Opinion ID: 1609069
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: All Participants in an Attorney Disciplinary Proceeding are Required to Maintain Confidentiality

Text: As noted above, Rule XIX, § 16(I) requires that all participants in an attorney disciplinary proceeding conduct themselves so as to maintain the confidentiality established in § 16(A). A participant in an attorney disciplinary proceeding is simply one who takes part in the disciplinary proceeding. The New Oxford American Dictionary 1246 (2001); Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1646 (2002). We note that, in the context of judicial disciplinary proceedings, the Supreme Court has observed that the term participants includes [a]t least two categories of individuals, the investigatory board members along with the staff employees of the investigatory agency and the witnesses or putative witnesses not officers or employees of the Commonwealth. Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia, 435 U.S. 829, 838 n. 10, 98 S.Ct. 1535, 1541, 56 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978). We believe this observation also holds true in the context of an attorney disciplinary proceeding. Furthermore, all four courts that have completed an in-depth First Amendment analysis of confidentiality rules in the context of an attorney discipline system have found that the term participants as used in these rules also includes the complainant. See Petition of Brooks, 140 N.H. 813, 678 A.2d 140; R.M. v. Sup. Ct., 185 N.J. 208, 883 A.2d 369; Doe v. Doe, 127 S.W.3d at 730 n. 1; Doe v. Sup. Ct., 734 F.Supp. 981. We agree with the findings of our fellow courts on this point. [26] Conversely, the respondent is also obviously a participant in the disciplinary process. Finally, we note that counsel hired by any of the aforementioned participants to represent the participant in the attorney disciplinary process must also, themselves, be considered a participant in the disciplinary proceedings. [27] Thus, we find that the phrase participants in a proceeding under these rules, as used in La. S.Ct. Rule XIX, § 16(I), when combined with § 16(A), must reasonably be interpreted to require the confidentiality of at least the following classes of individuals in attorney disciplinary proceedings: the Attorney Disciplinary Board, including the employees, volunteers, and appointees that staff all of its various subunits such as the Board itself, the Hearing Committees, and the ODC; [28] witnesses; complainants; respondents; and finally counsel hired by any of these participants to represent the participant(s) in the attorney disciplinary proceedings. [29] The witnesses testifying on behalf of the ODC at the hearing before the commissioner recognized that, on its face, the rule applies to these individuals whether they are lawyers or nonlawyers. [30]