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, conjures up, and surprises me each week on the planet of authorized ethics.
Whats up 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 grew to become the primary African American Justice and Chief Justice on the Supreme Courtroom of Texas. You may learn extra about his story in this text printed 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 similar podium the place Thurgood Marshall challenged “separate however equal” in Brown v. Board of Training. The ironies have been inescapable: … Brown v. Board and Board v. Brown; Thurgood Marshall and Wallace Jefferson — two legal professionals who grew to become 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’re not but an ideal union. However we’re a union. And for our union to thrive, we should learn to get alongside. Divided, we can’t stand. …
I received that case earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the primary girl ever to serve on the Courtroom, wrote the opinion. When college students at San Antonio’s Wallace B. Jefferson Center College graduate, their subsequent cease is the Sandra Day O’Connor Excessive College. 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 season Studying Record. (Make sure you test it out in the event 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 suggestion that lawyer John Eastman ought to lose his regulation license due to his central function in President Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. A 3-judge ‘evaluate 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 practising regulation. … A decide of the State Bar Courtroom, Yvette Roland, had really helpful Eastman’s disbarment final yr, a ruling that instantly resulted in Eastman’s suspension from practising regulation.” Learn extra right here.
#2 Puerto Rico Adopts Obligation 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 obligation of know-how competence, executed as a part of its promulgation of latest guidelines {of professional} conduct to exchange a code of ethics that had ruled legal professionals’ skilled conduct in Puerto Rico since 1970. Whereas Puerto Rico modeled its new Guidelines of Skilled Conduct on the American Bar Affiliation’s Mannequin Guidelines, it diverged from the ABA in two vital respects. One, as I defined in yesterday’s put up, was so as to add a separate rule dedicated to the obligation of know-how competence, moderately than deal with the obligation by a remark to the final rule on competence, because the ABA does. The opposite — and probably extra vital — divergence was to revise Rule 5.4 to permit non-lawyers to have possession pursuits in regulation companies.” Learn extra right here.
#3 “Trump’s Technique in Legislation Agency Circumstances: Lose, Don’t Attraction, But Prevail.” From the New York Instances: “The Trump administration is ordinarily fast to enchantment its losses. … However administration legal professionals have executed nothing to problem a collection of stinging rulings rejecting Mr. Trump’s efforts to punish outstanding regulation companies for what he known as ‘conduct detrimental to important 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 dropping positions from the start and weren’t really hoping to win in court docket, however moderately 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 don’t seem to be interesting, as a result of I don’t assume they ever thought these have been critical positions.’” Learn extra right here (reward 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, in search of an order that may 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 collection of government orders concentrating on regulation companies over their previous shoppers and legal professionals they employed.” Learn extra right here. Obtain the criticism right here, and skim the ABA’s press launch in regards to the lawsuit right here.
#5 “Supreme Courtroom Disclosures Element Hundreds of thousands in Justices Ebook 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 essentially the most, disclosing a almost $2.07 million e book advance from Penguin Random Home, which printed her memoir, ‘Beautiful One,’ in September. Jackson acquired almost $894,000 the yr prior.” Learn extra right 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 critical misconduct within 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 almost each facet of their lives.” Learn extra right here.
#7 “Michigan Legislation Assessment Sued for Alleged Racial, Sexual Bias. College Vows Vigorous Protection.” From the Detroit Information: “A conservative civil rights group is asking a federal decide to order the Michigan Legislation Assessment Affiliation to cease utilizing race and intercourse preferences to pick out its members and articles and appoint a court docket monitor to supervise future selections by the nonprofit. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Courtroom in Detroit, a gaggle known as the College, Alumni, and College students Against Racial Preferences, or FASORP, accused the affiliation for the regulation journal of the College of Michigan Legislation College 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 Assessment previously and have been all rejected. ‘People A, B, and C are unable to compete on an equal foundation with authors who’re girls, racial minorities, homosexuals, or people who have interaction in gender-nonconforming conduct or establish with a gender that departs from their organic intercourse,’ in line with the lawsuit.” Learn extra right here. (Full disclosure: my forthcoming piece “When Attorneys Protest” will probably be printed by the Michigan Legislation Assessment 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 subject 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 tasks and undermines attorney-client privilege and the obligation of confidentiality. Learn extra and obtain the amicus temporary right here.
#9 The Ethics of Ebook Awards, Legislation Course Titles, and Free Speech. Two headlines for #8. First, from the New York Instances: “A White Nationalist Wrote a Legislation College Paper Selling Racist Views. It Gained Him an Award.” “Preston Damsky is a regulation pupil on the College of Florida. He’s additionally a white nationalist and antisemite. Final fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal decide on ‘originalism,’ the authorized idea 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 meant for the phrase ‘We the Folks,’ 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 pupil within the class. In accordance with the syllabus, the capstone counted essentially the most towards closing grades. … The Trump-nominated decide 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 college, thought-about Florida’s most prestigious, to surprise, and to fret: What benefit might the decide 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 college. It was not lengthy, she mentioned, earlier than a variety of 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 college 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 college modified the identify to ‘Entrepreneurship, she mentioned, earlier than itemizing it within the course catalog. … ‘I simply discover it fascinating that this pupil can write an article, a collection of articles which might 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 right here (reward hyperlink). Second, from Josh Blackman in The Volokh Conspiracy: “The New York Instances Launches An Unfair Assault On Decide Badalamenti.” Learn extra right here.
#10 “Pam Bondi’s Brother Overwhelmingly Defeated in Heated Race to Lead the D.C. Bar.” From NPR: “Employment lawyer Diane Seltzer has received a carefully watched contest to guide the D.C. Bar Affiliation, defeating securities lawyer Brad Bondi in a race with report turnout. Seltzer tallied greater than 90 p.c 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 grew to become a microcosm for the clashes and pressures on the American authorized system this yr, partially as a result of one of many two high candidates is the youthful brother of Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi.” 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. Take a look at extra of her writing on the Authorized Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
