Authorized Ethics Roundup: AG James Indicted, Golden Gate Legislation Returns, No Self-discipline For Legislation Agency Trump Professional Bono Offers & Extra

Ed. notice: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson again to the pages of Above the Legislation. Subscribe to her Substack, Authorized Ethics Roundup, right here.

Welcome to what captivates, haunts, evokes, 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 Impression” on Thursday 10/16 from 3-5PM central. Be taught extra and register right here. Different audio system embody H. Stephen Grace Jr. (President and Founder H.S. Grace & Co.) and Andrew Gratz (Founding father of the Initiative on Attorneys as Leaders).

Now to your headlines. 

Highlights from Final Week – Prime Ten Headlines

#1 “Court docket Leans Towards Permitting Trial Judges to Restrict Legal professional-Shopper Discussions Throughout In a single day Recesses.” From SCOTUSBlog: “At the very least a number of the justices at Monday morning’s oral argument in Villarreal v. Texas look like keen to allow trial courts to restrict what protection legal professionals might focus on with their purchasers in a single day when the consumer continues to be on the stand. Particularly, a number of justices appear to suppose the courtroom 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 right here. (Full disclosure: Together with a number of different authorized ethics students, I joined an amicus temporary 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, referred to as the association ‘relatively weird.’ Pointing to guidelines {of professional} conduct for legal professionals that prohibit conflicts of curiosity, he stated Mr. Ellis may function C.I.A. common 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 right here (reward hyperlink).

#3 “Legislation Corporations’ Trump Offers Escape NY Lawyer Ethics Investigation.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “A disciplinary physique for New York legal professionals is laying aside an ethics probe into main regulation corporations’ offers with President Donald Trump. A New York Supreme Court docket committee final month declined to take up a criticism towards 9 corporations that pledged almost $1 billion in free authorized companies to White Home in change for the elimination of administrative probes and punishments, in line with paperwork obtained by Bloomberg Legislation. The criticism, filed by a bunch of regulation professors, accused the corporations of violating ethics guidelines by ‘capitulating’ to Trump’s ‘bullying.’ ‘The enterprise selections of regulation corporations, such because the number of purchasers or the allocation of professional bono assets, usually fall exterior the purview of this Committee,’ Jorge Dopico, chief lawyer for the committee, stated in a Sept. 2 letter.” Learn extra right here.

#4 “New Legislation Lets California Legislation College students Be Paid for For-Credit score Externships.” From the California Lawyer Day by day Journal: “What began as a scholar brainstorming session in a Sacramento classroom has now turn into California regulation. On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsomsigned AB 1155, laws requiring regulation faculties throughout the state to permit college students to be paid for skilled externships even whereas incomes educational credit score.” Learn extra right 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 stated Wednesday he was troubled that partisanship appeared to be ‘creeping its means into the courtroom,’ 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 current opinions bothers him greater than outcomes of circumstances, Kennedy stated in an interview with The Related Press in his courtroom workplace prematurely of subsequent week’s publication of his memoir, Life, Legislation & Liberty. ‘The justices have to withstand considering of themselves as being partisan,’ he stated. ‘In our present discourse, it appears to me, partisanship is creeping its means into the courtroom.’” Learn extra right 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 lawyer common since 2018, was indicted on Thursday on federal expenses of financial institution fraud and false statements, she vowed to maintain doing her job main one of many nation’s largest prosecutor’s places of work. The case’s impression on her job will likely be ‘zero,’ stated James E. Tierney, a former Maine lawyer common who teaches concerning the place at Harvard Legislation College. It’s not the primary time that an lawyer common has been indicted and continued to steer, Mr. Tierney stated. …Stephen Gillers, a authorized ethics knowledgeable at New York College’s College of Legislation, stated that moral tips wouldn’t require Ms. James to recuse herself from these circumstances.” Learn extra right here (reward hyperlink). And for extra 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 right here.

#7 “Golden Gate College Seeks California Accreditation to Reopen Legislation College.” From Reuters: “The Golden Gate College is aiming to revive the troubled regulation college it closed final yr, 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 sit down for the bar in California however not in most different states. The state bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners is because of think about the college’s software on Friday.” Learn extra right here.

#8 “Independence First: An Moral Take a look at for Litigation Funding.” From Bailey Glasser: “Of the handful of ethics authorities which have issued opinions straight addressing litigation financing, one difficulty stays paramount: lawyer management of litigation and independence in lawyer judgment. Though ethics our bodies apply various ethics guidelines to deal with the pertinent points, a standard theme between them is an emphasis that funding agreements will likely be impermissible in the event that they imperil or prohibit lawyer independence. Beneath are highlights from a couple of of the states which have addressed the difficulty and prioritize the significance of defending lawyer independence.” Learn extra right here.

#9 “Lawyer AI Competence: Coaching Is Changing into Obligatory — However Attorneys Nonetheless Get Burned.” From Legal professional at Work: “If you happen to suppose realizing one thing about synthetic intelligence is optionally available for legal professionals, suppose once more. A rising variety of U.S. regulation faculties have determined that AI coaching will not be a luxurious or an elective — it’s changing into a requirement. In the meantime, legal professionals proceed to face self-discipline or fines as a result of they lack fundamental AI competence. The distinction couldn’t be extra stark: College students are being taught the principles whereas training legal professionals are nonetheless struggling to grasp them.” Learn extra right here.

#10 “Deepfakes, Information, and Obligation: Navigating AI Ethics in Legislation, 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 lifelike scams are creating new challenges for diligence and verification, why unregulated chatbots can unintentionally create attorney-client relationships, and what disclosures legal professionals ought to make when utilizing AI instruments. She additionally shares sensible steps to keep up confidentiality, defend consumer knowledge, and apply long-standing ethics guidelines to fast-changing applied sciences.” Learn extra right 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 Authorized Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.