Texas State Bar dismisses 23 of 24 grievances against county attorney – Austin American

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2011 November 23 Entry

Texas State Bar dismisses 23 of 24 grievances against county attorney

Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 10:41 AM

The State Bar of Texas has dismissed 23 of 24 grievances filed by the Williamson County commissioners against Williamson County Attorney Jana Duty, according to a court document.

On Tuesday, Duty settled with the State Bar over one grievance, which was connected to releasing confidential information from an executive session of the Commissioners Court, Duty said today. The information that she released was included in a lawsuit she filed to try to remove Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis from office, Duty said.

The lawsuit, which was dismissed in January, alleged that Gattis had hired attorneys to represent the county several times without the approval of the Commissioners Court.

The State Bar has decided to issue a public reprimand against her over the grievance, according to a court document.

The reprimand does not restrict Duty in her duties as county attorney.

“I’m very pleased that this is behind me,” Duty said. “In the end, I would have loved to take this final politically motivated grievance all the way to trial, but my personal legal fees alone would have likely exceeded $100,000. Additionally, it would have been an enormous distraction from continuing to do what the people of this county elected me to do — protect our families, save tax dollars and fight the good old boy system at the courthouse.”

The charge she agreed to relates to an alleged confidentiality violation under the disciplinary rules for lawyers, which says that a lawyer shall not knowingly reveal confidential information about a client to anyone other than the client, the client’s representatives, or the members, associates or employees of the lawyer’s law firm.

There is an exception to that disciplinary rule, she said, which provides that a lawyer may reveal confidential information when the lawyer believes it is necessary to comply with a court order, a Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct, or other law. She said she was compelled by the law to disclose the information.

“Laws were broken, and as a law enforcement official, I was morally and legally obligated to take action,” she said. “That is the reason why I filed the lawsuit, and because a lawsuit is a public document, the information from the executive session became public. I make no apologies for standing up for the rule of law, and if I had it to do all over again, I would have made the same decision.”

The Williamson County Commissioners had released a list of the more than 20 grievances against Duty in the spring. They accused Duty of violating State Bar of Texas rules governing professional conduct concerning competent representation, confidentiality of information and truthfulness in statements to others.

The Texas State Bar’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline sued Duty on six of the commissioners’ grievances in September.

Updated, 11:51 a.m., to correct that she reached an agreement with the State Bar on one grievance; she did not plead guilty, as the counts are not criminal charges.

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