AI in law firms: Ethics panels clearing path forward; Minnesota Lawyer, February 21, 2025

Nicole Black, BridgeTower Media Newswires , Minnesota Lawyer; AI in law firms: Ethics panels clearing path forward

"With the arrival of generative artificial intelligence (AI), a roadmap to ethical adoption was needed, and quickly, given the unprecedented rate of advancement. Fortunately, bar associations nationwide rose to the occasion, issuing timely and in-depth guidance in months, not years. Since the spring of 2023, many jurisdictions released guidance or opinions on the ethics of using AI in law firms: California, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, the American Bar Association, Virginia, D.C., and New Mexico.

Most recently, North Carolina joined their ranks in November, handing down 2024 Formal Ethics Opinion 1.  In the opinion, the Ethics Committee addressed six inquiries about ethical AI adoption."

Ethics Panel Cautions Judge in Trump Trial Over Political Donations; The New York Times, May 17, 2024

William K. Rashbaum, Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, The New York Times ; Ethics Panel Cautions Judge in Trump Trial Over Political Donations

"A state ethics panel quietly dismissed a complaint last summer against the New York judge presiding over the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, issuing a warning over small donations the judge had made to groups supporting Democrats, including the campaign of Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The judge, Juan M. Merchan, donated a total of $35 to the groups in 2020, including a $15 donation earmarked for the Biden campaign, and $10 to a group called “Stop Republicans.”

Political contributions of any kind are prohibited under state judicial ethics rules...

In its 2024 annual report, the commission said it was made aware of dozens of New York judges who had violated the rules against political contributions in recent years. Most were modest amounts, the report said, and many appeared to stem from the misperception that the rules only apply to state campaigns. In fact, judges are prohibited from contributing to any campaigns, including for federal office."

Why Are Academics Upset With Facebook's New Privacy Rules?; Forbes, May 4, 2018

Kalev Leetaru, Forbes; Why Are Academics Upset With Facebook's New Privacy Rules?

"Putting this all together, there is something inherently wrong with a world in which academics condemn Facebook for conducting consent-free research on its users, only to turn around and condemn the company again when it tries to institute greater privacy protections that would prevent academics from doing the same, all while those very same academics partner with Facebook to create a new research initiative that entirely removes consent from the equation and where ethical considerations are unilaterally TBD, to be figured out after researchers decide what they want to do with two billion people’s private information. Cambridge University’s ethics panel gives us hope that there are still some institutions that believe in the ethical protections that took decades to build, only to fall like dominoes in the digital “big data” era. In the end, it is not just the social media giants and private companies rushing to commercialize our digital selves and stave off any discussion of privacy protections – the academic community is running right alongside helping to clear the way."