Ed. word: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson again to the pages of Above the Regulation. Subscribe to her Substack, Authorized Ethics Roundup, here.
Completely satisfied Monday!
There are such a lot of fantastic issues about being a college member on the College of Houston Regulation Heart, and final week I used to be reminded of one thing actually particular. The Regulation Heart hosted a reception with the American Law Institute, which is an impartial, nonprofit group based over a century in the past that works to make clear, modernize, and enhance United States legislation. Take a look at what number of of my Houston colleagues are elected members!
Learn extra concerning the occasion here.
Now for the headlines.
Highlights from Final Week – High Ten Headlines 📰
#1 “Decide Might Reassess Recusal When Social Relationship With Legal professional Adjustments: Judicial Ethics Opinion 26-30.” From the New York Regulation Journal: “The place a decide’s social relationship with an lawyer has modified over time, the decide has discretion to find out his/her moral obligations primarily based on his/her evaluation of their present relationship, utilizing the classes of Opinion 11-125 as a information.” Learn extra here.
#2 “UCLA Chancellor Criticized by Regulation Profs for Responding to Controversial 9/11 Symposium.” From the ABA Journal: “The UCLA chancellor is dealing with criticism from some legislation professors for voicing his concern that the legislation faculty hosted a 9/11 occasion that includes the lawyer of a terrorist mastermind.” Learn extra here.
#3 “Embattled Ex-Decide Escapes Punishment After Resigning.” From The Atlanta Journal-Structure: “A former Fulton County decide’s willful misconduct warranted her removing from the bench, the Georgia Supreme Court docket dominated Tuesday, nevertheless it declined to punish her as a result of she has already stop. Shermela Williams was a Fulton County Superior Court docket decide from January 2021 to late February 2026, when she resigned whereas dealing with attainable removing from workplace for round 30 misconduct costs filed in opposition to her by the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission. Lower than two weeks after she resigned, Williams was hired in early March by Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis as an assistant district lawyer with a wage of greater than $150,000, county data present. Williams started her new job as a prosecutor in Willis’ workplace on April 1.” Learn extra here.
#4 “Grassley Admonishes Judges for Remarks Important of DOJ.” From Bloomberg Regulation: “Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) urged Chief Justice John Roberts to look into what he referred to as unacceptable feedback by federal judges important of the Trump administration. Grassley at a Thursday listening to singled out judges who spoke to the New York Occasions about how a deteriorating relationship with the Justice Division and fallout from this 12 months’s lethal immigration crackdown in Minnesota had severely pressured their court docket. Grassley cited remarks by Decide Patrick Schiltz about his January order sharply criticizing ICE for violating court docket orders nearly 100 occasions.” Learn extra here.
#5 “ABA and Its Accreditation Council Have Distinct, Important Roles.” From Bloomberg Regulation: “The Council of the ABA Part of Authorized Schooling and Admissions to the Bar, the entity that accredits legislation faculties, had a public assembly with the Nationwide Advisory Committee on Institutional High quality and Integrity this week to debate its future as a nationwide accreditor. After two days, they couldn’t agree on a recommendation. Now, the choice is within the fingers of the Division of Schooling. Latest debate over legislation faculty accreditation has uncovered a primary misunderstanding concerning the American Bar Affiliation and the council. The ABA isn’t the identical establishment because the council. The excellence issues. … The council performs a specialised accreditation perform: consider legislation faculties and decide whether or not they meet nationally acknowledged requirements for a sound authorized schooling. The council has carried out this formally, with out interruption, for 74 years.” Learn extra here. [Full disclosure: I am an elected member of the Accreditation Council.]
#6 “Attorneys Face Patchwork of AI Guidelines as Courts Punish Hallucinated Filings.” From Newsweek: “The fast adoption of synthetic intelligence by legislation corporations is exposing a troublesome hole between what the know-how can do and what attorneys stay professionally chargeable for. As AI-generated hallucinations result in fabricated citations and different errors, attorneys should navigate evolving steerage whereas remaining accountable for the work they submit.” Learn extra here.
#7 “The Fifth Circuit Warned Attorneys to Confirm Citations, Then Cited the Unsuitable Rule Itself.” From The Nationwide Regulation Evaluation: “Over the previous three years, a lot of the authorized occupation’s consideration to AI ethics has centered on attorneys submitting paperwork with fabricated citations. However judges make quotation errors, too. In a single notably ironic instance, the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an official discover warning attorneys to confirm the accuracy of their filings, then cited the unsuitable rule itself.” Learn extra here.
#8 “Decide Will Obtain Public Reprimand for Suggesting Attorneys Be Shot.” From the ABA Journal: “The Florida Supreme Court docket has ordered {that a} state trial court docket decide obtain a public reprimand for suggesting that attorneys who had appeared earlier than him be shot. The justices unanimously agreed in a Sept. 24 order that Florida Second Judicial Circuit Decide J. Layne Smith be rebuked in entrance of the state’s highest court docket, although Smith won’t obtain a suspension or a nice, Bloomberg Law reports. The order got here after Smith self-reported shedding his mood with a counsel in a protracted property and battery matter.” Learn extra here.
#9 “No Attorneys, No Choices: Rural Montana’s Authorized Deserts.” From the Terry Tribune: “Rural Montana is struggling to recruit attorneys, creating issues for folks each out and in of the courtroom. That was the message introduced Wednesday, Sept. 16 to the State Bar of Montana Board of Trustees, which met in Miles Metropolis for the primary time in no less than a decade to listen to concerning the obstacles making it troublesome to recruit authorized professionals to communities east of Billings.” Learn extra here.
#10 “Ethics Watch: Does AI-Charged Observe Change Moral Billing Practices?” From the Wisconsin Bar: “Though generative synthetic intelligence (GAI) looks as if it’s reworking all the things, the ethics guidelines for billing haven’t modified. Billing have to be cheap, and an hour of labor is billed as an hour of labor.” Learn extra here.
On My Calendar 🗓️
This week I head to Oakland College in Rochester, Michigan, for a Summit on Civil Discourse, Freedom of Speech and Political Violence on Faculty Campuses. The occasion options a formidable lineup of audio system together with Mary Anne Franks (George Washington), Greg Lukianoff (president of the Basis for Particular person Rights and Expression), Nadine Strossen (previous president of the American Civil Liberties Union), Eugene Volokh (Hoover Establishment at Stanford College), and lots of others. I’m attending in my capability because the vice chair of the Board of Trustees for Michigan State College, and the subject intersects with a present analysis mission I’m engaged on involving educational freedom, authorized ethics, and the rule of legislation that will likely be revealed subsequent 12 months as a part of a Fordham Regulation Evaluation colloquium. You possibly can study extra concerning the Summit here.
In search of different upcoming ethics occasions? You’ll discover a checklist here.
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Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Authorized Ethics and is a Professor of Regulation on the College of Houston. Take a look at extra of her writing on the Legal Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
The submit Legal Ethics Roundup: Ethical AI Billing Practices, Judge Resigns To Avoid Sanction, Law School Accreditation Limbo, Judge Reprimanded For Shooting Suggestion, AI Patchwork, MT Legal Deserts & More appeared first on Above the Law.