Virginia lawyer faces reciprocal punishment for whistleblower attempt

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The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation is considering reciprocal discipline for a Virginia lawyer who shared confidential information about a nonprofit group that’s under government investigation.

In October 1999, Jean Robinson started providing legal services to SourceAmerica, a nonprofit group that supports other agencies that help people with disabilities find employment. The complaint from the District of Columbia Board of Professional Responsibility said Robinson shared confidential information about SourceAmerica with the CEO of one of the agencies participating in the program. Among other things, he learned about SourceAmerica’s firing of an employee, government investigations, legal issues with its board of directors, litigation and subpoena responses.

The complaint said Robinson learned the CEO was working with government inspectors investigating allegations against SourceAmerica, so she started giving him information to assist the inspectors. She didn’t know he had recorded more than 20 hours of their conversations.

SourceAmerica fired Robinson around June 2014 and, about a year later, some of her conversations were posted to WikiLeaks and received media attention. The Virginia justices said Robinson appeared to have provided the confidential information in a whistleblower attempt, thinking that was an appropriate response to what she thought was inappropriate behavior at SourceAmerica.

In June, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals decided to suspend Robinson’s license for 18 months and require her to demonstrate her fitness to practice law upon reinstatement. The Wisconsin OLR is seeking a reciprocal punishment for Robinson. She’d lose her license for 18 months and could face an award of costs as well.

Robinson was admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin in 1985. She was admitted to practice law in Washington, D.C. in 2004 and obtained a corporate counsel certificate from the Virginia State Bar in 2007 or 2008.

Robinson’s Virginia office had no immediate comment about the complaint. Follow @WLJReporter