Ed. be aware: 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.
Hiya from Arizona. And comfortable early Thanksgiving. I’ve been lucky to begin the week with two of my greatest 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 take pleasure in a break from work or college over this vacation week. Time with household and pals is usually 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.
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We’re wrapping up November with per 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 12 months of Chaos and Suspicion.” From The New York Instances: “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 by the partitions designed to guard the nation’s strongest regulation enforcement company from political affect; they’ve directed the course of legal investigations, overtly flouted ethics guidelines and precipitated a breakdown of institutional tradition. To this point, greater than 200 profession attorneys have been fired, and hundreds extra have resigned. …We interviewed greater than 60 attorneys who lately resigned or have been fired from the Justice Division. A lot of what they advised us is reported right here for the primary time.” Learn extra right here (present 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 Determination-Making.” From Authorized Reader: “Think about a world the place algorithms set bail, draft authorized briefs, and subject sentences. As courtroom techniques discover automation in regulation, moral concerns, questions on equity, accountability, and transparency come to the fore. Can we belief machines with choices that have an effect on liberty and justice? This shift raises pressing moral points in automated decision-making and checks our dedication to authorized ethics in synthetic intelligence.” Learn extra right 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 right here. (Full disclosure – I’m married to one of many former SCOTX Chiefs — Wallace B. Jefferson. Should you don’t know our “Loving” story, test it out right here.)
#4 “Choose Horrified as Attorneys Submit Proof in Court docket That Was Faked With AI.” From Futurism: “Attorneys throughout the nation have been touchdown themselves in scorching water for submitting botched courtroom paperwork written with the assistance of AI, in blunders that have been clear indicators of the tech’s fast 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 lately performed out in a California courtroom over a housing dispute — and it didn’t finish effectively for the AI-fielding get together. As NBC Information studies, the plaintiffs within the case, Mendones v. Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., submitted a unusual video that was alleged to be witness testimony. In it, the witness’s face is fuzzy and barely animated. Except for 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 reduce, after which the actions repeat themselves. In different phrases, it was clearly an AI deepfake. And in keeping with the reporting, it could be one of many first documented situations of a deepfake being submitted as purportedly genuine proof in courtroom — or no less than one which was caught.” Learn extra right 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 — greatest 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 private excoriation of a authorized choice Tuesday throwing out congressional boundaries Texas simply redrew on the urging of President Donald Trump.” Learn extra right here.
#6 “How a High DC Lawyer and Excessive-Stakes Poker Participant Dangers Shedding It All.” From Washingtonian: “[Tom] Goldstein’s issues have caught the native authorized neighborhood off guard. ‘The entire thing is extraordinarily stunning, to have a outstanding lawyer be indicted for federal crimes,’ says one Supreme Court docket lawyer. ‘I might say it’s much less stunning that it was Tom than if it was another lawyer, simply within the sense that he’s at all times been an unorthodox man. He’s at all times been a threat taker.’ However why did one in all Washington’s prime attorneys threat every thing to play playing cards?” Learn extra right here.
#7 “Federal Choose Blasts Potential ‘Authorities Misconduct’ in Comey Case.” From the Washington Put up: “A federal choose on Monday supplied 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 attainable misconduct that would imperil the prosecution. U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose 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 ‘basic misstatements of the regulation’ to the grand jury that indicted Comey on expenses of mendacity to Congress, he wrote.” Learn extra right here (present hyperlink).
#8 “ABA to Assessment Legislation College Requirements, Could Drop Range Rule Amid Stress.” From Reuters: “The American Bar Affiliation will undertake a sweeping evaluation of its requirements for regulation colleges as states weigh dropping the group as an accreditor and critics blame its rules for driving up pupil prices. The ABA might also remove its range and inclusion requirement for regulation colleges, which has positioned the ABA within the crosshairs of the Trump administration and different conservatives who declare it’s discriminatory.” Learn extra right here.
#9 “Ousted Immigration Choose 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, practically 4 dozen judges have misplaced their positions because the courts face a file 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 right here.
#10 “McDermott’s Outdoors Investor Talks Augur Large Legislation Transformation.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “The potential of exterior traders taking a stake in McDermott Will & Schulte nudges rivals to contemplate an identical step and probably change the way in which the authorized business operates. Small companies have already begun to embrace the thought of getting non-lawyer traders personal back-office operations, stated Fredric Litwiniuk, chief progress officer at Litco LSO. His Phoenix-based firm handles capabilities reminiscent of accounting, know-how, and advertising for 3 companies and plans so as to add two extra by the top of the 12 months, he stated.” Learn extra right here.
#11 “Choose Will get Sacked for ‘Routinely’ Carrying Elvis Wig & Glasses on Bench and Taking part in 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 usually 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, courtroom paperwork state. He was additionally accused of continually slipping in irrelevant Elvis references throughout hearings and swearings-in.” Learn extra right 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 shoppers that additional ongoing and even contemplated legal 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 transferring to compel Reed Smith to provide paperwork. … The courtroom famous that even when the agency ‘was a sufferer of its shopper’s fraud somewhat than complicit in it, the crime-fraud exception would apply if the communications at subject have been in furtherance of the fraud.’ Id. at *8-9.” Learn extra right 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 lately launched the tenth version of its Authorized Developments Report, its annual evaluation of knowledge and survey responses on authorized follow and rising traits, and this 12 months’s report ventured into new territory. For the primary time, the report included a neuroanalytics examine of authorized professionals, analyzing electrical mind exercise in authorized professionals as they carried out varied work-related duties, so as to paint an image of their emotional pressure and psychological focus as they labored.” Learn extra right here.
#14 “Attorneys Want Lifelong Coaching in Ethics, Say Friends.” From the Legislation Society Gazette: “Attorneys 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 regulation within the UK. In its report Rule of Legislation: Holding the Line Between Anarchy and Tyranny, the Home of Lords structure committee, states that ‘belief within the authorized career has been undermined by high-profile examples of unethical follow’. This mistrust, accelerated by ‘destructive 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 regulation. The report cites the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal and Authorized Companies Board analysis exhibiting ‘a lack of knowledge and/or due regard to the importance of what upholding skilled moral duties means in follow’.” Learn extra right here.
#15 “Detecting AI Misconduct by Opposing Counsel Is a Lawyer’s Responsibility.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “A lot dialogue about synthetic intelligence has centered on a lawyer’s obligation to competently and ethically use it. A latest California courtroom choice raises a crucial, extra 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 Enchantment, Second District, decided that proactive detection is greatest follow and a type of monetary self-defense. The courtroom’s denial of charges establishes that attorneys who fail to establish AI fraud could not qualify for restoration, even when opposing counsel’s misconduct deserves sanctions.” 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.
