Ed. note: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, Legal Ethics Roundup, here.
Happy Monday!
Highlights from Last Week – Top Ten Headlines 📰
#1 “Supreme Court Recusals Stop Music Case In Its Tracks, Strike Warning Note.” From NPR: “Something unusual happened at the Supreme Court this week: so many justices stepped aside from a case about music copyrights that the court could not hear it. … [Gabe] Roth and other experts said this is a good news, bad news situation. It’s a good thing the justices followed the recusal rules, they said. But the recusals in this case point to a deeper problem, said Renee Knake Jefferson, a legal ethics expert at the University of Houston. ‘When four justices need to step aside, the Supreme Court can no longer decide the case, and that becomes an institutional problem, not just an individual ethics issue,’ she said. This problem is acute at the nation’s highest court, because ‘there’s no other justices who can step in and substitute for them,’ Knake Jefferson added. Knake Jefferson said the justices who want to write books could put money from their advances and royalties in separate accounts, that they couldn’t touch until retirement. The court had no comment on that proposal.” Read more here.
#2 “Retired Judges Say DOJ’s Ethics Complaint Is Meritless.” From Law360: “A coalition of 61 retired federal judges has admonished the U.S. Department of Justice for filing a complaint against federal judges in Minnesota for speaking to a newspaper about the Trump administration.” Read more here.
#3 “NC Candidates Claim Chief Justice’s Support, but Judicial Code Bans Endorsements.” From The News & Observer: “As he serves his last full term, Paul Newby, chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, has made his support for Republican judicial candidates clear. He’s headlined fundraisers, spoken at rallies and released a series of carefully crafted statements praising their qualifications. But there’s one word notably missing from Newby’s public support: ‘Endorse.’ North Carolina’s Code of Judicial Conduct bans sitting judges not up for reelection from officially endorsing any candidate — and Newby’s words of support have prompted formal ethics complaints, The News & Observer has learned. But that hasn’t stopped candidates from claiming Newby’s support in the election, posting quotes attributed to Newby on their social media accounts.” Read more here.
#4 “Judge Brown Emailed Sealed Court Papers to About 140 People.” From Bloomberg Law: “A federal judge under investigation for misconduct emailed confidential and sealed court papers to about 140 people in an early morning message, according to a new court order. A Judicial Council for the Fifth Circuit order Tuesday revealed the scope of US District Judge Ada Brown’s disclosure, which publicly confirmed the existence of a misconduct investigation into her conduct. The email also included sealed court papers in apparently unrelated lawyer disciplinary matters.” Read more here.
#5 “Why Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Goes It Alone.” From CNN: “Now entering her fifth term on the Supreme Court, Jackson has taken an approach that in many ways has isolated her from her colleagues — stylistically and on the substance of the law. At the same time, she is reframing how the justices might look to the past to interpret the Constitution.” Read more here.
#6 “Who Gets to Know the Law?” From Kevin Lee in The Exile: “American law schools face a question that goes well beyond teaching students to use artificial intelligence. As machines become increasingly capable of producing legal research, drafting arguments, and analyzing complex bodies of doctrine, law schools must reconsider what lawyers need to know and what their education is supposed to accomplish. But there is another question that has received considerably less attention: How does the legal academy decide what counts as valuable legal knowledge in the first place?” Read more here.
#7 “TN High Court Says ‘No’ to PE Ownership of Law Firms but Other Options Open.” From Insurance Journal: “The Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected a rule change that would have allowed private equity companies to own law firms, blocking one avenue that insurance groups have warned could lead to more litigation, more high-dollar jury awards and higher defense costs. After reviewing comments from stakeholders, ‘the Court has not identified sufficient need or support for reforms related to non-lawyer ownership of law firms or fee-sharing with non-lawyers,’ the court wrote in its October order. ‘The Court may revisit this topic in the future as additional data regarding the success of these reforms becomes available.’” Read more here.
#8 “Court Rejects Attorney’s Assertion that Supervising eDiscovery Would Make Him a ‘Potential Witness.’” From JD Supra: “This case is a stark reminder that attorneys cannot outsource e-discovery obligations to their clients. Relying on unsupervised self-collection for electronic data may run afoul of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(g), potentially exposing parties to ‘discovery on discovery’ and court-mandated supervised document searches.” Read more here.
#9 “‘Lawyer’ vs. ‘Attorney’: Is This A Thing?” From David Lat in Original Jurisdiction: “I combed through decades-old dictionaries and case law—and interviewed Bryan Garner, the longtime editor of Black’s Law Dictionary—to find out.” Read more here.
#10 “NC Legal Aid Groups Sue Over Lawmakers’ Redirection of Millions in Funding.” From North Carolina Health News: “Three North Carolina legal aid organizations are suing over lawmakers’ decision to redirect millions in IOLTA funding even as thousands in western North Carolina need services as they recover from Hurricane Helene.” Read more here (H/T Ellen Murphy).
On My Calendar 🗓️
This week you’ll find me in Austin, Atlanta, Detroit, and Washington DC, for a mix of meetings and celebrations. (I’m hoping Delta doesn’t let me down!) The highlight of my travels is on Saturday, when I will be at the U.S. Supreme Court to honor Judy Perry Martinez, a former president of the American Bar Association (ABA) who has been named the recipient of the 2026 Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics. One of the highest honors bestowed by the American Inns of Court, the award recognizes individuals whose careers exemplify the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence in the legal profession. I had the privilege of working with Judy as a reporter for the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services, which she chaired. She has since become a mentor and friend, and is so very deserving of this award.
Looking for other upcoming ethics events? You’ll find a list here.
Keep in Touch 📝
- News tips? Announcements? Events? A job to post? Reading recommendations? Email legalethics@substack.com – but be sure to subscribe first, otherwise the email won’t be delivered.
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: Supreme Court Recusals Derail Case, DOJ Targets Judges, Judicial Endorsement Controversy, Judge Leaks Sealed Records, Private Equity Rebuffed & More appeared first on Above the Law.