Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes may have broken ethics rules after she recently criticized her client, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) over concerns about their handling of the state’s water resources as drought conditions escalate. In a letter to ADWR Director Tom Buschatzke, she said the agency is not reviewing groundwater basins often enough to determine whether the agency should become more heavily regulated. Mayes also expressed concern that water transfers ADWR approves may have “grave consequences.”
But an attorney with substantial experience in government law told The Arizona Sun Times, “Mayes had no authority to make those moves and likely violated attorney ethics rules since she is the attorney for ADWR. It’s a violation of attorney-client privilege.”
The State Bar of Arizona’s Rules of Professional Conduct has an extensive section under Ethical Rule 1.6 discussing the confidentiality of information between a client and their attorney. The Maricopa County Supervisors filed a bar complaint against Andrew Thomas, a Maricopa County attorney, in 2009 for going public with criticism and actions against them, and he was ultimately disbarred.
There are specific exceptions to the attorney-client privilege laid out in ER 1.6, but they primarily consist of stopping a client from committing a crime, there is nothing in there about merely criticizing a client.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times