LER No. 72 - Indicted SCOTUSblog Founder + Ethics Issues, Fire Aid for LA Judges Limited, KPMG as a Law Firm, a History of SCOTUS Ethics Scandals, Remembering MLK & More (01.20.25)
The Legal Ethics Roundup - your Monday morning tour of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson
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Hello from Washington DC, where I spent the weekend at inauguration events, including the State Society of Michigan 2025 Bipartisan Inaugural Gala at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Today, in addition to the presidential inauguration, the nation honors Martin Luther King. Revisit LER No. 25 for MLK Day history. And take a moment to watch this performance by Montoia Murray, a 5th grader who won the 29th Annual Martin Luther King Best Oratory Competition in Houston hosted by Foley & Lardner LLP. She answered the question: "What would Dr. King tell us about our responsibility as citizens and leaders today?" (H/T to University of Houston Law Center Dean Len Baynes, who served as a competition judge.)
Highlights from Last Week - Top Ten Headlines
#1 “22-Count Indictment Is Just the Start of SCOTUSblog Atty’s Legal Problems, Experts Say.” From the National Law Journal: “Tom Goldstein, the appellate attorney and SCOTUSblog publisher, faces a tax evasion complaint related to his alleged gambling activities and personal relationships; but legal experts say the sprawling indictment against him could spawn ethics complaints and civil litigation.” Read more here.
#2 KPMG as a Law Firm? From Reuters: “KPMG is poised to become the first of the Big Four accounting firms to open a law firm in the United States, taking advantage of loosened law firm ownership rules in Arizona and accelerating the accounting industry's push into U.S. legal services. KPMG Law US, a new unit of KPMG US, persuaded a court committee on Tuesday to recommend approval by the Arizona Supreme Court to practice law in the state.” Read more here.
#3 Ethics Rules Limit Fire Aid for Los Angeles Judges. From Bloomberg Law: “The kinds of help the court can extend to the state judges and judicial officers whose homes have burned down in Los Angeles will be limited by ethics rules on accepting gifts, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said. However, support for affected trial and appellate court employees, including financial assistance, is under consideration, she said.” Read more here.
#4 “Federal Judges Shouldn’t Renege on Their Retirements.” From Richard Re (Virginia) on PrawfsBlawg: “Should federal judges rescind their retirements in the wake of a presidential election? The question is posed by several federal judges who have recently done so. … A straightforward if incomplete solution would render judicial retirements binding and irrevocable. Yet that approach would still allow for dealmaking and partisan strategy around the initial decision to retire in the first place. And the regime would have to be entrenched in a way to prevent it from being waived away when politically convenient. Still, this kind of reform would be valuable and may be all that can realistically be achieved. A grander reform would eliminate the ability to undertake politically timed retirements altogether. Judicial term limits would fit the bill, and I have argued that judicial retirements themselves might help. If judges committed to step down on a schedule and a statute rendered those commitments legally binding, judicial term limits would result—without having to undertake the onerous process of constitutional amendment.” Read more here.
#5 “Trump’s Legal Peril has Faded. Not So for Some of His Allies” — Including Lawyers Facing Ethics Issues. From the Washington Post: “Those who have faced repercussions include Trump attorneys Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro, who under plea deals were sentenced to probation in 2023 for their role in trying to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia. The contrast between their fates and Trump’s lays bare the stark disparities in outcomes in cases rooted in false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Dozens of others — including top Trump advisers and low-level activists — face charges after trying to reverse that election. Some may see the cases against them dry up, while others could head to trial soon.” Read more here (gift link).
#6 Judges & Bar Speeches. From the Maryland Daily Record: “A judge may serve as a speaker at a bar association conference even if attendees are charged a fee, the Maryland Judicial Ethics Committee opined. In a published opinion filed Friday, the Maryland Judicial Ethics Committee found that judges are permitted to participate in activities sponsored by legal organizations, namely as speakers at a bar association conference, provided that the participation does not appear to undermine the judge’s independence, integrity or impartiality.” Read more here.
#7 TX AG Seeks Dismissal of State Bar Ethics Complaint. From KERA News: “Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office wants the Texas Supreme Court to throw out a State Bar ethics complaint against him — two weeks after the court dismissed a similar complaint against his assistant attorney general. Seven out of the nine justices ruled Dec. 31 that First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster could not be disciplined for allegedly making false claims about the 2020 presidential election results in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.” Read more here.
#8 Remembering Judge Florence Allen and Her Call for an “Ethical Basis of Law.” From David Hudson (Belmont) in the Tennessee Bar Journal: “She was the first female jurist to serve on a high court. She was the first female jurist to serve on a federal appeals court. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered nominating her to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her name was Florence Ellinwood Allen. She should be a household name that every law student and lawyer knows. … Allen cared deeply about her profession and her country. She writes beautifully in her memoir in words that still ring true today: ‘A great public service is demanded of lawyers and laymen today. Unless lawyers inspire the coming generation with a conception of the ethical basis of law, our precious freedom built up through the centuries will inevitably be destroyed.’” Read more here.
#9 “Corruption, Compliance and Conscience: A Glimpse Into Supreme Court Ethics Scandals.” From the Saturday Evening Post: “In 1924, the American Bar Association (ABA) organized a commission that was led by then Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft to create a set of guidelines for judicial conduct. These were known as the 1924 Canons of Judicial Ethics. Among other guidelines, the canons exhorted judges to avoid impropriety, exhibit industry, and give the appearance of impartiality with regard to outside business interests. The guidelines served more as principles than strict rules and lacked any enforceable mechanism to uphold them. Since then, the issue of judicial ethics has risen and fallen in the public consciousness, often in response to misconduct. One notable period of judicial scandal was 1968-1973, when the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, came under scrutiny for ethical lapses, most notably in the examples of Supreme Court Justices Abe Fortas and William O. Douglas. Looking at these past moments of judicial turbulence can help provide insight into the current controversies plaguing the Supreme Court and other judicial bodies.” Read more here.
#10 Legal Ethics Academics News. Two headlines for #10. First, Brad Wendel (Cornell) has launched a new Substack “Legal Ethics Stuff” which he describes as a “cranky, opinionated newsletter on lawyers' and judges' conduct, regulation, and sometimes even a little moral philosophy.” Check it out here. (H/T Bruce Green (Fordham)). Second, from a University of Arkansas media release: “The U of A School of Law welcomes Sarah Cravens to the senior administrative team as a professor of law and associate dean of research and faculty development. … Cravens most recently served as a visiting professor of law and a fellow in the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where she taught conflict of laws, professional responsibility, judicial ethics and torts.” Read more here. Cravens also is chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Professional Responsibility, as reported in last week’s LER.
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