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Lawyer Faces Discipline Over Blog Posts

By Robert J. Ambrogi

A former Illinois assistant public defender faces disciplinary charges over postings to her blog that Illinois authorities say exposed client confidences and revealed her complicity in a client's fraud on a court. The attorney denies the charges and says she plans to hire legal counsel to help her fight them. The focus of the disciplinary complaint is Kristine Ann Peshek and her former blog, "The Bardd Before the Bar -- Irreverant Adventures in Life, Law, and Indigent Defense." Among other things, the blog chronicled her work as an assistant public defender in Winnebago County. She discontinued the blog when her supervisor became aware of it in April 2008 and fired her. The two-count complaint from the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission charges Peshak with writing posts to her blog that identified her clients and revealed confidential information about them. Although she never used last names, she referred to clients by first names or by jail identification numbers, the complaint says. In the course of her writing about her defense of clients on drug and other charges, she revealed information that would be "embarrassing or detrimental" to them, the complaint charges. In one post, Peshak describes her conversation with a...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 11, 2009 (boomark / email).