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.
Hello from Ithaca, NY. I’m visiting Cornell Law School today for a faculty workshop, where I’m presenting my piece “When Lawyers Protest,” which will be published later this year in the Michigan Law Review. It’s cold here, but the snowy campus is beautiful.
Now for your headlines. It was a busy week, especially for judicial ethics, so you get fifteen headlines instead of the usual ten.
Highlights from Last Week – Top Ten Fifteen Headlines 📰
#1 “Failure to Alert Judge to Press Law for Reporter Search Draws Ethical Scrutiny.” From The New York Times: “The Justice Department may have violated a candor rule by not disclosing a 1980 law when seeking a warrant for a Washington Post reporter’s home.” Read more here.
#2 “Court Finds Probable Cause for Hostile Workplace by US Judge.” From Bloomberg Law: “The chief judge of the Boston-based federal appeals court found that a district judge within the circuit likely created a hostile work environment following an interview with the judge’s former law clerk. Chief Judge David Barron of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said there was ‘probable cause’ to believe the judge engaged in misconduct, as described in a judiciary rule against treating litigants, lawyers, or employees ‘in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner’ or ‘creating a hostile work environment for judicial employees.’ The decision, dated Nov. 24 but recently posted, doesn’t name the judge.” Read more here.
#3 Three headlines for #3: First, Part I of II in investigative reporting from the Arizona Republic, “Arizona Lets Investors Own Law Firms. Consumers Pay the Price.” Here’s a preview: “An Arizona Supreme Court experiment to make legal services cheaper for the state’s residents has instead become an epicenter for consumer complaints, leaving a trail of clients across the United States who say they were mistreated, misled, or — in the words of a lawsuit against one firm — outright ‘scammed.’ Loopholes, a lack of oversight and financial conflicts of interest plague the state’s ‘Alternative Business Structures’ program, which allows Wall Street investors, marketing professionals and other nonlawyers to own law firms.” Read more here. Second, Part II of II in the Arizona Republic reporting: “Loopholes Let Arizona Law Firm Experiment Spread Nationwide.” Read more here. Third, compare this December 2025 article “Stanford Law Gives Arizona a Report Card” from the Maricopa Lawyer: “Five years ago, Arizona became the first state to allow non-lawyers to have ownership interests in law firms. This was not popular in many circles. … A recent report by Standford Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession entitled ‘Legal Innovation After Reform: Five Years of Data on Regulatory Change’ takes stock of the effects of legal services reform five years out from the changes made by Arizona. It seems predictions of Arizona’s descent into a lawless, unethical hellscape were not accurate. … In short, Arizona’s allowance for alternative business structures has not caused the sky to fall or for the public to be harmed. The Stanford report described the resulting consumer harm as ‘de minimis.’” Read more here.
#4 “How the Supreme Court Secretly Made Itself Even More Secretive.” From The New York Times: “Amid calls to increase transparency and revelations about the court’s inner workings, the chief justice imposed nondisclosure agreements on clerks and employees.” Read more here.
#5 “Leader of Paul Weiss Resigns Over Epstein Ties.” From The Wall Street Journal: “Brad Karp, the leader of Paul Weiss, one of the country’s biggest law firms, resigned as chair in the wake of new revelations about his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Karp is an influential lawyer in corporate circles, who advised boards of directors and business leaders, including the Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black. Karp faced criticism in legal circles last year after he brokered a deal with President Trump to resolve an executive order that cracked down on law firms.” Read more here (gift link).
#6 “Newly Released Court Records Reveal Misconduct Inquiry Into Federal Judge.” From National Public Radio: “New information is emerging that could complicate the retirement last year of a prominent federal judge. Mark Wolf, 79, retired from the federal district court in Massachusetts last November, after more than 40 years of service. He penned an essay in The Atlantic tying his departure to actions by President Trump. Wolf’s decision to retire coincided with an inquiry by another federal judge into potential misconduct, according to newly published orders. That inquiry found probable cause to believe an unnamed jurist had engaged in misconduct by creating a hostile workplace for court employees. … A source familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal investigation, said the judge in question is Wolf and his resignation terminated the review of his conduct.” Read more here.
#7 “Justice Department Struggles Under Weight of Immigration Crackdown.” From The Wall Street Journal: “Current and former prosecutors say they can relate to the government lawyer who told judge she was overwhelmed. When a lawyer representing the Justice Department told a judge in open court this week that she was exhausted and ‘this job sucks,’ she said out loud what many federal prosecutors have been privately feeling for months.” Read more here (gift link).
#8 “OpenAI Ducks Order to Disclose Confidential Counsel Messages.” From Bloomberg Law: “OpenAI Inc. convinced a federal judge to overturn an order requiring the company to disclose confidential messages with its attorneys to authors and newspapers accusing it of violating copyrights by training AI models on their works. The November order to turn over messages about the artificial intelligence company’s deletion of pirated copies of books is unsound because it was ‘clearly erroneous’ or ‘contrary to law,’ Judge Sidney H. Stein said in a decision issued Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. ‘Simply put, OpenAI did not disclose material protected by the attorney-client privilege.’” Read more here.
#9 “FTC Crackdown on Law Firm DEI Efforts Tests Antitrust Limits.” From Reuters: “The U.S. Federal Trade Commission took a fresh tack last week in the federal government’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, warning 42 major law firms that their hiring practices may violate federal antitrust law. By invoking alleged threats to competition, the strategy could buttress broader, ongoing efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to combat DEI using anti-discrimination law. But bringing an antitrust case would face a high bar, legal experts said.” Read more here.
#10 “Threats to the Rule of Law Should Concern Us All.” From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Retired former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and former Justice Michael P. Donnelly are working with other lawyers and judges in Cleveland to stand up for the Rule of Law.” Read more here.
#11 “In Under 500 Words, a Judge Weaponized Wit to Free the Child Detained by ICE.” From The New York Times: “The extra in this case transforms what might have been a routine decision into a thorough scourging of the Trump administration’s approach to governance. … In fewer than 500 words, Judge Biery marshals literature, history, folk wisdom and Scripture to challenge the theory of executive power that has defined Trump’s second presidency. It’s worth looking at how he does it.” Read more here (gift link).
#12 “This Federal Judge Hid His DUI for Four Months. Now What?” From Fix the Court: “On Oct. 3, 2025, Judge Thomas Ludington of E.D. Michigan was arrested for driving under the influence. According to court and law enforcement records, Ludington was registering a blood alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, at the time of his arrest. His trial is scheduled to begin later this month. The catch? This news was hidden from the public for four months, and the judge continued his work as usual.” Read more here.
#13 “Judging AI: How U.S. Judges Can Harness Generative AI Without Compromising Justice.” From Judicature: “E-discovery tools that harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) assist attorneys somewhat regularly. But my recent experience presiding over a bench trial in La Union Del Pueblo Entero v. Abbott showed me that generative AI (GenAI) can help judges in several crucial ways that go far beyond discovery. … This case provided an opportunity to evaluate how GenAI might help a judge in a complex and document-intensive case. This article explores how GenAI can help locate documents and summarize witness testimony, whether GenAI tools are currently capable of completing a rough draft of a judicial opinion, and how GenAI can review party submissions.” Read more here.
#14 “Watchdog Renews Halligan Bar Complaint After Court Rulings.” From Law360: “The nonprofit Campaign for Accountability once again launched a bar complaint against former interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, after the Virginia State Bar declined to pursue an ethics investigation against the attorney last year, calling it a matter for the courts to determine.” Read more here.
#15 “Texas Dropped ABA Law School Accreditation After 4 Decades. Can It Come Up With a Better System?” From Houston Public Media: “The Texas Supreme Court decided the American Bar Association should “no longer have the final say” on which law school graduates can become licensed lawyers. Will the move foster accessibility and innovation in the legal field as advocates hope — or will most things stay the same?” Read more here.
Get Hired 💼
Did you miss the 400+ job postings from previous weeks? Find them all here.
Upcoming Ethics Events & Other Announcements 🗓️
Did you miss an announcement from previous weeks? Find them all 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.
- Do you have colleagues who care about legal ethics? Please share the Roundup with them. I’d love to see our community continue to grow!
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: Judge Hid DUI, FTC On Law Firm DEI, Hostile Chambers, SCOTUS NDAs, AZ ABSs Critiqued & More appeared first on Above the Law.