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!
Hello from Praha. My son’s spring break was last week, so as I write this we are wrapping up travels through Czechia and Germany. I love a good library, so a highlight was touring the Klementinum, which houses the National Library of the Czech Republic. Here’s a peek inside.
It was a big week for legal ethics news. We suffered whiplash as the administration went from dropping the pursuit of its Executive Orders against law firms to doubling-down on them 24 hours later. And that wasn’t the only whiplash-reversal. Check out the headline below from the Florida Bar for more on that. Meanwhile a serious threat to states’ rights looms with the Justice Department directing bar authorities on how to handle discipline of its lawyers.
I also spoke with National Law Journal reporter Avalon Zoppo who has analyzed interesting data about the number and categories of judicial complaints over the past 15 years. You can read more about her study along with the other top ten headlines.
Highlights from Last Week – Top Ten Headlines 📰
#1 “What Was Behind a Spike in Judicial Misconduct Complaints Last Year?” From The National Law Journal: “The number of judicial misconduct complaints filed against federal judges spiked last year, according to the most recent statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. A little over 1,850 ethics complaints were commenced against judges during the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, an almost 23% increase compared to the same period a year prior and higher than recent years. Court watchers said it’s difficult to pin down what could be behind the increase, but one driver could be a ramping up of public officials’ criticism of judges and the courts. … University of Houston Law Center professor Renee Knake Jefferson said the public may be more aware about the process for raising concerns about judges compared to 20 years ago, leading to more complaints. ‘The reason why I think there’s a heightened awareness by the public is because we saw challenges to judges, both in the context of election-related disputes, but also because we have a president who has called out judges and raised concerns about the judges when he’s unhappy with the substantive outcome of a matter,’ said Knake Jefferson, who studies judicial and lawyer ethics.” Read more here.
#2 “Trump Administration, in Reversal, Tries to Continue Fight Against Law Firms.” From The New York Times: “The administration told a court on Monday that it was abandoning its defense of executive orders targeting the firms. But on Tuesday, the Justice Department abruptly changed its position.” Read more here.
#3 “Florida Bar Reverses Itself, Says It Is Not Investigating Lindsey Halligan.” From The Washington Post: “A spokesperson said the bar’s counsel ‘erroneously’ stated there was a ‘pending investigation’; instead, a complaint against Halligan remains at a preliminary stage.” Read more here (gift link).
#3 “Trump Justice Dept. Seeks to Stall State Bar Discipline of Its Lawyers.” From The New York Times: “The administration has no control over the disciplinary authorities of state bar associations, but a new proposal would let the attorney general ask them to suspend proceedings involving department lawyers.” Read more here (gift link). View the full proposal in the Federal Register here.
#5 “The Cathedral of Justice is Crumbling.” From former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez at Checks & Balances: “As Attorney General during the George W. Bush administration, I witnessed the countless efforts of department lawyers and employees to protect the rule of law and maintain the cathedral of justice. … Today it appears to many former DOJ employees and officials that the cathedral of justice is being dismantled stone by stone. Prosecutors appear to no longer enjoy prosecutorial independence. Prosecutions at the federal district level against perceived political or personal enemies of the administration’s leadership are, in many cases, now directed by senior leaders at the Department or by subordinates at the White House. Further, we see the entire legal profession weakened by attacks on law firms. Politically motivated criticism of our judges, as well as threats to their families, threaten to undermine the independence of the courts. Recently, it was reported that leaders in the various 93 US offices were told to provide DOJ headquarters with examples of perceived judicial activism that would serve as the basis for referral to the House of Representatives for possible impeachment proceedings. There are growing complaints about executive branch defiance of court orders. Some prosecutions now appear to be motivated not by justice—but by politics, intimidation, or retribution. Recent prosecutions of perceived political enemies of the current administration—including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and six members of Congress, including Sen. Mark Kelly—have all failed to an embarrassing level.” Read more here.
#6 “California Ban on Fee Sharing Prompts Firm to Ditch Owners.” From Bloomberg Law: “A new California law has already forced one out-of-state law firm to change its ownership structure. Eleos LLP, an Arizona firm affiliated with California’s Wisner Baum, removed non-lawyers from its ownership in order to comply with the law, partners at Wisner Baum said in interviews. The law bans firms in California from sharing contingency fees with other firms that are owned by non-lawyers. The move is an early example of the law’s impact since taking effect in January on firms operating under relaxed ownership rules in Arizona and a handful of other jurisdictions.” Read more here.
#7 “UK Law Sector’s Private Equity Boom Offers Lessons For US.” From Law360: “Private equity money is pouring into the UK legal sector, fueling a wave of consolidation in consumer-facing practices and offering a glimpse of what it could look like if outside investment in the US legal industry takes off.” Read more here.
#8 “Social Media Threats are Disrupting Rule of Law for Judges.” From Judge Derwin L. Webb in the The Courier-Journal: “As chief judge of family court, I do not ask to be shielded from criticism. I ask only that criticism remain within the bounds of law and civility.” Read more here.
#9 “DOJ Attorney Used Fabricated Quotes in Court Filing.” From Bloomberg Law: “An assistant US attorney in North Carolina filed a response with the court that included ‘fabricated quotations and misstatements of case holdings’ and then made ‘false or misleading statements’ of how they got included, a magistrate judge said. ‘Because of the seriousness of these issues,’ senior leaders from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina must appear at a show cause hearing next week for why the civil litigator responsible shouldn’t be sanctioned and why the entire office shouldn’t be held jointly responsible, US Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers said in a March 2 order.” Read more here.
#10 “11 Law School Deans Oppose Proposal to Speed Up Approval Process for Accreditation Changes.” From the ABA Journal: “Deans at 11 law schools have argued the council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar should not approve a proposal that would speed up the process of revising or creating new accreditation standards. Currently, as specified by Rule 55, the ABA is allowed to weigh in on proposed revisions to standards twice before the council determines the specifics of the change. The proposed changes would give the ABA only one chance to provide its input. But the Feb. 20 memo addressed to council chair Daniel Thies and signed by deans including Angela Onwuachi-Willig at Boston University School of Law, Paul Litton at the University of Missouri School of Law and Marcilynn A. Burke at Tulane Law School, stated ‘we believe that the council should prioritize adopting the best possible standards, interpretations and rules over reducing the time it may take to implement a change.’” Read more here. [Full disclosure: I am a member of the Accreditation Council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.]
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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: Ethics Whiplash Over Executive Orders + FL Bondi Complaint, DOJ Takes On State Discipline, Spike In Judicial Conduct Complaints & More appeared first on Above the Law.
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