailing what he described as a ‘disturbing sample of profound investigative missteps’ and potential misconduct that would imperil the prosecution. U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide William Fitzpatrick criticized authorities for his or her “cavalier” angle towards the rights of Comey and others. Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed U.S. legal professional overseeing the case, additionally appeared to have made ‘elementary misstatements of the legislation’ to the grand jury that indicted Comey on fees of mendacity to Congress, he wrote.” Learn extra here (reward hyperlink).
#8 “ABA to Evaluate Legislation Faculty Requirements, Could Drop Range Rule Amid Strain.” From Reuters: “The American Bar Affiliation will undertake a sweeping overview of its requirements for legislation faculties as states weigh dropping the group as an accreditor and critics blame its laws for driving up pupil prices. The ABA can also remove its range and inclusion requirement for legislation faculties, which has positioned the ABA within the crosshairs of the Trump administration and different conservatives who declare it’s discriminatory.” Learn extra here.
#9 “Ousted Immigration Decide Describes Deepening Court docket Backlog.” From PBS: “Dozens of immigration judges have been fired by the Trump administration with no clarification. From coast to coast, almost 4 dozen judges have misplaced their positions because the courts face a report backlog. Many had labored in immigrant protection, prompting questions on whether or not the firings are a part of the administration’s hardline method. Geoff Bennett mentioned extra with former choose Emmett Soper.” Learn extra and pay attention here.
#10 “McDermott’s Exterior Investor Talks Augur Huge Legislation Transformation.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “The potential of outdoors buyers taking a stake in McDermott Will & Schulte nudges rivals to think about an identical step and presumably change the best way the authorized business operates. Small companies have already begun to embrace the thought of getting non-lawyer buyers personal back-office operations, mentioned Fredric Litwiniuk, chief progress officer at Litco LSO. His Phoenix-based firm handles capabilities similar to accounting, know-how, and advertising for 3 companies and plans so as to add two extra by the tip of the 12 months, he mentioned.” Learn extra here.
#11 “Decide Will get Sacked for ‘Routinely’ Sporting Elvis Wig & Glasses on Bench and Enjoying Icon’s Legendary Music at Hearings.” From The Solar: “A choose has been compelled to resign after he routinely dressed up as Elvis Presley and performed the King of Rock and Roll’s biggest hits in courtroom. A disciplinary committee discovered that Matthew Thornhill would typically don a pompadour wig, aviator shades and a gown throughout hearings to cosplay as Elvis. The St. Charles County Circuit choose dressed up because the music icon for rulings round Halloween season in Missouri, court documents state. He was additionally accused of continually slipping in irrelevant Elvis references throughout hearings and swearings-in.” Learn extra here.
#12 “Court docket Guidelines That Crime-Fraud Exception Strips Agency’s Privilege Declare.” From JD Supra: “In any other case privileged communications between attorneys and their purchasers that additional ongoing and even contemplated prison conduct can lose their safety beneath the so-called ‘crime-fraud exception.’ Courts disagree about this worrisome doctrine’s growth to communications about fraudulent, or generally even willfully tortious, conduct. In Eletson Holdings Inc. v. Levona Holdings Ltd., No. 23-cv-7331 (LJL), 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184584 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 19, 2025), defendant pointed to the crime-fraud exception in shifting to compel Reed Smith to provide paperwork. … The courtroom famous that even when the agency ‘was a sufferer of its shopper’s fraud fairly than complicit in it, the crime-fraud exception would apply if the communications at situation had been in furtherance of the fraud.’ Id. at *8-9.” Learn extra here.
#13 “The Neuroanalytics Of Utilizing Authorized Tech: Clio’s Joshua Lenon On A First-of-its-Type Cognitive Research.” From LawSites: “Authorized know-how firm Clio just lately launched the tenth version of its Legal Trends Report, its annual evaluation of knowledge and survey responses on authorized observe and rising developments, and this 12 months’s report ventured into new territory. For the primary time, the report included a neuroanalytics research of authorized professionals, analyzing electrical mind exercise in authorized professionals as they carried out varied work-related duties, with a view to paint an image of their emotional pressure and psychological focus as they labored.” Learn extra here.
#14 “Legal professionals Want Lifelong Coaching in Ethics, Say Friends.” From the Legislation Society Gazette: “Legal professionals ought to obtain coaching in skilled ethics all through their careers, friends have concluded after a wide-ranging inquiry into threats to the rule of legislation within the UK. In its report Rule of Law: Holding the Line Between Anarchy and Tyranny, the Home of Lords structure committee, states that ‘belief within the authorized occupation has been undermined by high-profile examples of unethical observe’. This mistrust, accelerated by ‘unfavorable rhetoric within the media and by politicians’ and exacerbated by ‘huge inequalities and lack of entry to authorized recommendation’, undermines respect for the rule of legislation. The report cites the Submit Workplace Horizon scandal and Authorized Companies Board analysis exhibiting ‘a lack of information and/or due regard to the importance of what upholding skilled moral duties means in observe’.” Learn extra here.
#15 “Detecting AI Misconduct by Opposing Counsel Is a Lawyer’s Obligation.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “A lot dialogue about synthetic intelligence has centered on a lawyer’s responsibility to competently and ethically use it. A latest California courtroom decision raises a crucial, further query: Do attorneys have a duty to detect and report an opponent’s use of AI, particularly when that use ends in fabricated or ‘hallucinated’ authorized authority? In Noland v. Land of the Free, L.P., the California Court docket of Attraction, Second District, decided that proactive detection is finest observe and a type of monetary self-defense. The courtroom’s denial of charges establishes that attorneys who fail to determine AI fraud might not qualify for restoration, even when opposing counsel’s misconduct deserves sanctions.” Learn extra here.
Get Employed
Did you miss the 350+ job postings from earlier weeks? Discover all of them here.
Upcoming Ethics Occasions & Different Bulletins
Did you miss an announcement from earlier weeks? Discover all of them here.
Preserve in Contact
- Information ideas? Bulletins? Occasions? A job to submit? Studying suggestions? E mail [email protected] – however you’ll want to subscribe first, in any other case the e-mail gained’t be delivered.
Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Authorized Ethics and is a Professor of Legislation 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.
