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 Tuesday!
What Biglaw Can Learn From Personal Injury Firms
How a former insurance agent built a Houston injury practice around systems, empathy, and disciplined advocacy.
I’ve just returned from a week in Washington DC for the American Law Institute (ALI) Annual Meeting. Highlights included a tour of the Old Supreme Court Chamber and celebrating my husband Wallace B. Jefferson’s installation as the new ALI President. (Read more about that here and catch a bit of a speech he delivered here.)
Most images of the Old Supreme Court Chamber, used from 1810-1860, don’t include this view, which is what the justices would’ve seen as they presided over the cases of the day. If you look closely, you’ll find that Lady Justice does not wear her usual blindfold. Instead, she’s eyes-wide-open looking at the U.S. Constitution.
Now for our headlines.
Keeping Law School Accessible When Federal Loans Fall Short
As federal borrowing caps tighten financing options for law students, one organization is stepping in to negotiate the terms they can't secure alone.
Highlights from Last Week – Top 10 Headlines
#1 “America’s Toxic Divide Reaches the Jury Room.” From The Wall Street Journal: “Trial lawyers and jury consultants say an erosion of trust in the justice system, more rigid viewpoints and starker political divides have made pitched juror battles more common.” Read more here (gift link).
#2 “Lawyers Can Drop Uncooperative Clients, Within Limits, ABA Says.” From the Bloomberg Law: “Lawyers can stop providing services or seek permission to do so if a client doesn’t fulfill basic obligations in the attorney-client relationship, the American Bar Association said in a new ethics opinion. This option, under Rule 1.16(b)(5), is most commonly invoked when a client repeatedly fails to pay for legal services, the ABA noted in its Wednesday opinion. However, the rule can also be applied to clients who refuse to cooperate with their attorney, provide or update their contact information, or comply with other terms of an engagement agreement, the ABA said.” Read more here.
#3 “The DOJ Just Admitted to Weaponizing a Prosecution Against Trump’s Foes.” From Slate: “A federal court threw out all charges against the Broadview Six—a group of protesters accused of obstructing a Chicago ICE facility—during a heated hearing on Thursday at which Justice Department officials apologized for egregious misconduct in securing the indictments. U.S. District Judge April Perry excoriated prosecutors for using illegal tactics to get the criminal charges past a skeptical grand jury, dressing down U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and his colleagues for their ‘incredibly shock[ing]’ malfeasance.” Read more here.
#4 “Legal Experts Say Rule of Law Has Hit its Lowest Point in a Decade.” From UCLA Law: “The rule of law in the United States has deteriorated to its lowest level in at least a decade, according to the first joint survey of federal judges, elite lawyers, and law professors by Bright Line Watch and UCLA School of Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project. … The research team surveyed three types of legal experts: 21 Article III federal judges, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate based on Article III of the U.S. Constitution; 113 elite lawyers; and 193 law professors at the top 50 law schools based on 2025 U.S. News rankings. The team also surveyed 652 political scientists and a nationally representative sample of 2,750 Americans.” Read more here.
#5 “Biglaw Insider Trading Isn’t As Crazy As It Might Seem.” From David Lat’s Original Jurisdiction: “Psychological and social factors—plus plain old greed—might explain why seemingly successful lawyers allegedly engaged in criminal conduct.” Read more here.
#6 “Justice Dept. Sets Up $1.8 Billion Fund That Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies.” From the New York Times: “The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies. The highly unusual fund was denounced by critics as a slush fund and as a brazen misuse of a once-independent Justice Department to carry out the president’s personal and political agendas.” Read more here (gift link).
#7 “Top Treasury Lawyer Resigns After Creation of ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund.” From the New York Times: “Brian Morrissey, the department’s general counsel, stepped down hours after the Trump administration announced the $1.8 billion fund.” Read more here (gift link).
#8 “Nervous System Regulation for Ethical Law Practice and Improved Overall Well-Being.” From the Michigan Bar Journal: “If one were to search ‘hot topics in lawyer well-being’ or ‘lawyer wellness trends for 2026,’ right up there with cold plunging, high protein or plant-based diets, and the use of AI in mental health support would be nervous system regulation — in particular vagus nerve stimulation. This article will aim to help those in a high-pressure profession like law understand why vagus nerve stimulation is gaining such widespread attention and popularity, supporting greater regulation of the nervous system, ethical law practice, and improved overall well-being.” Read more here. [Side note: I’m a big fan of Pulsetto for vagus nerve stimulation – check it out.]
#9 “Judge Sanctions Law Firm Quinn Emanuel, Citing Ethical Lapses.” From Reuters: “U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel was ordered on Tuesday to fund ethics training and pay sanctions after a federal judge said a group of its lawyers misled the court about evidence … . U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said the law firm must design an eight-hour internal ethics training program for the attorneys involved and pay a nearly $3 million sanction that a court-appointed official recommended in January. Five lawyers at the firm will individually pay a portion of the sanction totaling tens of thousands of dollars.” Read more here.
#10 “Chief Judge Moore Commissions Bizarre AI Cartoon About The Federal Circuit Without Judge Newman.” From Josh Blackman in The Volokh Conspiracy: “Given the standard applied to Judge Newman, this colossal error in judgment by Chief Judge Moore should warrant some sort of cognitive evaluation. How could she possibly think this was a good idea–so good to hire a PR firm to publicize it?” Read more (and watch the cartoon video) here.
Get Hired
Did you miss the 500+ 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
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!
News tips? Announcements? Events? A job to post? Reading recommendations? Email [email protected] – but be sure to subscribe first, otherwise the email won’t be delivered.
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.