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24 ■ JUNE 14, 2021 NEWS

■ From AN ETHICS on PAGE 23 Green echoed other lawyers in taking issue with
staff attorney Andrea Walker wrote. “In general, the “personal knowledge” rationale given by the of-
this office will not intervene in matters that are cur- fice. He pointed to an instance in New York, where
rently and publicly being discussed in the national an attorney was publicly censured for ranting toward
political arena. If a complainant has no personal employees and customers who weren’t speaking
knowledge of the matter or if the evidence in the English in a 2018 viral incident, as an example of a
complaint seems insufficient to us, we may decline case where it was unclear whether personal knowl-
to docket the matter.” A representative for the bar edge was given to take up that disciplinary action.
declined to comment. That incident was handled by an attorney grievance
While it’s not unusual for disciplinary counsel to committee in New York, not D.C.
avoid complaints over political issues, ethics experts He and others were even more skeptical of coun-
are alarmed over the rationale given by the office, sel saying they would not look into issues raised in
saying the overbroad explanation could effectively the “national political arena.”
give a free pass to lawyers who are also political fig- “So if you are high profile and you engage in pur-
ures or whose conduct is involved in politics. ported misconduct in the national arena and people
“I think when you get a complaint about a law- write articles about it, that immunizes you? That’s
yer, and a distinguished lawyer, and it comes from a strange theory,” Green said. “I was surprised that
distinguished bar members who, based on public they didn’t take it seriously and surprised at the ra-
sources, say he lied or engaged in other misconduct, tionales that they gave for not taking it seriously.”
because it wasn’t just lies—to just say we’re not go- This is not the first time a lawyer involved in poli-
ing to even open a file and we’re not going to look tics has avoided an ethics complaint: A New York
at it is kind of odd,” said Bruce Green, a legal ethics state attorney grievance committee last year said
expert with Fordham University. Green said he ad- it would not take action on a complaint against
vised those who drafted the complaint but did not then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over
sign it himself. statements he made against Justices Brett Kavana-
The concerns over Barr’s conduct have been ugh and Neil Gorsuch. The chief attorney of the
highlighted by a pair of judicial opinions calling committee said while the comments were “cer-
his credibility into question: U.S. District Judge tainly concerning,” they were wary of taking action
Reggie Walton said last year that Barr’s conflicting against speech that could be protected against the
characterization of Mueller’s findings and what was First Amendment and are “mindful not to wade into
actually in the document forced him to question political controversies that would result in an end-
whether Barr “made a calculated attempt to influ- less onslaught of retaliatory complaints by opposing
ence public discourse about the Mueller Report in parties.”
favor of President Trump despite certain findings In interviews, legal ethics experts pointed to the
in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the ODC letter as going even further when it comes to
contrary.” Walton’s opinion was cited in last year’s addressing political actions by attorneys.
complaint. “While various rationales might have been used
More recently, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman to decline pursuing this complaint, this one seems
Jackson last month said her independent review of a dangerously overbroad,” said Leah Wortham, a law
legal memo about the Mueller report “calls into ques- professor emerita at Catholic University who has
tion” the accuracy of Barr’s statement to Congress worked extensively on legal ethics issues in D.C. “The
that the special counsel left it up to him to decide message it sends is deeply troubling in comparison
whether Trump’s actions constituted obstruction of to the way we treat law students in bar admission
justice. The attorneys recently sought to supplement and law school honor cases, the way we treat ‘ordi-
their original complaint against Barr with Jackson’s nary’ lawyers in discipline cases about candor, and
opinion, but it had already been rejected. so on.

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