Ed. note: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, Legal Ethics Roundup, here.
Welcome to what captivates, haunts, inspires, and surprises me every week in the world of legal ethics.
Happy Monday!
Last week I delivered a presentation for the Beverly Hills Bar Association. “When Lawyers Protest: Professional Responsibility and Ethics” is now available to stream OnDemand at this link. You should be able to access it for free, but if not, send an email to legalethics@substack.com for a code to receive complimentary access along with CLE participation credit. I draw from my book Law Democratized: A Blueprint for Solving the Justice Crisis and my forthcoming Michigan Law Review piece of the same title, “When Lawyers Protest,” which will be published in June.
This week I head to Chicago for an ABA Accreditation Council meeting. Anyone can attend our open meeting on Friday, May 15, via Zoom at this link and you can find the agenda here.
Now for our headlines.
Highlights from Last Week – Top Ten Headlines 📰
#1 “Judge Slams Trump Administration for ‘Serious Breakdown’ in Legal Ethics.” From The New York Times: “The Department of Homeland Security criticized a judge for releasing a man accused of murder overseas, but did not inform her of the accusation. The judge said she would consider imposing sanctions.” Read more here (gift link).
#2 “Still? NJ Weighing Rule to Ban Attorney-Client Sex.” From Law.com: “The justices rejected a similar proposal in 2002, but a lot has changed since the last time the court considered such an issue.” Read more here.
#3 “Former Paul Weiss Chair Brad Karp Defends Settlement With Trump During Harvard Law School Class.” From The Harvard Crimson (H/T How Appealing): “Brad S. Karp, the former chairman of Paul Weiss, defended the firm’s settlement with the Trump administration during a Harvard Law School class on April 15, telling students he had to make a deal for the firm’s survival. Karp — who stepped down in February after his emails with disgraced financier Jeffrey E. Epstein were made public — told students that Paul Weiss partners unanimously agreed to attempt a settlement because of concerns that other major firms would poach the firm’s clients and partners, according to two attendees, who were granted anonymity because of the school’s classroom non-attribution policy. Before pursuing a settlement, Karp said he met with several other major law firms to discuss mounting a joint resistance to the Trump administration, according to the two people. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful — at least eight firms struck similar deals with the administration, committing hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono services collectively.” Read more here.
#4 “Impact of Finalized Student Loan Limits on Law Students and Law Schools.” From TaxProf Blog (quoting Reuters): “A small number of U.S. law schools allow new students to kick off their studies in May or June, before the traditional fall first semester. Demand is up this year as students look to beat a cap on federal loan amounts that goes into effect July 1, according to interviews with administrators at five law schools. At least two schools — Stetson University College of Law and Rutgers Law School — created summer start options expressly to enable new students to take advantage of the current student loan system. New students who take out federal loans before July are grandfathered into the expiring loan program for the remainder of their studies under final U.S. Department of Education regulations released Thursday.” Read more here.
#5 “California Bar Proposes Rule Requiring Lawyers to Verify Every AI Output — and Five Other AI-Focused Ethics Changes.” From LawSites: “When using any technology — including AI — a lawyer ‘must independently review, verify, and exercise professional judgment regarding any output generated by the technology that is used in connection with representing a client.’ That language appears in a new comment to Rule 1.1 on competence proposed by the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC) as part of a package of AI-related amendments to six of the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct. The proposed changes would, for the first time, write specific AI obligations into California’s rules. The changes span the rules on competence, client communication, confidentiality, candor toward tribunals, and supervision of both lawyers and other staff.” Read more here.
#6 “Supremely Cringe: Neal Katyal And ‘TED-Gate’.” From David Lat in Original Jurisdiction: “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Almost twenty years ago, I wrote an Above the Law post posing this question: Is Neal Katyal the Paris Hilton of the Legal Elite? … It turns out that Katyal did have staying power: two decades later, we’re still talking about him. Just like Paris Hilton, he went viral over a video—which, like Hilton’s, has been widely viewed as highly embarrassing. But unlike Paris Hilton—today seen sympathetically, as the victim of a non-consensual, privacy-violating leak—Neal Katyal did it to himself. It all started on Wednesday night, with a tweet (which has, as of this writing, been viewed 1.4 million times).” Read more here, including an exclusive—and very thoughtful—interview with Katyal.
#7 “M&A Insider Trading Allegations Threaten Big Law Reputations.” From Bloomberg Law: “Elite M&A lawyers accused of aiding a massive insider-trading ring show how Big Law firms risk reputational harm when their talent is accused of serious crimes. Seven firms—Goodwin Procter; Latham & Watkins; Sidley Austin; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; and DLA Piper—have former employees involved in the scheme in which prosecutors allege lawyers from top mergers and acquisition firms provided tips on some of the biggest deals of the last decade to an insider trading ring.” Read more here.
#8 “The DOJ Keeps Breaking Its Own Rules.” An op-ed from Barbara McQuade in Bloomberg Law: “When the Justice Department targets high-profile individuals like former FBI Director James Comey and Fed Chair Jerome Powell, you’d think prosecutors would follow longstanding policy to achieve the best results. Think again.” Read more here.
#9 Alabama Sidelines ABA in Lawyer Admissions While Tennessee Weighs Similar Move.” From Reuters: “Alabama has become the third Republican-led U.S. state in recent months to limit the role of the American Bar Association in lawyer licensing, and Tennessee could be next. The Supreme Court of Alabama on Thursday revised, its admissions rules to eliminate graduation from an ABA-accredited law school as a requirement to take its bar exam — following the lead of both Texas and Florida and ratcheting up efforts during President Donald Trump’s second term to dislodge the ABA as the primary accreditor of U.S. law schools.” Read more here.
#10 “Ethics My Bad: Building an Ethical Error Culture.” From the Wisconsin Lawyer: “Good lawyers make mistakes. Ethical lawyers deal with them. Hiding errors doesn’t fix them, and when lawyers are afraid to speak up, small problems can get much bigger. What if you could build a practice culture in which people feel comfortable owning up to mistakes, addressing them early, honestly, and in ways that prevent the next one?” Read more here.
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Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics and is a Professor of Law at the University of Houston. Check out more of her writing at the Legal Ethics Roundup. Find her on X (formerly Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
The post Legal Ethics Roundup: ‘Ethical Error Culture,’ NJ Weighs Ban On Attorney-Client Sex, CA AI Ethics Rules Proposal, Biglaw Insider Trading, Lat On Katyal’s ‘TED-gate’ & More appeared first on Above the Law.