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Lobbyist Disclosure and Attorney-Client Privilege
City Ethics’ very own Carla Miller (also the Jacksonville Ethics Officer) is in the news this week with an important municipal ethics dispute. At least one Jacksonville lobbyist refuses to disclose the names of the clients he represents or the issues about which he is lobbying for each client, pursuant to a new ordinance intended to follow state requirements.
For years, Jacksonville lobbyists could list their clients as “various.” Attorney-lobbyist Paul Harden argues that disclosing the names of his clients would violate attorney-client confidentiality rules. At the same time, he said, “It’s pretty clear who I represent.”
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Other Jacksonville lobbyists, including at least one attorney, have disclosed the names of their clients. And this is the rule at the state level.
Take a look at any law firm’s web site, and you will see a list of their major clients. And as Mr. Hardin said, whom one represents is usually public knowledge. The idea of having the list of clients disclosed, however, is so that all of their lobbying clients can be found in one place. It is a matter not of confidentiality, but of the public’s ease of access to this public knowledge.
One question here is, when an attorney acts as a lobbyist, is he acting as an attorney? Is everything an attorney does the practice of law? If he runs down to the local store to buy something for a neighbor-client, is that a confidential act? If he works to get public representatives to publicly vote a certain way, is that an act that can arguably be kept confidential? That is not the practice of law, that is an interference in the legislative process that can be done by anyone, a legal interference, yes, but one that public representatives have said must be made public. Do legal profession rules override the public interest as well as public law?
Another question is, if the law requires that lobbying practices be publicly disclosed, does the client of a lobbyist have the right to refuse to allow the disclosure of the fact that he has hired a particular lobbyist? I think the answer is clear that he does not. Therefore, there is a presumed approval of this disclosure. When a client has not insisted on confidentiality, the client’s lobbyist has no right to raise a confidentiality issue. It is no longer about his client's confidentiality, but his own.
There certainly appears to be a clash of ethical rules in this situation, but Mr. Harden is stubbornly trying to uphold an ethical rule that is simply not relevant here.
News Alert: Mr. Harden gave in the day this entry was written. It will come as no surprise that his lobbying client list is the longest in Jacksonville, as can be seen by visiting the entire disclosure list.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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