Legal Ethics

Horrible Lawyer Ordered To Brush Up On CLE That He Probably Won't Watch Anyway

Kris Kobach went in search of voter fraud. The only fraud he found was himself.

By  
on

(Photo by Christopher Smith/ For the Washington Post)

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s comically disastrous effort to disenfranchise Kansans has come to a close, with Judge Julie Robinson not only bouncing Kobach’s attempt to hijack democracy, but ordering Kobach to attend six hours of CLE as a sanction for every embarrassing misstep along the way.

In fairness, “misstep” may be too kind to describe Kobach’s trial shenanigans. He was fined for making “patently misleading representations to the court,” he was scolded to read the Rules of Evidence after repeated mistakes, and he gave the world the truly hilarious “PROBABLY NOT WORTH ARGUING” brief. Kobach sought a public soapbox for his twisted vision of election law. What he earned was a public humiliation.

From Judge Robinson’s opinion:

The disclosure violations set forth above document a pattern and practice by Defendant of flaunting disclosure and discovery rules that are designed to prevent prejudice and surprise at trial. The Court ruled on each disclosure issue as it arose, but given the repeated instances involved, and the fact that Defendant resisted the Court’s rulings by continuing to try to introduce such evidence after exclusion, the Court finds that further sanctions are appropriate under Rule 37(c)(1), which permits, in addition to exclusion of the evidence, “other appropriate sanctions.” It is not clear to the Court whether Defendant repeatedly failed to meet his disclosure obligations intentionally or due to his unfamiliarity with the federal rules. Therefore, the Court finds that an additional sanction is appropriate in the form of Continuing Legal Education. Defendant chose to represent his own office in this matter, and as such, had a duty to familiarize himself with the governing rules of procedure, and to ensure as the lead attorney on this case that his discovery obligations were satisfied despite his many duties as a busy public servant. The Court therefore imposes a CLE requirement of 6 hours for the 2018-2019 reporting year in addition to any other CLE education required by his law license. These 6 additional hours must pertain to federal or Kansas civil rules of procedure or evidence. Defendant shall file a certification with this Court before the end of the reporting period on June 30, 2019, certifying that this CLE requirement has been met.

That seems like a minor, even insignificant penalty. CLE can provide a lawyer with insights into an intellectually stimulating field of law they may never encounter in their day-to-day practice or provide invaluable guidance in adapting to new developments in our ever-evolving legal landscape. What it’s particularly terrible at accomplishing is teaching a lawyer stuff they should already know. Kris Kobach’s inability to run a trial ethically or effectively has nothing to do with his missing out on six hours — or 600 hours — of basic trial procedure. Kris Kobach’s repeated efforts to mislead the court and ambush his adversaries were intentional acts designed to push his political interest in stripping minority voters — primarily — of their right to vote, something he cannot accomplish under the auspices of a fair trial.

All this sanction, as is, can possibly accomplish is further public humiliation of a guy who has already suffered public humiliation. The biting headlines and “this is truly an unusual sanction” commentary are the only penalty Kobach’s receiving here and for those to work, Judge Robinson has to believe Kobach possesses shame — which he does not.

Sponsored

Add in the fact that Kobach strikes me as the kind of guy who will run the online CLE and not pay attention, and this is about as toothless a sanction as one can levy. What the judge should have done is order Kobach to complete a specific set of courses. In person. Designed to be as torturous to him as possible in order to approximate the torture Judge Robinson had to endure listening to this trial.

I am officially volunteering to prepare a six-hour, Kansas certified CLE on civil procedure entitled, “Hey Dummy, This Isn’t So F**king Hard: Yes, Kris Kobach, I’m Talking To You.”

But, in the meantime, to help Kobach, here’s a Kansas CLE course from our advertiser Lawline that doesn’t meet Judge Robinson’s order, but that he may nonetheless want to consider:

Practice Tips for Effective Legal Writing: Join Howard S. Suskin as he explains why preparing a persuasive brief requires sharp, incisive writing, and an editor’s pen willing to lose sections like “PROBABLY NOT WORTH ARGUING.”

Good luck.

Sponsored

(Full opinion on the next page.)

Earlier: Kris Kobach And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Trial
Kris Kobach Self Owns In Court Filing

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

1 2Next »

Topics

, , ,