Former associate who alleged sex assault by BigLaw partner is sued for defamation

Baker & McKenzie has sued a former associate for defamation in an updated lawsuit, alleging she made “unequivocally false” accusations on LinkedIn that she had been sexually assaulted by Maurice Bellan, the managing partner of the firm’s office in Washington, D.C.

Oct 2, 2025 2:52 PM CDT

Suit by fired Akerman partner alleges she was ‘pestered’ on medical leave, treated less favorably based on race and sex

Oct 2, 2025 1:27 PM CDT

Judge tosses $300M RICO suit against 2 major firms, saying it would be ‘futile’ for plaintiffs to amend complaint

Dentons and Boies Schiller Flexner have won dismissal of a $300 million racketeering lawsuit claiming that the law firms ran up legal fees by ignoring red flags suggesting that its former clients signed an invalid contract to build a power plant in West Africa.

Oct 2, 2025 9:20 AM CDT

‘Whirlwind’: Bill Kurtis memoir tells how law school trained him for covering trials

The ABA Journal talked with the retired CBS News anchor and executive producer of many legal-oriented television documentary series—including Cold Case Files, American Greed and Investigative Reports—at his home outside Chicago.

Oct 2, 2025 9:08 AM CDT

Judge who said she showed compassion for sentenced defendant is suspended for disregarding the law

A Nevada judge who argued a state supreme reversal order “could mean a lot of things” has been suspended for failing to comply with the law.

Oct 1, 2025 1:49 PM CDT

Court rules Trump’s US attorney in Nevada was unlawfully appointed

A federal judge on Tuesday disqualified President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in Nevada, ruling that she had been unlawfully appointed—the second court ruling in as many months to cast doubt on the Justice Department’s novel strategy for retaining the president’s most controversial appointees in top prosecutorial roles.

Oct 1, 2025 10:14 AM CDT

Florida federal prosecutor fired after old alleged anti-Trump blog posts surface

Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Rosenzweig of the Southern District of Florida was fired by email last week when he was off work to observe Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Oct 1, 2025 9:02 AM CDT

What happens when introverts and extroverts work together?

A law firm partner and an associate general counsel, who are also a couple, recently answered questions about the role of emotional intelligence in leadership, the importance of intuition and what both extroverts and introverts bring to a legal career. One sees himself as an extrovert, while the other sees herself as an introvert.

Oct 1, 2025 8:57 AM CDT

Authority figures don’t always give the best career advice, this appellate justice tells young people

Authority figures don’t always give the best career advice, this appellate justice tells young Even when his goals seemed impossible, Jesse G. Reyes, an Illinois Appellate Court justice, says he has kept following them. “I have always believed that if a door is closed to me, I am just going to find a way around it or over it or through it,” says Reyes, 72.

Oct 1, 2025 1:00 AM CDT

Nikole Nelson champions a national model to bring legal services to those without access

Nikole Nelson spent much of her career trying to close the justice gap in Alaska. As the executive director of Alaska Legal Services Corp., Nelson helped provide free civil legal aid to low-income residents in about a dozen communities across the state. But Nelson and her team encountered many other people they couldn’t assist because of a lack of resources.

Oct 1, 2025 12:35 AM CDT

Dec. 2, 1948: The ‘Pumpkin Papers’ incriminate Alger Hiss

On Dec. 2, 1948, Whittaker Chambers led a group of congressional investigators from the House Un-American Activities Committee to his farm about 60 miles outside Washington, D.C. There, in dramatic fashion, Chambers walked them to his garden, where from a hollowed-out pumpkin he retrieved five canisters of film that he claimed proved Alger Hiss, a highly regarded official during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, was a communist spy.

Oct 1, 2025 12:05 AM CDT

Presiding over remote court calendar while riding in car among reasons for judge’s suspension

A Minnesota judge was reprimanded and suspended from office without pay for nine months, for abusing his authority in a dispute over his court reporter’s pay and presiding over a remote court calendar from a moving car. But a third allegation concerning bias against noncitizen juveniles was not a factor in the sanction.

Sep 30, 2025 12:03 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: New SCOTUS term includes cases that will have profound effect on law, American society

The October 2025 term officially begins, as always, on the first Monday in October, and once more there is a strong sense that it is going to be a momentous year in the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the justices have been officially in recess since June 27, it was a summer filled with unprecedented activity on the court’s emergency docket, as the justices considered the constitutionality of many actions taken by President Donald Trump's administration.

Sep 30, 2025 10:01 AM CDT

ABA law school accreditation should end, Texas justices say

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday tentatively approved minimizing or possibly eliminating the role of the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in accrediting the state’s law schools, moving those powers to the court itself.

Sep 29, 2025 3:50 PM CDT

Dangers of cellphones, teen drama, bad judgment detailed in new Netflix documentary

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is a documentary that follows a group of students in Beal City, Michigan, as they navigate a townwide mystery as to who’s harassing junior high student Lauryn Licari.

Sep 29, 2025 2:10 PM CDT