Lawyer licensing reform faces headwinds, US states are warning local election officials, X to steer lawsuits to conservative Texas court and more ?
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:
?? Can attorney licensing reform survive Calif's rebuff of bar exam alternative?
California's recent rejection of a proposal to allow law graduates to become lawyers without taking a bar is a loss for the national attorney licensing movement. But legal experts believe it may not be a lethal blow — citing growing momentum in other states.
The California Supreme Court on Oct. 10 denied a proposal to license law school graduates who work for up to six months under an experienced attorney's supervision and submit a portfolio of legal work to state bar evaluators, saying the plan posed an "array of ethical and practical problems."
Had California's Portfolio Bar Exam won the high court's blessing, California would have become the largest state to adopt an alternative attorney licensing pathway. The state licenses up to 6,000 law grads each year, making it the second-largest jurisdiction in the country for lawyer admissions behind New York.
California attorneys opposing the so-called Portfolio Bar Exam said that the plan would have made it too easy to become a licensed attorney and would have eroded public protections.
Currently, three states — Oregon, Washington and Arizona — have adopted some form of attorney licensing reform since 2023 and at least two others are weighing or developing proposals. In addition, the American Bar Association's legal education arm relaxed its longstanding pro-bar-exam stance in May when it endorsed alternative licensing pathways.
California's decision to nix the alternative could make it tougher for other states to pursue reforms because many expected it would align with similar alternatives adopted by neighboring Oregon and Washington, said Quinnipiac University law dean Brian Gallini, who helped develop Oregon's new licensing program. But states may also attribute the rejection of California's plan to issues that are unique to that state, he added.
“Maybe the moment isn’t right yet for California, but it is turning out to be right for other states,” said Logan Cornett, director of research for legal education and licensure at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.
But the largest licensing jurisdictions, including New York, Florida and Texas, have not taken any formal steps toward alternatives and still require law graduates to take their bar exams in order to practice.
?? US states warn officials: Delaying, tampering with vote could bring criminal charges
Some U.S. states are sending strong signals to county and local officials who might be tempted to intervene illegally in the Nov. 5 election or refuse to certify results: Fail to do your duty and risk criminal charges or hefty financial penalties.
In at least five of the seven battleground states , top election and law enforcement officials have investigated, indicted and even jailed officials who tried to interfere with the vote or delay certification of results, a necessary but largely ceremonial step.
The increased oversight of local election officials is aimed at preventing unfounded claims of fraud from slowing the certification of election results, which in turn could interfere with Congress's certification of the presidential election results in a highly-charged partisan atmosphere.
Four years after Trump tried to overturn his 2020 defeat, officials in swing states Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as in solidly Democratic Colorado, said they have become far more adept at handling those who overstep their authority.
With Trump still repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that he will lose in November only through fraud, ensuring the election process goes smoothly in each state is critical. States that fail to certify results by certain deadlines could be left out of the state-by-state Electoral College process that formally determines the winners of U.S. presidential elections.
"The law is clear and we won't tolerate anyone not following it for any reason," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. "There are times and places for challenging election results. The certification process is not one of them."
?? Musk's X seeks to steer lawsuits to conservative court in Texas
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Elon Musk's X has updated its terms of service to steer any disputes by users to a federal court in Texas whose judges frequently deliver victories to conservative litigants in political cases.
New terms of service that will take effect on Nov. 15 specify that any lawsuits against X by users must be exclusively filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts in Tarrant County, Texas.
The Northern District has become a favored destination for conservative activists and business groups to pursue lawsuits seeking to block parts of Democratic President Joe Biden 's agenda, a tactic Democratic lawmakers say smacks of "judge-shopping."
Musk has increasingly embraced conservative causes and has become a major financial supporter of Republican former President Donald Trump in his campaign to win the Nov. 5 presidential election .
Texas' Northern District already is the host of two lawsuits X has filed after several brands pulled ads from the platform, including one against liberal watchdog group Media Matters after it published a report that said ads appeared next to posts supporting Nazism.
X has also filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing several advertisers of conspiring to stage a boycott, causing it to lose revenue.
Both of X's lawsuits were initially assigned to U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor , who once declared the Obamacare health insurance law unconstitutional in a ruling that was later overturned. He has since blocked Biden administration policies on gun control and LGBTQ rights.
O'Connor, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, stepped aside from X's antitrust case in August after National Public Radio reported that O'Connor owned shares of Musk's Tesla. But the judge has declined to recuse himself from the Media Matters case.
?? Columbia law prof, law firm clash over client policy on Israel-Gaza
A U.S. employment law firm is defending its decision to stop representing a Columbia Law School professor under fire for comments she made about pro-Israel student protesters, citing its policy to steer clear of employee speech cases related to the war in Gaza.
Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke said on Oct. 16 that she had filed an ethics complaint against New York-based Outten & Golden, citing professional conduct rules requiring attorneys to "act with loyalty" to an active client.
"Outten & Golden abandoned me as my law firm with no notice and no explanation," Franke said in a September complaint to an attorney grievance committee for New York courts, which she posted on X on Oct. 16. The grievance committee is not bound to open an investigation and did not respond to a request for comment.
Outten & Golden responded in a statement that it had adopted its rule against taking on employee speech matters like Franke's due to "the unique nature of the Israel-Gaza conflict, and the immense passion and pain that it can conjure."
The firm said it considered its ethics obligations in dropping Franke's case and did not base its decision on her or Columbia's views.
"Law firms have a lot of latitude to withdraw from representation, but they need to do it in a way that does not have material adverse effects on the client's interests," said Leslie Levin, a legal ethics expert at the University of Connecticut's law school. "Disciplinary authorities do not tend to get involved in these sorts of matters."
Franke, who teaches gender and sexuality law, said Columbia's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action began investigating her in February for allegedly harassing "members of the Columbia community based on their national origin."
She said she hired Outten & Golden partner Kathleen Peratis to defend her in the probe, but the firm's management decided to withdraw from her case without warning in July. Peratis resigned from the law firm in protest but continues to represent Franke, the professor told Reuters in an email.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File and have a great weekend!
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