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.
Hi
from
Denver,
where
I
am
attending
the National
Conference
on
Trusteeship hosted
by
the Association
of
Governing
Boards
of
Universities
and
Colleges (AGB).
It’s
not
a
typical
destination
for
legal
ethicists—pretty
sure
I’m
the
only
one
in
attendance—but
many
of
the
panels
and
presentations
intersect
with
themes
from
my
scholarship
like
the
ethical
obligations
of
institutions
and
their
leaders.
(I’m
here
in
my
capacity
as
the
Vice
Chair
of
the
Michigan
State
University
Board
of
Trustees.)
One
highlight
was
a
talk
by David
Rabban (Texas)
about
his
book Academic
Freedom:
From
Professional
Norm
to
First
Amendment
Right.
It
was
especially
wonderful
to
finally
meet Jackie
Gardina in
person.
Back
in
early
2024,
she
interviewed
me
on
her podcast
Side
Bar with Mitchel
Winick about
my
book Law
Democratized:
A
Blueprint
for
Access
to
Justice.
At
the
time
she
served
as
Dean
of
the
Colleges
of
Law
(Santa
Barbara
and
Ventura)
and
she
now
is
the
Senior
Director
of
Institution
and
System
Programs
at
AGB.
at
Sunset
(photo
by
Renee
Jefferson)
As
I mentioned
last
week,
PrawfsBlawg
has
been
hosting
an online
symposium about
a
new
book
by Elizabeth
Burch (Georgia), The
Pain
Brokers:
How
Con
Men,
Call
Centers,
and
Rogue
Doctors
Fuel
America’s
Law
Suit
Factory.
Other
contributors
include Brooke
Coleman (Seattle), Miriam
Giles (Northwestern), Tony
Sebok (Cardozo), Howard
Wasserman (FIU),
and Brad
Wendel (Cornell).
My
post
goes
live
today,
and
Burch
gets
the
final
word
later
this
week.
And
if
you
missed
last
Wednesday’s
event
hosted
by Hofstra
Law’s Monroe
H.
Freedman
Center
for
the
Study
of
Legal
Ethics
and
Fordham
Law’s
Stein
Center
for
Law
and
Ethics where
I
spoke
about
the
new
book
from Ray
Brescia (Albany) Lawyer
3.0:
A
Guide
to
Next-Wave
Lawyering,
a
recording
should
soon
be available.
Now
for
the
headlines.
Highlights
from
Last
Week
–
Top
Ten
Headlines
#1
“Some
Judges
See
Risks
in
Fiery
Opinions
Warning
of
Threats
to
Democracy.” From
the New
York
Times: “Judges
are
turning
up
the
volume.
One compared
her
district’s
ballooning
caseload to
a
demigod’s
battle
against
a
mythological
monster.
Another sought
to
buttress his
argument
against
National
Guard
deployments
to
U.S.
cities
with
a
YouTube
link
to
a
1970
protest
song.
A third
compared the
Trump
administration’s
rewriting
of
American
history
to
the
Ministry
of
Truth
in
George
Orwell’s
novel
‘1984.’
More
and
more
federal
judges
have
been
setting
aside
their
profession’s
traditional,
restrained
style
of
opinion
writing
in
favor
of
an
emotive,
populist
approach,
giving
full
vent
to
the
intensity
of
their
concerns
about
cases
flooding
their
dockets
since
President
Trump
returned
to
office.”
Read
more here (gift
link).
#2
“Johnson
&
Johnson
Gets
Beasley
Allen
Tossed
From
Talc
Cases.” From Bloomberg
Law: “Beasley
Allen,
one
of
the
leading
trial
firms
taking
on
Johnson
&
Johnson
in
the
sprawling
multi-district
talc
litigation,
has
been
disqualified
by
a
federal
court.
Thursday’s
ruling
from
a
New
Jersey
federal
magistrate
judge
removes
the
Alabama-based
firm
from
the
litigation,
in
which
customers
claim
J&J
talc
products
are
responsible
for
their
ovarian
cancer.
The
decision
sprang
from
a
request
from
J&J
after
Beasley
Allen
met
with
a
former
lawyer
for
the
medical
products
company
in
a
mediation
which
the
company
said
was
tantamount
to
a
lawyer
switching
sides.
Beasley
Allen
was
disqualified
from
hundreds
of
New
Jersey-based
state
court
cases
in
February.
‘Disqualification
is
a
remedy
courts
are
not
quick
to
administer,’ US
District
Court
for
the
District
of
New
Jersey
Magistrate
Judge
Rukhsanah
L.
Singh said
in
her opinion.
‘Yet,
there
are
moments
when
it
is
necessary
when
balancing
the
equities
and
interests.
This
is
such
a
moment.’”
Read
more here.
#3
“Neil
Gorsuch
and
Samuel
Alito
Sit
Out
Supreme
Court
Cases.” From Newsweek: “Supreme
Court
Justices
Neil
Gorsuch and Samuel
Alito did
not
participate
in
the
decision
making
of
two
different
cases
and
while
it
may
be
known
why
Alito
decided
to
recuse
himself,
it’s
less
clear
the
reasoning
behind
Gorsuch’s
decision.
Supreme
Court
justices,
who
aren’t
required
to
explain
why
they’re
sitting
out
of
a
case,
tend
to
sit
them
out
when
there’s
a
conflict
of
interest.
That
could
be
because
of
a
financial
stake
in
the
case
through
stocks
they
own,
a
personal
relationship
or
that
they
were
involved
in
the
case
as
a
judge
before
they
joined
the
court.”
Read
more here.
#4
“House
Panel
Finds
Florida
Democrat
Guilty
of
Ethics
Violations.” From NPR: “The
House
Ethics
Committee has
found
‘clear
and
convincing
evidence’
that Rep.
Sheila
Cherfilus-McCormick violated
House
rules,
after
a
rare
marathon
public
hearing
Thursday
night.
The
Florida
Democrat
[and
lawyer]
was indicted
in
November
over
allegations
she
stole
$5
million
in
disaster
relief
funds and
used
it
to
bankroll
her
2021
special
election
campaign.
Federal
prosecutors
allege
she
funneled
money
to
support
her
campaign
using
FEMA
overpayments
distributed
to
Trinity
Healthcare
services,
her
family’s
company.
She
pleaded
not
guilty.
‘After
careful
deliberation
that
lasted
until
well
past
midnight,
the
adjudicatory
subcommittee
found
that
Counts
1-15
and
17-26
of
the
SAV
[Statement
of
Alleged
Violations]
had
been
proven,’
a
committee statement read.
Cherfilus-McCormick
has
repeatedly
denied
any
wrongdoing.
‘I
look
forward
to
proving
my
innocence,’
she
said
in
a
statement
to
NPR
Friday
morning.”
Read
more here.
#5
“Sexual
Misconduct
Report
Leaves
I.C.C.’s
Path
Ahead
Unclear.” From
the New
York
Times: “In
a
report
obtained
by
The
New
York
Times,
a
panel
of
judges
found
that
evidence
of
sexual
misconduct
by
the
chief
prosecutor
of
the
International
Criminal
Court
left
room
for
‘reasonable
doubt.’”
Read
more here (gift
link).
#6
“Attorney
at
Social
Media
Addiction
Trial
Takes
Selfie,
Receives
$1,100
Sanction.” From
the ABA
Journal: “A
plaintiffs
lawyer
recently
received
a
$1,100
sanction
for
taking
a
selfie
and
conducting
a
Zoom
interview
from
inside
the
Los
Angeles
Superior
Court
during
the
first
trial
alleging
that
Meta
Platforms
and
YouTube
caused
addictions
in
adolescents.”
Read
more here.
#7
“98-Year-Old
US
Judge
Loses
Another
Challenge
to
Her
Suspension.” From Reuters: “The
federal
court
system’s
governing
body
on
Tuesday
rejected
another
bid
by U.S.
Circuit
Judge
Pauline
Newman,
who
at
98
years
old
is
the
oldest
active
federal
judge,
to
overturn
her
ongoing
suspension
from
the
U.S.
Court
of
Appeals
for
the
Federal
Circuit.
The
Judicial
Conference
of
the
United
States’
Committee
on
Judicial
Conduct
and
Disability
upheld
the
Federal
Circuit’s
decision
from
last
year
to
extend
Newman’s
suspension
after
she
allegedly
stonewalled
her
court’s
investigation
into
her
fitness
to
serve.”
Read
more here.
#8
“Nome
Judge
Will
Resign
Following
Lengthy
Investigation
Into
Misconduct
Allegations.” From
the Anchorage
Daily
News: “Nome
Superior
Court
Judge
Romano
DiBenedetto will
resign,
effective
April
1,
a
spokesperson
for
the
Alaska
Court
System
said
Friday.
A
year
ago,
the
Alaska
Court
System
placed
DiBenedetto
on
leave
after
court
staff
reported
behavior
including
incidents
when
the
judge
used
offensive
accents
to
impersonate
people
from
other
ethnic
groups
and
kept
a
courtroom
of
people
waiting
while
he
watched
a
sports
game
on
TV.
In
February,
after
a
lengthy
investigation,
the
Alaska
Commission
on
Judicial
Conduct recommended
that
DiBenedetto receive
a
reprimand
from
the
Alaska
Supreme
Court,
which
has
ultimate
authority
over
discipline
for
judges.
The
recommendation
stopped
short
of
advising
that
DiBenedetto
face
a
harsher
punishment,
such
as
being
removed
from
the
bench.”
Read
more here.
#9
“LSB
Introduces
Hierarchy
in
Lawyers’
Ethical
Duties.” From LegalFutures
(UK): “New
requirements
to
strengthen
ethical
standards
now
expressly
state
that
lawyers
must
place
their
duties
to
the
court,
and
to
act
with
independence
and
integrity,
above
the
duty
to
act
in
the
best
interests
of
their
client,
where
they
conflict.
The
Legal
Services
Board’s
statutory
statement
of
policy
on
upholding
professional
ethical
duties
also
makes
clear
that
they
apply
to
all
staff
working
within
law
firms
and
not
just
authorised
lawyers.
The statement
of
policy,
published
today after
consultation,
sets
out
a
definition
of
‘professional
ethical
duties.”
Read
more here.
#10
“Honing
Legal
Judgment:
How
Professional
Acumen
&
Fiduciary
Care
Can
Keep
Lawyers
Relevant
in
the
Age
of
AI.” From Thompson
Reuters: “The
special
relevance
of
lawyers
in
the
age
of
AI
is
the
profession’s
enduring
value
around
the
unique
human
capacity
for
independent
judgment,
fiduciary
care,
and
preserving
the
law’s
connection
to
justice
and
human
dignity.”
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
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(formerly
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at @reneeknake or
Bluesky
at legalethics.bsky.social.