Imposing Lawyer Sanctions in a Post-January 6 World
36 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2023
Date Written: July 30, 2023
Abstract
As was the case with the Watergate scandal fifty years ago, the number of lawyers involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results has raised questions about the state of ethics within the legal profession. So far, the profession’s response to the crisis has been to rely on the professional disciplinary system to address the alleged misconduct of the lawyers involved. This decisions raises a question as to whether the collection of state professional disciplinary systems are up to the task. The conduct of Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ lawyer who sought to convince state officials to convene special legislative sessions to investigate supposed widespread voter fraud, raises particular concerns related to the disciplinary process as applied to government lawyers. The events surrounding the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol provide the legal profession with an opportunity to take a fresh look at the Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions and address any existing shortcomings. This Article identifies some of those shortcomings and uses the case of Jeffrey Clark to highlight some of the particular shortcomings as the Standards apply to misconduct on the part of government lawyers.
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