Ed. note: Please welcome Renee Knake Jefferson back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, Legal Ethics Roundup, here.
Happy Monday!
Summer is over, but I’m still chasing sunsets on the weekends. Any guesses about where I found this one?
From ‘Associate’ To ‘Doppelganger’: The Evolution Of The Legal AI Persona
Confronting Biglaw’s ‘snake eating its own tail’ problem.
I’m also chasing legal ethics headlines, so let’s dive right in.
Highlights from Last Week – Top Ten Headlines
Willkie Elevates Legal Work with Lexis+ with Protégé
Willkie AI and Innovation leader Todd Friedlich spoke to LexisNexis about firm’s thoughtful approach to legal AI
#1 “Trump’s Minnesota Surge Threatened Democracy, Judge Warns.” From The New York Times: “In a rare interview, Patrick Schiltz, who served as the federal court’s chief judge last winter, called the administration’s actions ‘a grave threat to the rule of law.’” Read more here (gift link).
#2 “Refusing to Investigate a Judicial Controversy Lowers the Bar for Federal Judges.” From Steven Lubet in The Hill: “As chief judge of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, William H. Pryor has the unenviable task of receiving misconduct complaints against federal judges in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. In theory, he must take every complaint seriously, without deference to the subject judge. In the recent case against District Judge Roy K. Altman, however, Pryor issued a quick dismissal without meaningful consideration of significant issues. His failure to initiate an investigation set a regrettable example for the entire federal judiciary.” Read more here.
#3 “Possible Deal Reached for Detroit Judge Who Had Sleepy Teen Detained.” From the Detroit Free Press: “A Detroit judge who in 2024 had a teen girl detained after she fell asleep on a field trip to his courtroom saw his misconduct hearing abruptly halted this week, with the state’s oversight body for judges and the Michigan Supreme Court now set to weigh a possible deal to close the case. Currently, the details of the deal for 36th District Judge Kenneth King are not public.” Read more here.
#4 “Warren Demands Stronger Ethics Pact From Top IRS Lawyer Pick.” From Bloomberg Law : “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) demanded a more stringent ethics pledge from IRS chief counsel nominee Jim Gadwood, who disclosed ties to a company linked to President Donald Trump. The private attorney filed with little detail a financial disclosure that DJT Holdings LLC, a firm linked to Trump, was a source of compensation exceeding $5,000 in a year for ‘Legal services.’ ‘And when asked by my staff, you have refused to provide additional information as to whether you personally represented the President or his interests,’ Warren wrote in the letter shared by her office. Read more here.
#5 “‘AI Slop’ Decried by Florida Appellate Court: ‘Counsel’s Lengthy and Unfocused Filings Contain Gibberish.’” From The Volokh Conspiracy: “From Wednesday’s decision by Florida Court of Appeal Justice Gross in Lisandrillo v. Palozzi: ‘We deny the extraordinary writ petition seeking review in this dissolution of marriage case and write solely to address counsel’s filing of what appears to be AI slop. Counsel’s lengthy and unfocused filings contain gibberish and abuse the litigation process in different ways—including by churning out convoluted, false, and frivolous arguments. The AI slop problem we address here has nothing to do with hallucinated law or false legal citations. The citations are real. The cases exist. The language is confident. Yet the analytical reasoning—or lack of it—reveals that the arguments were assembled by an AI tool rather than developed through a trained advocate’s independent judgment.’” Read more here.
#6 “Blanche’s Political Campaigning Breaks an Ethical Norm Going Back to Watergate.” From The New York Times: “Attorney General Todd Blanche has repeatedly participated in campaign events and spoken in partisan terms about the coming midterm elections since his confirmation last month, despite criticism that he violated a longstanding Justice Department principle of steering clear of electoral politics. This week he waded again into those waters — twice.” Read more here (gift link).
#7 “Fla. Judge Ends Recusal Bid in Fontainebleau Defamation Suit.” From Law360: “A federal magistrate judge in Florida has rejected an attempt to have her disqualified from Fontainebleau Florida Hotel LLC’s defamation suit, saying the defendant ‘lied in wait’ with his claims until he received an adverse ruling.” Read more here.
#8 “Judge Refers Philadelphia District Attorney to Federal Prosecutors for Investigation.” From the Associated Press: “A federal judge referred Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday for investigation into whether he broke the law while overseeing a post-conviction case. U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond disqualified Krasner and Assistant DA Matthew Stieglerfrom participating in the case involving Dennis Johnson, who is seeking to have his second-degree murder conviction overturned. Diamond also took the unusual step of recommending that the DOJ investigate whether Krasner committed any crimes, including perjury and obstruction of justice, according to court documents.” Read more here.
#9 “Fix the Court Endorses Rep. Fitzgerald’s Legislation to Improve Judicial Misconduct Law, End ‘Stealth Impeachments.’” From Gabe Roth at Fix the Court: “Fix the Court today is praising the work of Rep. Scott Fitzgerald for introducing a nonpartisan bill to modernize the judicial misconduct process in the lower federal courts. His Judicial Conduct and Disability Reform Act (H.R.10390; text here) would reduce inherent conflicts in the process, permit judicial review of suspension orders and ensure that ‘stealth impeachments’ are a thing of the past, among other valuable provisions. Most importantly, the bill would limit the length of ‘temporary’ suspensions of judges permitted under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act (28 U.S.C. 354(a)(2)(A)(i)) to two years. After that point, a subject judge would be reinstated, though the complaint record would ultimately be sent to the House to decide whether to proceed with impeachment.” Read more here.
#10 John Eastman in the News. We will close out the list of ten with two headlines on John Eastman. First, coverage from Reuters on the cert petition I mentioned in last week’s LER: “John Eastman asks US Supreme Court to undo disbarment over Trump election efforts.” Read more here. Second, more coverage from Reuters: “Trump ally John Eastman joins UPenn professor’s legal team, citing ‘despicable cancel culture.’” Read more here.
On My Calendar ️
If you happen to be in Houston this week, please join me at the University of Houston Law Center in our beautiful new building for a special event. UHLC is teaming up with The American Law Institute to host a conversation with Texas Supreme Court Justice J. Brett Busby and ALI President Wallace B. Jefferson (yes, my husband), moderated by Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The event is Thursday, September 24, from 5:30-7:30PM. Learn more and RSVP at this link.
For those of you traveling to Singapore in December to attend the International Legal Ethics Conference, the official schedule is now posted here. There will be nearly 150 attendees, with three plenaries and ten sets of breakout sessions (each with 5-6 panels) over the three days.
Looking for other upcoming ethics events?You’ll find a list 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 X (formerly Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.