Free speech rights …
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged Florida’s ban on pro-Palestinian university groups, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the state is violating students’ free speech … The National Association of Muslim Lawyers and a dozen other allied bar associations said in a response to a Nov. 1 letter from major law firms, which warned law school deans to rein in campus antisemitism, that taking a “one-sided approach” has made Muslim, Arab and Palestinian lawyers afraid to speak their minds about the conflict … A U.S. appeals court ruled that the Louisiana State Bar Association violated the free speech rights of dues-paying members by making various website and social media posts that were not relevant to regulating the legal profession … The American Bar Association is expected to vote on new free speech rules for law schools — a long-gestating move that comes as campus clashes between Israeli and Palestinian supporters have intensified in recent weeks.
The California bar …
California got one step closer to allowing law graduates to become licensed attorneys without taking the bar exam. The State Bar of California’s board of trustees voted to test run the Portfolio Bar Exam, an alternative pathway to licensure. The proposal received nearly 3,000 public comments, most of which were in opposition …The July 2023 bar exam cycle wrapped up with California reporting a small decrease in its overall pass rate, in contrast to pass rate increases posted by most states …The State Bar of California also sold its 13-story San Francisco headquarters to a local real estate investment firm for $54 million amid a budget shortfall.
Legal ethics …
The U.S. Supreme Court announced its first formal code of conduct governing the ethical behavior of its nine justices drawing mixed reviews … A federal judicial ethics probe into former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones’ failure to disclose his romantic relationship with a lawyer whose firm regularly appeared before him has come to an end … Meanwhile Texas law firm Jackson Walker said it was deceived by a former partner who never disclosed she was living with Jones in Houston … AI chatbot GPT-4 outperformed most aspiring lawyers on the legal ethics exam required by nearly every state in order to practice law … A New York lawyer pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he bribed a federal court employee for more than decade in exchange for client referrals.
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Should online retailers face the prospect of being sued in every jurisdiction where they have delivered even a single product? The answer to that question has divided the federal circuits, as Alison Frankel explains. And now several small companies that operate virtual Amazon storefronts are urging the justices to resolve the split, arguing that the 9th Circuit erred last summer when it ruled that they could be sued in Arizona because they’ve shipped products to consumers in the state. Read more.
Check out other recent pieces from all our columnists: Alison Frankel, Jenna Greene and Hassan Kanu
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Additional writing by Renuka Rath.
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