Reprimand For Confidentiality Violation In Response To Bar Complaint

A public reprimand with terms was imposed by a Subcommittee of the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board for what appears to me to be pretty serious misconduct,

The attorney had represented the complainant on criminal matters for a period of about five years beginning in 2007.

When that client filed a bar complaint, the attorney responded by providing the bar investigator with 

a list of 17 witnesses that he believed had detrimental information concerning the complainant, and he provided a summary of the anticipated testimony of each identified witness, which related to the alleged criminal activity of the Complainant.

The conduct violated Rules 1.6 and 3.3.

The effective sanction?

Three hours of ethics CLE.

The order also notes that the attorney had prior discipline. 

Virginia is one of those few jurisdictions where discipline is almost entirely controlled by the Bar with very little oversight of the highest court.

As happened here, it is lamentably true that much serious misconduct gets a reprimand.

That is what happens when regulation is left to the Bar.

Sad! (Mike Frisch)