ed a client and received ….

ed a client and received a 30-day suspension by the commission, only to have the Supreme Court reduce it to a public admonition. In another, they point out that an attorney in 2017 had endangered children while driving drunk, and she received a public admonition.

“Unlike these cases, the attorney general is not alleged to have harmed clients, engaged in fraud or broken the law but — at bottom — is alleged to have acted ‘discourteously’ in representing the Legislature in a clash between coequal branches of government,” the attorneys said.

Knudsen’s attorneys argue that his punishment is too harsh and inconsistent with practice. Moreover, they contend that because the repeated procedural violations and his inability to present his defense that the decision should be sent back for new factual findings, and different members should be appointed, if not having the case outright dismissed. That could raise the possibility of the Supreme Court either modifying the punishment or repeating the hearing, which lasted two days earlier this year.

“If the court determines that the Attorney General violated one or more rules of professional conduct, it should take into account the highly unusual circumstances of this case,” Knudsen’s attorneys argue. “Suspending the sitting Attorney General from the practice of law for any period is an extreme and disproportionate sanction. It will not serve the ends of justice. It will not heal the fault lines in our political system. It will not increase public confidence in our institutions. It will, however, exacerbate the conflict between the branches of government.”