A New Jersey lawyer whose website wrongfully displayed the seal of the Board of Attorney Certification has escaped discipline.

A decade after then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer dusted off the long-dormant Martin Act and deployed it to become the “sheriff of Wall Street,” the Court of Appeals has essentially deputized private citizens in holding for the first time that common-law tort claims are not pre-empted by the law.

A decade after then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer dusted off the long-dormant Martin Act and deployed it to become the “sheriff of Wall Street,” the Court of Appeals has essentially deputized private citizens in holding for the first time that common-law tort claims are not pre-empted by the law.

For Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who has publicly maintained his innocence amid allegations that he sexually abused at least 10 minors, this week’s preliminary hearing reflects his attorney’s first chance to gather information from the alleged victims under oath.

When a client’s thwarting of discovery comes back to haunt his attorney, the lawyer may be tempted to save himself by pointing a finger at the client. However, that course of action would likely fail as a legal defense and could also constitute an ethics violation, writes Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s Joel Cohen.