A federal judge has handed down a massive $2 million sanction against two of the most prominent law firms in the United States, Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The ruling was by U.S. District Judge Marc Treadwell and stems from a pattern of deception and misconduct that he ruled occurred during a high-stakes fraud case involving the electronic health record software provider eClinicalWorks.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the judge ordered the firms to pay the fine within 10 business days. However, this isn’t your typical legal fine. Treadwell, who presides over the federal court in Macon, Georgia, specified that the money will be used for “promoting instruction on the subjects of ethics and professionalism in Georgia’s accredited law schools.”
