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!
This
week
I
head
to
Spokane,
WA,
to
speak
at Gonzaga
Law
School’s
Clarke
Prize
in
Legal
Ethics
CLE.
I’ll
be
joined
by Scott
Cummings
(UCLA)
where
we
will
discuss
“Good
Faith
and
Public
Trust
in
an
Erosive
Era.”
If
you
happen
to
be
in
the
area,
join
us
Thursday
evening!
Register here.
Last
week
I
published
an
op-ed
in
the Lansing
State
Journal not
on
legal
ethics,
but
on
a
topic
close
to
my
heart,
equality
in
women’s
sports,
in
particular
high
school
girls
varsity
tennis.
You
can
read
it here.
Now
for
your
headlines.
Highlights
from
Last
Week
–
Top
10
Headlines
#1
“Lawyers
Obliged
to
Disclose
Judicial
Recusal
Grounds,
ABA
Says.” From Bloomberg
Law: “Lawyers
who
possess
information
that
they
know
is
‘reasonably
likely’
to
cause
a
judge
to
be
disqualified
from
a
case
must
disclose
what
they
know,
the
American
Bar
Association
says
in
a
new
ethics
opinion.
Yet
when
the
lawyer
possesses
the
information
only
because
it’s
related
to
a
client
representation,
their
disclosure
obligation
is
subject
to
the
lawyer’s
duty
of
confidentiality
under
the
Model
Rules
of
Professional
Conduct,
ABA
says
in
its
Wednesday opinion.”
Read
more here.
#2
“Bondi
Tried
to
Kill
Ethics
Investigations.
Now
She’ll
Face
One.” From USA
Today: “A
broad
coalition
of
lawyers
and
legal
groups
will
once
again
accuse Pam
Bondi of
misconduct
for
using
her
former
position
to
serve
only
Trump
and
not
the
Americans
she
swore
to
serve.”
Read
more here.
#3
“Lawyer
Sued
for
Charging
Client
for
34.5
Hours
of
Work
in
1
Day.” From
the ABA
Journal: “An
Australian
lawyer
has
been
sued
for
billing
a
client
for
34.5
hours
in
a
single
day.”
Read
more here.
#4
“Supreme
Court
Secrecy
Includes
Reasons
for
Recusal.” From The
New
York
Times: “The
Supreme
Court
has
gotten
a
lot
of
criticism
lately
for
deciding
important
questions
on
its
emergency
docket
without
explaining
its
reasoning.
Something
similar
is
going
on, a
recent
study
found,
in
the
justices’
decisions
about
whether
to
disqualify
themselves
from
cases
in
which
they
may
have
a
conflict
of
interest.
The
study
was
prepared
by Richard
Lazarus,
a
law
professor
at
Harvard
and
a
keen
student
of
the
court.
He founded
an
institute devoted
to
the
work
of
the
court,
has
published
studies
of
its
practices
and
has
argued
before
it.
He
is
also a close
friend of Chief
Justice
John
Roberts.
That
made his
latest
project,
about
the
shortcomings
in
the ethics
rules announced
by
the
Supreme
Court
in
2023,
a
little
tricky.”
Read
more here (gift
link).
#5
“LDF
Calls
on
DOJ
to
Reverse
Course
on
Attempts
to
Sideline
State
Ethics
Investigations,
Ensure
Its
Lawyers
Are
Held
Accountable
for
Unethical
Conduct.” From
the Legal
Defense
Fund: “The
Legal
Defense
Fund
yesterday
submitted public
comment to
the
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
(DOJ),
calling
on
the
agency
to
ensure
its
attorneys
are
held
accountable
when
misconduct
occurs.
The
comment
comes
after
DOJ published
a
proposed
rule in
the
Federal
Register
that
would
allow
the
Attorney
General
to
intervene
in
state
bar
disciplinary
investigations
and
demand
that
those
investigations
be
suspended
while
DOJ
conducts
its
own
internal
review.
LDF
highlights
how
the
rule
would
weaken
independent
oversight
of
DOJ
attorneys
by
shifting
greater
control
over
those
investigations
to
the
agency
and
making
it
harder
for
state
bar
authorities
to
investigate
misconduct.
The
proposed
rule
also
conflicts
with
federal
law,
which
requires
DOJ
attorneys
to
follow
the
same
ethical
rules
as
other
lawyers.”
Read
more here.
#6
“Pro
Se
Workers’
AI
Assists
Lead
Courts
to
Warnings,
Sanctions.” From Bloomberg
Law: “Oscar
Brownfield—with
AI
help—was
representing
himself
in
Oklahoma
federal
court
when
he
sought
sanctions
against
his
employer’s
counsel,
accusing
them
of
knowingly
filing
false
claims
in
an
ongoing
litigation.
His
unsuccessful request to
strike
certain
pleadings
from
the
Cherokee
County
School
District’s
summary
judgment
motion
backfired,
however,
when
opposing
counsel
revealed
that
Brownfield’s
artificial
intelligence-supported
motion
cited
fictitious
cases.”
Read
more here.
#7
“Bills
to
Rein
in
Outside
Investment
in
Law
Firms
Advance
in
California,
Illinois.” From Reuters: “State
lawmakers
in
two
of
the
largest
markets
in
the
United
States
are
moving
to
erect
ethical
firewalls
between
law
firms
and
outside
capital,
as
investors
and
lawyers
increasingly
explore
back-office
partnerships
and
other
deals.”
Read
more here.
#8
“What
It
Means
to
Be
Technology
Competent
in
2026.” From JDSupra: “When
the
ethical
duty
of
technology
competence
officially
arrived
in
2012,
courtesy
of
new Comment
8 to
Rule
1.1
of
the
ABA
Model
Rules
of
Professional
Conduct,
the
expectations
were
relatively
modest.
Much
has
changed
since
then.
Technology
is
now
deeply
embedded
in
the
legal
profession,
bringing
both
new
risks
and
new
opportunities
that
demand
the
modern
litigator’s
attention.”
Read
more here.
#9
“The
Number
of
Law-School
Grads
Getting
Extra
Time
for
the
Bar
Exam
Is
Surging.” From The Wall
Street
Journal: “More
aspiring
young
lawyers
are
asking
for—and
getting—extra
time
to
finish
the
bar
exam,
according
to
a
Wall
Street
Journal
analysis.
…
The
development
follows
one
already
coursing
through
high
schools
and
colleges:
More
students
have
diagnoses
for
disabilities
like
ADHD
and
receive
extra
time
for
classwork
or
the
SAT.
Now,
as
this
generation
enters
the
workforce,
the
phenomenon
has
reached
professional
licensing
exams—and
law
firms
are
adapting,
launching
programs
to
support
young
associates
with
diagnoses. Perry
Zirkel,
a
disability-law
scholar
and
former
Lehigh
University
dean,
said
the
need
for
testing
accommodations
for
truly
disabled
students
is
real,
but
he
worries
about
unfairness.
Savvy
families
that
can
pay
thousands
of
dollars
for
private
disability
assessments,
he
said,
gain
advantages
by
gaming
the
system.”
Read
more here (gift
link).
#10
“How
Trump
Purged
Immigration
Judges
to
Speed
Up
Deportations.” From The
New
York
Times: “Judges
are
ordering
an
unprecedented
number
of
people
deported
after
coming
under
significant
pressure
from
the
administration
to
do
so
or
risk
losing
their
jobs.”
Read
more here (gift
link).
Get
Hired
Did
you
miss
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500+
job
postings
from
previous
weeks?
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them
all here.
Upcoming
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Events
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Other
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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.