Pressure Builds To Open Attorney Ethics Investigations
From the National Law Journal
The U.S. Department of Justice faces new pressure to make lawyer-misconduct investigations more transparent and less subject to potential conflicts of interest.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have backed legislation that would shift oversight of misconduct investigations away from the department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which is under the attorney general, to the independent Office of the Inspector General. Similar proposals have been kicked around Main Justice and Capitol Hill for decades but failed to advance. The push was given new life following the publication last month of a study that highlighted the secrecy of prosecutorial misconduct inquiries — even in instances when OPR concluded that an attorney violated rules.
Names and details of hundreds of instances of ethical lapses over the past 12 years remain confidential, according to the report from the Project on Government Oversight. As a matter of policy, OPR doesn't release identifying information in its reports. The Project's report, written by Nick Schwellenbach, recommended the DOJ inspector general's office oversee the investigations.
Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. pledged early in his tenure — when the case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens collapsed amid prosecutorial misconduct allegations — to make the OPR process more open. Responding to questions from lawmakers this month on Capitol Hill, Holder defended the status quo.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the National Law Journal
The U.S. Department of Justice faces new pressure to make lawyer-misconduct investigations more transparent and less subject to potential conflicts of interest.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have backed legislation that would shift oversight of misconduct investigations away from the department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which is under the attorney general, to the independent Office of the Inspector General. Similar proposals have been kicked around Main Justice and Capitol Hill for decades but failed to advance. The push was given new life following the publication last month of a study that highlighted the secrecy of prosecutorial misconduct inquiries — even in instances when OPR concluded that an attorney violated rules.
Names and details of hundreds of instances of ethical lapses over the past 12 years remain confidential, according to the report from the Project on Government Oversight. As a matter of policy, OPR doesn't release identifying information in its reports. The Project's report, written by Nick Schwellenbach, recommended the DOJ inspector general's office oversee the investigations.
Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. pledged early in his tenure — when the case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens collapsed amid prosecutorial misconduct allegations — to make the OPR process more open. Responding to questions from lawmakers this month on Capitol Hill, Holder defended the status quo.
Read more in our daily News Update...