Complaints against attorneys for 2022 Republican candidates Kari Lake and Mark Finchem were dismissed by a disciplinary panel on Monday.
In April 2022, Lake and Finchem filed a legal complaint attempting to ban the use of electronic ballot tabulation machines as they were candidates for governor and secretary of state, respectively.
The complaint was against then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and members of the Maricopa and Pima county boards of supervisors.
A district court judge ordered sanctions against Lake and Finchem’s attorneys Andrew Parker and Kurt Olsen and dismissed the suit.
Lake and Finchem were also unsuccessful in their elections that year.
Ethical charges against Parker and Olsen were brought to the State Bar of Arizona regarding their conduct throughout that case.
An evidentiary hearing was held in late June before a panel of three people: Presiding Disciplinary Judge Margaret Downie, attorney Ralph Wexler and Randall Clark.
The discipline panel deemed the Bar did not provide enough evidence to support their allegations that Parker and Olsen displayed a lack of competence and diligence, among other things.
The panel did say that some of the attorney's arguments were “debatable” or “long shots” — but deemed that conduct does not amount to an ethical violation.
“Retrospective scrutiny of any complex litigation may reveal some measure of imprecision, legal arguments fairly characterized as long shots, puffery in advocacy, and reliance on authorities that are distinguishable in some respects. Such is the case here,” the panel wrote in their judgment.
“My attorneys received a total exoneration and a full case dismissal against the spurious charges brought against them by the Arizona Bar Association. This is a complete victory against the increasingly politicized Bar, which attempts to punish and deter cases that call out our government for corruption and that work to protect our sacred vote and our liberties,” Lake said in a statement on Monday. “I pray for all of the Attorneys who are taking on the difficult cases that are so important for the survival of this country.”
