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Acting US attorney once orchestrated Facebook posts criticizing judge presiding in his case, report says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 28, 2025, 11:12 am CDT

The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., formerly helped ghostwrite posts criticizing a judge presiding in a civil case in which he was the defendant, according to lawsuit documents cited by ProPublica.

U.S. attorney nominee Edward R. Martin Jr. helped his associate, Priscilla Gray, write the posts that began in 2016 after the Illinois judge “dealt Martin a major setback in the case,” according to the report by ProPublica, noted by Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call. Martin is filling the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia position on an acting basis.

Gray’s posts on the judge’s Facebook page called the judge a “politician” with the “lowest rating for a judge in Illinois.”

Martin had urged Gray to call the judge’s actions “unfair and rigged over and over,” according to ProPublica. He also urged Gray to privately message the judge, the article reports.

The judge was presiding in a case seeking to oust Martin from association with a grassroots group that he once headed, the Eagle Forum. The plaintiff was Anne Schlafly Cori, an Eagle Forum board member who was the daughter of the group’s founder, Phyllis Schlafly.

The truth about Martin’s involvement in the criticism “emerged as Cori’s lawyers gathered evidence for her lawsuit,” according to ProPublica.

President Donald Trump has nominated Martin, who has no prosecution experience, to remain in the U.S. attorney position. Martin did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. Gray also declined to comment to the publication.

Andy Schlafly, a former Eagle Forum board member who supported Martin, told ProPublica that Gray “speaks for herself” and had every right to express her outrage. He also said no court has ever sanctioned Martin for his “First Amendment advocacy.”

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President Trump’s venture into crypto products has increased his family’s wealth by billions in the last six months, according to a new report, as his administration continues to loosen the federal government’s regulatory approach to the digital currency industry as a whole. 

The group State Democracy Defenders Action estimated in a new report that the president’s crypto holdings now represent nearly 40% of his net worth — or approximately $2.9 billion. That increase is due in part to his release of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, in addition to a large stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto exchange affiliated with the Trump family that launched in October 2024. State Democracy Defenders Action identifies itself as non-partisan, but it is overseen by frequent critics of President Trump, with an agenda focused on “the autocratic threat to our nation.”

The president’s net worth is expected to get another bump, with World Liberty Financial’s announcement this week that a Abu Dhabi-backed firm will invest billions of dollars in the Trump family-affiliated crypto fund. The Emirati firm, MGX, will purchase $2 billion in a stablecoin product offered by World Liberty, the company said in a statement to CBS. The currency, called “USD1” will then be used to invest in Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

World Liberty has ties to the president and his sons. The fine print on the company’s website says an entity affiliated with Mr. Trump and his family members own a 60% stake in the company.

According to the company’s public reports, a Trump family entity also holds 22.5 billion of the $WLF tokens –- and takes an additional 75% in net revenue from future token purchases.

Details of the MGX deal have not been released, so it is unclear how much the Trump family stands to benefit from this transaction.

In a statement to CBS News, World Liberty said the deal represents the “single largest-ever investment in a crypto company” and sets a “historic precedent.” It did not respond to questions about how much the Trump family stands to make from the investment.

The White House responded to a request for comment by telling CBS News to “report on something people actually care about.” A spokesperson provided links to several White House technology initiatives.

As the president’s investments in crypto have grown, the Securities and Exchange Commission has paused investigations into a dozen crypto companies since his inauguration, a CBS News analysis found.

“The bottom line is it appears like he’s profiting off of his public office,” said Virginia Canter, State Democracy Defenders chief counsel for ethics and anticorruption. Canter, who co-authored the new report, served as senior ethics counsel for the Treasury Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 

“In terms of prior presidents in the modern age, they’ve all divested their assets, or they’ve rolled them over into what we call blind trusts,” Canter said. “President Trump did not do that in his first term, and it seems as if in the second term he’s doubled down and he is all in (on) the crypto industry.”

The report leans heavily on past media reports, including a Fortune magazine article that reviewed the Trump family’s financial disclosures and provided the original estimates of the president’s net worth.

Crypto companies are not legally required to disclose who is buying and selling on their platforms to the public, so little is known about who has invested in Trump family-affiliated crypto products. 

Canter says this makes it more difficult to identify potential conflicts of interest. 

“In his first administration, we could see who was walking in and out of the Trump hotels,” she said.

Trump hopes U.S. will be the “crypto capital of the world”

The president, who as recently as 2021 described crypto currency as a “scam,” has since embraced digital currency, saying he hopes to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.”

Since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has made several moves to unwind the regulatory environment that many industry insiders say crippled crypto businesses. 

He has issued multiple executive orders to promote cryptocurrency, including one that seeks to promote the growth of digital currencies and another that instructed the Treasury Department to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. 

Mr. Trump has also used his office to pardon the three founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to prevent money laundering on their platform, according to a report by Reuters. 

The value of Mr. Trump’s crypto assets have at times fluctuated with his policy decisions and social media posts.

The value of $TRUMP increased 18.1% in early March after the president issued an executive order promoting a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, according to the report. A few weeks later, on March 23, the president posted “I Love $TRUMP– SO COOL!! The Greatest of them all!!!!” on Truth Social, which led to an increase in the price of the meme coin from $10.93 to $12.24.

Whether or not the $TRUMP coin increases in value, the president’s business collects trading fees when people buy or sell the coin. A Reuters analysis found that business entities behind the $TRUMP coin could have made nearly $100 million in fees in less than two weeks of trading.

World Liberty Finance: The Trump family’s crypto exchange

Aside from meme coins, the Trump family’s more recent foray into cryptocurrency may become its most profitable. 

In October, then-candidate Trump helped launch World Liberty Finance, a decentralized or “defi” cryptocurrency exchange. Its website, which heavily features the president’s image, offers users the opportunity to buy into the exchange using $WLFI tokens. 

“Good News, the World Liberty Financial token is now live. Crypto is the future, let’s embrace this incredible technology and lead the world in the digital economy. Go to World Liberty Financial.com,” Mr. Trump posted on X in October, before the presidential election. 

The website says World Liberty is “inspired by Donald J. Trump” and Mr. Trump is listed as chief crypto advocate. His sons, Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, are all listed as Web3 ambassadors. 

Donald Trump Jr. promoted World Liberty Financial in March, at the D.C. Blockchain conference, where crypto industry insiders rubbed shoulders with members of Congress and the administration.

“I’m just super excited about what this can mean for the future of banking for the future of financial systems,” said Trump Jr., who joined World Liberty’s panel remotely. Founders Chase Herro, Zak Folkman and Zach Witkoff appeared on stage to promote World Liberty’s stablecoin offering.

“We want Republicans, Democrats, whether it be black, blue, brown, white, to be using our stable coin,” said Zach Witkoff, the son of Steven Witkoff, the White House special envoy to the Middle East. “We think it democratizes finance.” 

World Liberty says it has raised more than $550 million from investors who purchase the $WLF governance token. The majority of these investors remain anonymous to the public. For now, these $WLFI tokens are non redeemable, meaning that once they are purchased, users cannot exchange them. 

World Liberty denied CBS’ multiple requests for an interview.

Justin Sun, the crypto billionaire famous for buying and eating a $6.2 million banana duct-taped to the wall, is one of World Liberty’s few publicly known investors. 

Sun, who was being investigated for securities fraud in the Biden administration, said he invested $30 million shortly after Mr. Trump’s election, at the time claiming in a post on X to be World Liberty’s”largest investor.”

Days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Sun said he invested another $45 million, which he also disclosed in a post on X. A few weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission reversed itself and asked the judge to grant a stay in Sun’s case, citing “public interest.” The pause in Sun’s case was part of a larger push by the SEC to dismiss cases against crypto companies. 

A spokesperson for Sun and the SEC declined to comment. 

Last month, Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent a letter to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about the potential for conflict of interest as the Trump administration considers regulations of companies like World Liberty Financial.

“President Trump’s involvement in this venture, as he strips financial regulators of their independence…presents an extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system,” said the letter, which was signed by five Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Chris Van Hollen. 

World Liberty Financial says 85,000 investors have gone through a standard Know Your Customer process to determine “participation eligibility,” and the company says it is arranging for a third-party accounting firm to audit its new venture into the U.S.-debt-backed stablecoins. 

As president, Mr. Trump is not subject to the criminal conflict-of-interest law. But he is required to disclose his assets and income under the Ethics in Government Act, including his crypto assets. The next financial disclosure report deadline for the president is May 15. 

Benchmark data can prove to be invaluable when making decisions about the future of your law firm. Understanding how others in the legal profession are using technology to streamline workflows and increase revenues can make all the difference.

That’s where the recently released 2025 Legal Industry Report from AffiniPay comes in. This report, published annually, offers insight into how legal professionals from firms of all sizes and practice areas are approaching and benefiting from technology adoption. Over 2,800 legal professionals were surveyed for this year’s survey, which covers a wide range of topics, including artificial intelligence adoption, financial management software choices and the continued shift to remote and hybrid work environments.

The data reveals notable trends surrounding legal professionals’ technology choices and outcomes, including how software adoption impacts firm profitability and how remote work choices are changing the landscape of law practice.

Increased interest in AI adoption

With generative AI continuing to make headlines, it’s not surprising that the data shows that interest in it has increased since last year’s report. For example, in 2024, 31% of legal professionals reported using generative AI tools for work, up from 27% in 2023.

Interestingly, the rate of adoption varied across firm size and practice areas. Immigration practitioners led generative AI usage, with 47% incorporating it into their daily workflows. Other practice areas, such as personal injury (37%), civil litigation (36%) and criminal law (28%), also reported high usage.

Despite the individual growth rates, the survey showed that legal-specific generative AI adoption at the firm level slowed slightly. Only 21% of firms reported using AI in 2024, down from 24% in 2023. This decline is likely due to firms being in the exploratory phase—testing AI tools in specific use cases or pilot programs, rather than fully integrating the technology. The overall sentiment shows that while AI is still being explored, many firms are taking a cautious and measured approach.

At the firm level, civil litigation firms reported the highest generative AI adoption rate, at 27%, followed by personal injury and family law firms, at 20% each. Trusts and estate firms and criminal law practices had lower adoption rates, at 18% each. Immigration firms reported the lowest adoption rate, at 17%.

Overall, the data shows that for those who have adopted generative AI tools, they are relying on them quite often. Among frequent users, 45% use AI daily, and 40% use it weekly. The most common tasks accomplished with it include drafting correspondence (54%), brainstorming ideas (47%), conducting general research (46%) and summarizing documents (39%).

Financial management tools for profitability and stability

Survey data also highlights how firms are increasingly adopting financial management software to improve financial workflows. In particular, legal-specific accounting and bookkeeping software has become a key tool for many firms. Respondents indicate that 37% of their firms have legal accounting software built into their firm’s practice management system, while 16% said it’s built into their firm’s billing software. Another 11% use software that is integrated with, rather than built into, their firm’s law practice management platform, and 16% reported adoption of a stand-alone legal accounting tool.

The survey data shows that legal accounting and bookkeeping tools have notably increased efficiency, with nearly 26% of firms reporting one to five hours reclaimed per month. Another 17% reduced workloads by six to 10 hours, 7% saved 15 or more hours each month, and 4% recovered a whopping 11 to 15 hours.

Another valuable tool for improving workflows is legal billing tools. The legal professionals surveyed (80%) relied on invoicing software, with 27% saving one to five hours per month, 16% saving six to 10 hours, and 12% saving 11 or more hours. The end benefit of the time saved using legal accounting and billing tools? Significant gains in productivity and profitability.

Growth of online payment processing

The report also highlights the increasing adoption of online payment processing software, with 82% of respondents sharing that their firms accept credit and/or debit card payments in 2024, up from 78% in 2023. This adoption has resulted in time savings and financial impact. More than a third of respondents (35%) saved between one to five hours per month using online payment systems, while 14% saved six to 10 hours. Also of note is that firms accepting card payments reported improved collection rates, with 59% of firms noting that their collection rates increased “somewhat more” or “significantly more” each month.

The growing use of online payment solutions is indicative of a broader trend toward automating tedious and time-consuming administrative tasks that were previously manual. By offering more payment options, firms are not only improving their financial stability but also freeing up time to devote to more client work and firm growth.

Remote and hybrid work adoption

Finally, the report addressed remote and hybrid work, which has become a staple for many firms. About three-fourths of survey respondents reported using cloud-based remote working tools, with videoconferencing (79%), e-signatures (78%) and e-filing (76%) ranking the highest.

Additionally, the data showed that the hybrid work model has gained traction in the legal profession. According to the survey results, 28% of firms operate fully in office, while 21% use hybrid schedules for all team members. Another 19% of firms are fully remote, and 18% adopt hybrid schedules for some staff members.

Just as remote and hybrid work continued post-pandemic, so too did participation in virtual court proceedings, with 34% of respondents attending virtual hearings a few times per month, 21% a few times per week and 5% every day.

Even so, preferences for in-person appearances remain strong, especially for certain types of proceedings. Half of respondents prefer to avoid virtual hearings, followed by jury trials (45%), bench trials (43%) and motion arguments (39%). However, practice areas significantly impacted these results.

For example, trust and estate professionals were more likely than the overall average to prefer virtual litigation proceedings, with only 36% opting for in-person jury trials, followed by bench trials (35%) and motion arguments and depositions (at 30% each).

In contrast, civil litigation and personal injury lawyers showed a stronger preference for in-person proceedings, with 56% each favoring jury trials, and 46% and 49%, respectively, choosing in-person depositions. Similarly, criminal law practitioners also leaned toward in-person proceedings, with 59% preferring hearings, 58% jury trials, 55% bench trials and 49% motion arguments.

Immigration lawyers, on the other hand, were less likely to prefer in-person litigation, with below-average preferences for motion arguments (26%), status conferences (22%) and depositions (19%).

In conclusion

The AffiniPay 2025 Legal Industry Report highlights a range of preferences and trends within the legal profession. While generative AI remains a focus, the data shows that firms are also adopting proven cloud-based technologies for billing, payments and remote work, highlighting an increasing reliance on specialized tools that enhance efficiency, save time and improve financial outcomes.

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Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York-based attorney, author and journalist, and she is the principal legal insight strategist at MyCase, a company that offers legal practice management software for small firms. She is the nationally recognized author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers and is co-author of Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier, both published by the American Bar Association. She writes regular columns for ABAJournal.com and Above the Law, has authored hundreds of articles for other publications, and regularly speaks at conferences regarding the intersection of law and emerging technologies. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @nikiblack, or she can be reached at [email protected].

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

The federal Judiciary today released the results of its first-ever employee survey exploring workplace issues, along with a new report containing recommendations for improvements aimed at achieving the Judiciary’s goal of fostering an exemplary workplace.

The survey results show that the overwhelming majority of Judiciary employees are satisfied with their workplaces. Eighty-four percent responded that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs and 80 percent said they would recommend their court or employing office to others.

The survey was conducted by the Federal Judicial Center for the Workplace Conduct Working Group, a group of judges and court executives who have been working on workplace conduct issues since early 2018 at the request of the Chief Justice. It was sent to nearly 28,000 employees in 2023, and the response rate was a statistically impressive 50 percent.

The results provided a wealth of data that the Judiciary is using to gain a deeper understanding of employees’ experiences and to guide continued efforts to foster an exemplary workplace for all employees. The Working Group used the survey results as a basis for nine new recommendations in a report to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which was also released today. 

The recommendations are designed to build on the substantial steps taken over the past seven years. Most respondents who indicated experiencing wrongful conduct did not avail themselves of employment dispute resolution (EDR) procedures. Two priority areas that the Working Group has targeted for improvement are reducing potential barriers to reporting misconduct and increasing employees’ confidence in using available resolution procedures. 

“These results tell me and my colleagues on the Working Group that we have done a lot, but we have more work to do to address the reluctance of employees to seek help or report wrongful conduct. And that work begins immediately, with a new set of recommendations for the Judicial Conference to consider,” said Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The recommendations include the following:

• Review current definitions and guidance on abusive conduct and assess whether greater clarity can be provided on the distinctions between inappropriate behavior. Abusive conduct is a workplace protection unique to the Judiciary that goes beyond current statutory protections.
• Extend and clarify procedural rights, remedies, and obligations under the Model Employment Dispute Resolution (EDR) Plans, including clarifying that modifications to local plans cannot diminish or curtail rights or remedies under the model plan; ensuring that consideration of interim relief for complainants occurs consistently and at the outset of an investigation, incorporating additional monetary remedies for victims of misconduct, and removing the procedural requirement that employees first use assisted resolution prior to filing a formal complaint.
• Establish standards for the qualification and selection of EDR coordinators and enhance existing training.
• Promote the use of trained investigators in EDR assisted resolutions and in informal investigations at the local level.
• Ensure the appearance of impartiality of presiding judicial officers (PJOs) in formal complaint proceedings by appointing PJOs from outside a complainant’s district or circuit, ensure that PJOs appoint trained investigators, and develop additional resources for PJOs. 
• Expand feedback and information about EDR by ensuring that follow up occurs with employees who report wrongful conduct, developing uniform standards for the redaction and publication of EDR decisions in formal complaint proceedings, developing a publicly available source of published EDR decisions and relevant Judicial Conduct and Disability Act opinions, and augmenting data collection.
• Continue to incorporate workplace conduct training into orientation programs for all judges and employees.
• Clarify distinctions between inappropriate behaviors and abusive conduct in training programs for judges and employees.
• Provide continuing education for leaders at all levels of the Judiciary, including management training on listening, communication, building trust, and effective response to both inappropriate workplace behavior and allegations of wrongful conduct.

Learn more about workplace conduct initiatives in the federal Judiciary. 

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Lateral hiring bounced back in 2024, especially for associates in BigLaw, new NALP report says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 26, 2025, 3:49 pm CDT

Lateral hiring of law firm associates increased nearly 25% in 2024, far outpacing a much smaller increase of about 2% in lateral hiring of partners, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association for Law Placement.

Overall, lateral hiring in firms increased nearly 14%, according to a March 26 press release and a report in the April NALP Bulletin.

The increase was highest in firms with more than 1,000 lawyers, which had an overall 21% increase in lateral hiring and a 41% in lateral associate hiring.

The increase follows two down years “characterized by a retreat of BigLaw firms from the marketplace, which created an opportunity for savvy small firms to pick up some top-notch talent,” said Nikia Gray, executive director of the NALP, in the press release. “In 2024, the lateral market began to stabilize, and with that, we saw the BigLaw firms reentering the fray, largely driving the smaller firms out of the market.”

Lateral hiring increased 110.9% in 2021, decreased 11.5% in 2022, decreased 35% in 2023 and increased 13.9% in 2024.

The average number of lateral hires per office or firm was 16 in 2021, 15.9 in 2022, 9.3 in 2023 and 9.9 in 2024. The lowest average in the last 25 years was was 5.1 lateral hires per office or firm in 2009.

The report is based on a survey of 434 law offices that supplied hiring information on 4,295 lateral lawyers. Most of the respondents were from midsize and larger firms. Only 11% of the survey respondents came from firms of 250 or fewer lawyers.

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3 lawyers with ‘elite establishment credentials’ have joined Musk’s DOGE effort, report says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 12, 2025, 3:10 pm CST

Three lawyers who have joined Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have “elite establishment credentials,” according to a report by ProPublica.

Two of the lawyers have clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justices, while the third has been hired as a Supreme Court clerk for the 2025-2026 term, ProPublica reports here and here. They also have BigLaw ties. The lawyers are:

  • James Burnham, who is the DOGE’s general counsel. A former clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch, Burnham was formerly a Jones Day partner. He worked in the White House counsel’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice in the first Trump administration. More recently, he launched a boutique law firm and a litigation finance fund.

  • Keenan Kmiec, a former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts. He worked at a “corporate law firm” (identified as Sidley Austin on LinkedIn), worked at his own firm handling insider trading litigation, worked at a Swiss foundation promoting blockchain, and was the CEO of a startup.

  • Jacob Altik, who has been hired to clerk for Gorsuch beginning this summer. He is a former associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and a former intern at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit that aims to “protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the administrative state.”

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A lawyer known for handling high-profile cases and co-founding the popular Supreme Court news and analysis site SCOTUSblog has been indicted on federal tax evasion charges for allegedly failing to report millions of dollars that he won gambling in high-stakes poker matches, according to federal prosecutors. The attorney, Tom Goldstein, is also accused of using his former law firm’s assets to “satisfy” gambling debts.

“Between 2016 and 2022, Goldstein engaged in a scheme to evade the assessment of taxes, file false tax returns and fail to pay his tax obligations when they were due,” the Department of Justice alleges in Goldstein’s 22-count indictment filed in the District of Maryland last week.

Goldstein, 54, has been part of more than 40 cases in front of the Supreme Court, including the 2000 presidential election battle between Al Gore — his client — and George W. Bush. He co-founded SCOTUSblog with his wife, Amy Howe, in 2002 and stepped away from his old firm, Goldstein & Russell P.C., in 2023 after announcing that he was retiring.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has issued his 2024 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary (pdf).

This is the 20th report Chief Justice Roberts has issued since he was appointed chief justice in 2005.

For reports from previous years, visit the U.S. Supreme Court website.