GC Resigns Amid Corruption Probe in Cleveland
While Emily McNeeley was handling legal affairs for the county's IT department, her spouse was reportedly working as a government contracts manager at a software company that had dealings with the county that stretch back for more than a decade.
January 09, 2019 at 01:30 PM
3 minute read
Photo: Waldemarus/Shutterstock.com
The general counsel for a county information technology department in Cleveland has stepped down after being placed on unpaid leave during a corruption investigation centered on government contracts and conflicts of interest.
Emily McNeeley resigned Jan. 2 from her in-house position for Cuyahoga County, which paid her $95,000 a year, Cleveland.com reported. She joined the county as its assistant law director in 2014 and was promoted to IT GC and director of special initiatives in June 2016, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to her county position, McNeeley worked as an in-house lawyer for two Ohio-based software companies.
While McNeeley was handling legal affairs for the county's IT department, her spouse was working as a government contracts manager at a software company called Hyland Software, which had dealings with the county that stretch back for more than a decade, according to Cleveland.com. The website reported that McNeeley asked the county's inspector general on three separate occasions about whether her marital relationship and ties to Hyland represented a conflict of interest.
McNeeley was told, essentially, that she wouldn't have a conflict as long as she wasn't involved with Hyland's contracts with the county. She also was reportedly advised that she could continue working on IT projects after the contracts were awarded.
The extent of McNeeley's involvement, if any, in the county's contracts with Hyland were unclear. Attempts to reach McNeeley, who has no bar discipline history in Ohio, were unsuccessful. A county spokeswoman declined to comment on the ongoing investigation or McNeeley's resignation when reached Wednesday.
McNeeley was placed on leave in February 2018, shortly after investigators with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office named her and the county's IT director in a subpoena seeking their emails and other correspondence that referenced Hyland. The subpoena also sought any requests for proposals or financial agreements between Hyland and the county.
McNeeley wrote in her brief Jan. 2 resignation letter that she had “remained able and willing to fulfill the obligations of my position since being placed on leave.” She added that she needed to collect her “personal belongings that have been held in the county's custody” for the past year.
“To try to avoid this situation you need to disclose the relationship to your employer, make sure that you're not involved at all in the matter at issue and make a record of that,” said Janis Meyer, former GC of Dewey & LeBoeuf and now a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson in New York whose practice focuses on professional responsibility. She was speaking generally and not about McNeeley's case.
“Say to whoever it is that you report to, 'I am not going to take any role whatsoever in this.' And also isolate yourself to the extent you can to avoid ending up in this situation,” she added. “You also have to make sure that your spouse understands that as well.”
Read more:
Some Lessons From Recent Conflicts Cases
Ethics Forum: Questions and Answers on Professional Responsibility
Lawyer Misconduct Stories That Made Waves in 2018
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