1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Federal judge who sought female attorneys…

Judiciary

Federal judge who sought female attorneys among class counsel has acknowledged sex-bias concerns, order says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 25, 2025, 9:21 am CDT

A federal judge who called for female attorneys to be “adequately represented” on the leadership team for plaintiffs in multidistrict contraceptive litigation has “acknowledged the concerns created by her statements,” according to an order closing an ethics inquiry.

U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers of the Northern District of Florida “has taken appropriate voluntary corrective action that acknowledges and remedies the problems created by her statements,” wrote Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta in the March 20 order.

Conservative activist Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project—a conservative group—filed a complaint against Rodgers after she said during a Feb. 21 case management conference and in a Feb. 23 order that she thinks that female attorneys have to be “adequately represented” on the leadership team given the female plaintiffs in the contraceptive drug Depo-Provera litigation.

Davis had released the complaint and his organization, the Article III Project, published online articles about it. He alleged that Rodgers’ statements amounted to discrimination based on sex and constituted judicial misconduct.

Rodgers omitted references to sex when she invited applications for leadership positions in a Feb. 28 order. All applicants would be considered based on merit, she said in the order. Then, in a March 13 hearing allowing nearly 70 applicants to give presentations, Rodgers said she would not give preferences to women to avoid the appearance of impermissible sex discrimination.

Pryor said Rodgers’ voluntary corrective action was sufficient while warning that judges can’t discriminate based on sex when selecting class counsel.

Pryor noted a 2013 statement by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in a cert denial in which he criticized a judge’s “unique” requirement that class counsel fairly reflect the composition of plaintiffs.

What Alito described as a unique practice “has been touted as a ‘best practice’ in multidistrict litigation,” Pryor said. “Commentators openly encourage judges who preside over these actions to consider impermissible characteristics like sex or race when they appoint leadership counsel.”

Notions about a lawyer’s ability to fairly and adequately represent class interests “must exist within the bounds of the rules that govern judicial conduct, and those bounds prohibit discrimination based on sex,” Pryor said.

Law360 and Reuters are among the publications with coverage of the order, noted by How Appealing.

Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.

A 29-year-old Kentucky man was arrested for allegedly deploying bear spray at Capitol police officers on Jan. 6.

Standing on the northwest stairwell of Capitol steps at 1:54 p.m., Andrew Kyle Grigsby was among the first rioters to engage with cops, feds say. He is facing charges of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds using a dangerous weapon, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon.

More coverage from Law&Crime: ‘Obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned’: JD Vance breaks from Trump’s ‘had no choice’ claims about Jan. 6 rioters and says violent offenders should stay locked up and charged

He was arraigned on the charges in Washington, D.C., on Friday. According to the FBI’s statement of facts about Grigsby’s alleged conduct, surveillance cameras showed him on the steps with a group of other rioters. As the mob was trying to break through the police line, Grigsby was seen holding a black canister, later determined to be bear spray, in his right hand. Grigsby allegedly raised the canister and dispersed the spray at cops, causing them to temporarily retreat.

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Former BigLaw partner, fen-phen lawyer among…

Criminal Justice

Former BigLaw partner, fen-phen lawyer among those granted commutations by Biden

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 8, 2025, 8:50 am CST

A former Jenkens & Gilchrist partner and an ex-diet-drug lawyer are among nearly 1,500 people granted commutations by President Joe Biden in December.

All those granted commutations had been placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and had “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities,” according to a White House press release.

Law.com has the story on the former Jenkens & Gilchrist partner, Paul Daugerdas, while the Louisville Courier Journal has a report on the ex-diet-drug lawyer, William Gallion.

Daugerdas, who headed the Chicago office of Jenkens & Gilchrist, was convicted in a fraudulent $8 billion tax shelter scheme that led to the 2007 dissolution of his law firm. He was sentenced in June 2014 to 15 years in prison for the scheme in which legal opinion letters backed the phony tax shelters.

Daugerdas was ordered to forfeit $165 million and pay $371 million in restitution, penalties upheld by a federal appeals court in 2022.

Gallion and another lawyer were convicted in April 2009 for cheating clients out of $94.6 million in settlement funds in litigation over the diet drug fen-phen, which was removed from the market after it was linked to heart problems. Gallion was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. This law school is among the 1% that allow…

Legal Education

This law school is among the 1% that allow use of AI to write admissions essays

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 9, 2024, 2:47 pm CDT

Can would-be law students use generative artificial intelligence programs, such as ChatGPT, to write admissions essays? Fifty-four percent of surveyed law schools have no official policy on the issue, according to a survey by test prep company Kaplan.

The Kaplan survey found that 45% of law schools have an official policy banning the use of generative AI to write essays, while 1% allow it.

The findings “somewhat surprised” Amit Schlesinger, executive director of legal and government programs at Kaplan.

“As we see it, in a way, no policy at all may be understood by applicants as a de facto policy of allowing it, which only muddies the waters,” Schlesinger said in an Oct. 8 press release.

Admissions officers at 97 law schools participated in Kaplan’s 2024 survey, including 34 of the nation’s top 50 law schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

The survey also found that 16% of surveyed law schools allow generative AI to brainstorm essay ideas, while another 16% ban it. Fifteen percent allow AI programs to provide feedback on essays, and another 15% ban it.

Above the Law had coverage of the findings.

Kaplan didn’t reveal which schools do and don’t allow ChatGPT. But the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law has “welcomed prospective law students to use these [AI] tools,” Law.com reported in October 2023.

“Generative AI is a tool available to nearly everyone, regardless of their economic situation,” the law school says on its website. The tool can help prospective students “submit a strong application when used responsibly.”

Amy Beier Best, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the Arizona State University law school, told Law.com that applicants still must be truthful.

“Because we are allowing the use of AI in the application process,” she said, “we’re also asking applicants to certify that not only is information entirely in their application true and accurate, but as part of that, [asking whether] they’ve used any tools, whether AI or others, responsibly and ethically in creating their application materials.”

Taking the opposite tack, the University of Michigan Law School announced in July 2023 that applicants must certify that they didn’t use ChatGPT or other AI tools when drafting personal statements and essays.

The University of Michigan Law School planned to police its ban on AI-written essays by comparing the submissions with writing samples from students’ Law School Admission Test, Sarah C. Zearfoss, the law school’s senior assistant dean, told the ABA Journal in 2023.

“We will see essays and think, ‘Yep, this could be ChatGPT.’ Or it could just be a bland essay,” Zearfoss said.

One tipoff that an essay has been generated by ChatGPT is that the final paragraph starts with, “In conclusion,” David Kemp, an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, told the Journal in 2023.

Law.com asked ChatGPT to write an “admission essay for law school.”

Law.com noted “flowery language” in its AI-generated essay. It began this way: “As I stand at the threshold of a new chapter in my life, the decision to pursue a career in law feels like the most natural and compelling choice I have ever made.”

The second-to-the-last paragraph began with the words, “In conclusion.”

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Scorsese film is among 29 finalists for 2024…

Law in Popular Culture

Scorsese film is among 29 finalists for 2024 Silver Gavel Awards

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 21, 2024, 9:10 am CDT

An Academy Awards-nominated film directed by Martin Scorsese is among the nominees for the ABA’s 2024 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts.

The ABA has named 29 finalists among 176 entries in the contest, which recognizes outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, according to a March 20 ABA press release.

The Academy Awards-nominated film is Killers of the Flower Moon, which was shut out at the Academy Awards, despite its nomination in 10 categories, according to Forbes. The movie is about the murders of Native Americans after oil is discovered on their reservation.

The film is one of two nominees in the Drama & Literature category, one of nine categories in the contest. The most crowded category is the Books category, with seven finalists.

The winners will be announced May 22. ABA President Mary Smith will present the awards Aug. 3 at the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

“We received outstanding submissions this year and are grateful to the Gavel Awards Screening Committee for their dedicated review and difficult decisions they had to make,” said Lisa Bail, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Gavel Awards, in the press release. “We are pleased to announce our finalists and extend our congratulations to the exceptional individuals and groups who produced this work.”

The screening committee was made up of 50 professionals with legal and media expertise.

Here are the nominees:

BOOKS

  • Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections, by Michael S. Kang; Stanford University Press

  • Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation, by Jeff Kosseff; Johns Hopkins University Press

  • Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable, by Joanna Schwartz; Viking Penguin

  • State of Silence: The Espionage Act and the Rise of America’s Secrecy Regime, by Sam Lebovic; Basic Books

  • The Court at War: FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made, by Cliff Sloan; Hachette Book Group, Public Affairs

  • The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, by Stephen J. Vladeck; Basic Books

  • You Might Go to Prison Even Though You’re Innocent, by Justin Brooks; University of California Press

COMMENTARY

  • “Alabama’s Desperate Bid for a Milligan Do-over”: AL.com; Kyle Whitmore, columnist

DOCUMENTARIES

  • Bad Press: OklaFilm LLC; Joe Peeler and Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, directors; Conrad Beilharz and Garrett F. Baker, producers; Tyler Graim, producer/cinematographer; Jean Rheem, editor

  • No Accident: Catalyst Films, HBO Documentary Films, McGee Media; Tina Nguyen and Nancy Abraham, HBO Documentary Films, executive producers; Kristi Jacobson, Catalyst Films, director; Michelle Carney and Ali Moss, Catalyst Films, producers; Chris Herde, editor; Nausheen Dadabhoy, director of photography; Angelica Négrón, original music

  • Pardon Me: Do Moore Films; Shuja Moore, producer/director; Sean Grasso, director of photography; Hunter Bartlett, cinematographer/editor

DRAMA & LITERATURE

  • Killers of the Flower Moon: Apple Original Films; Martin Scorsese, director; Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, screenplay writers; Leonardo DeCaprio, Rick Yorn, Adam Somner, Marianne Bower, Lisa Frechette, John Atwood, Shea Kammer, Niels Juul, executive producers; Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese, Daniel Lupi, producers; Justine Conte, co-producer; Chad Renfro, consulting producer; Rodrigo Prieto ASC, AMC, director of photography; Jack Fisk, production designer; Thelma Schoonmaker ACE, editor

  • Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till: Collaboraction Theatre Company; Anthony Moseley, artistic director, co-creator, co-director; G. Riley Mills and Willie Round, co-creators, co-adapters; Dana N. Anderson, co-director; Carla Stillwell, producer

MAGAZINES

  • “Incident to Service”: Vanity Fair; Maximillian Potter, contributing editor

  • “What Makes a Murderer?”: The New Yorker/Yale Investigative Reporting Lab; Sarah Stillman, writer

MULTIMEDIA

  • “State Court Report”: The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law; Alicia Bannon, editor-in-chief, founding editor; Douglas Keith, founding editor; Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot, managing editor; Pinky Weitzman, vice president, communications; Alden Wallace, director, creative and design; Lisa Vosper, director, multimedia; Jessica Eckert, graphic designer; Brian Palmer, director, editorial; Evan Stepper, director, digital; Nancy Watzman and Kris Fischer, consultants

  • “Your Democracy”: WHYY and the Law and Policy Group Inc.; Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, writer/host; Sarah Moses, television and video producer

NEWSPAPERS

  • “Georgia Leading Nation in New Juvenile Lifers”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Allie Gross, investigative reporter/writer; Brad Schrade, investigative editor; Shawn McIntosh, editor; Miguel Martinez, photographer; Pete Corson, layout design

  • “In the Name of Protection: The Dark Side of Guardianship”: Bloomberg Industry Group; Ronnie Greene and Holly Barker, reporters; Gary Harki and Bernie Kohn, editors

  • “Stalled Justice: Delays in the Cook County Courts”: The Chicago Tribune; Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau, reporters; Kaarin Tisue and Jeff Coen, editors; Brian Cassella, photographer

  • “The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trial”: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Teresa Lundeman, managing editor, news and features; Megan Guza, public safety reporter

RADIO

  • “Breakdown Podcast: The Trump Indictment”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tamar Hallerman, senior reporter; Bill Rankin, legal affairs reporter; Jay Black, executive producer; Shane Backler, senior producer; Shannon McCaffrey, senior editor; Pete Corson, audience specialist

  • “The Nocturnists: Post-Roe America Podcast”: The Nocturnists; Ali Block, host/creator; Emily Silverman, MD, co-creator; Molly-Rose Williams, lead producer/editor; Sam Osborn, producer/editor/audio engineer; Jessica Yung, producer/editor; Jon Oliver, audio engineer; Carly Besser, assistant producer; Rebecca Groves, chief operating officer;
Nicole Xu, series illustrator; Anjali Walia, Dahlia Kaki, Fiona Miller, Mulki Mehari and Treya Tompkins, student producers

  • “UnCommon Law’s 5-Part Podcast Series on the FTC’s Proposed Noncompete Ban”: Bloomberg Industry Group; Matthew S. Schwartz, host/producer/sound design; Josh Block, editor/executive producer

  • “We Don’t Talk About Leonard”: WYNC Radio; Andrea Bernstein, Ilya Marritz and Andy Kroll, reporters/hosts; Katya Rogers, editor/executive producer; Molly Rosen, producer; Jesse Eisinger, editor; Shaan Merchant, assistant producer; Jennifer Munson, technical director; Jaren Paul, music/scoring

TELEVISION

  • “Teens’ Landmark Climate Victory”: ABC News; Devin Dwyer, correspondent; Sarah Herndon, producer; Paul Strzegowski, editor; Josh Burleson, photographer; Brad Dunn, audio technician

  • “Warehoused: The Life and Death of Tristin Murphy”: CBS News Miami; Jim DeFede, writer/reporter/producer; Alexander Bombard, editor; Leon Gonzalez, Adam Spunt and Joaquin Garcia, photographers; Angela Travieso and Judy Flook, design and graphics; Monica Kirklan and Tracy Letize, marketing and programming; Kari Patey, news director; Kim Voet, president/general manager; Lily Roos, Mark Memmott, Jack Renaud and Thomas Burke, legal and standards

  • “OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans”: KXAN; Will DuPree, KXAN live anchor/reporter; David Barer, senior investigative producer; Arezow Doost, investigative reporter; Eric Henrikson, creative producer/senior reporter; Daniel Marin, anchor/reporter; Christopher Adams, data reporter; Cora Neas, Sam Stark and Kelsey Thompson, digital reporters; Josh Hinkle, director of investigations and innovation; Eric Lefenfeld, lead editor; Todd Bynum, chief photojournalist; Chris Nelson and Richie Bowes, investigative photojournalist; Ed Zavala and Frank Martinez, photojournalist

  • “Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trial”: WTAE-TV; Bob Mayo, Sheldon Ingram, Mike Valente, Kalea Gunderson, reporters; Paul Van Osdol, investigative reporter; Chandi Chapman and Tom Garris, anchors/reporters; Kristen Powers, anchor; Jim Parsons, news director; Mike Solakian, assistant director; Lia Launtz, Ahmanda Jackson and Nicolas Matoney, executive producers