Less than two weeks before this column was scheduled to be published, I fulfilled a career-long dream of mine and opened my own firm: Brotman Law. I planned to write this, my very first column as a solo practitioner, on the practical and ethical issues that I had encountered on the path to solo practice. But then, as has been happening quite often lately, I got distracted by current events.
The current event that caught my attention this time was Kellyanne Conway’s announcement of the Bowling Green Massacre, (which I originally thought occurred at a subway station in Lower Manhattan) and the announcement’s consequences: first, an admission that Conway had been mistaken about the fact that a massacre had occurred; then the revelation that this wasn’t the first time Conway had made this particular mistake. As the news about these misstatements was breaking, I didn’t know that Conway was, and is, a lawyer, admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar, though currently on “inactive” status. But some other people did know it. In fact, 15 law professors who specialize in ethics and professional responsibility knew it. On Feb. 20, these professors filed a complaint against Conway, asking the D.C. bar to investigate and sanction her violation of Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c). (Conway complaint).
