Attorney fired for tweeting during hearing

[proud2BlibKansan]

TOPEKA -- A Kansas appeals court attorney was fired Monday after using foul language about the state's former attorney general in comments she posted to Twitter last week.

Sarah Peterson Herr, a research attorney for a Kansas Court of Appeals judge, posted the comments about former Attorney General Phill Kline while he was appearing before the Kansas Supreme Court as part of an ethics investigation.

One tweet commented on Kline's facial expression, saying “Why is Phil Klein (sic) smiling? There is nothing to smile about, douchebag.” Another predicted that Kline would be disbarred by the court for seven years for his conduct.

The Kansas Supreme Court is considering whether Kline's law license should be indefinitely suspended for his conduct during investigations of abortion providers. The comments appeared around 10 a.m. Thursday when Kline was standing before the seven-member court answering questions about his conduct while he was attorney general and Johnson County district attorney.

Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said Monday that Herr had been fired and that her case had been referred to other offices for possible ethical violations.


Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/19/3925965/kansas-appeals-court-attorney.html#storylink=cpy

[elleng]

1. Not smart, Jerk.

[liberalhistorian]

2. Sorry, but having once been in the legal support field, and being

married to an attorney, I can unequivocally say that this was extremely unprofessional and inappropriate, not to mention unethical; the justification for such feelings is completely irrelevant. You DO NOT DO these kinds of these as an attorney, period. She should have damn well known better; this kind of thing is drilled into you the very first year of law school.

I do know that the legal profession is starting to have a really hard time with younger lawyers and law students who are accustomed to everything being public nowadays and who don't understand that you CANNOT go public on social media with details of trials or client matters, and you CANNOT publicly use such language to refer to other members, especially in these kinds of trial situations. Period. What's frightening is that there are a lot of law students and younger attorneys who don't seem to understand why client confidentiality, confidentiality about jury members and trial details, and refraining from public expressions and bad language regarding other lawyers, judges, etc. (especially during legal proceedings!) is so critically important. They're gonna start finding out the hard way, like this idiot.

[patrice]

3. Extremely in-appropriate! & is Kris Kobach monitoring Twitter? nt

[CurtEastPoint]

4. She Ms. Pro Life etc.

http://kansansforlife.wordpress.com/tag/sarah-peterson-herr/

[patrice]

5. ? She's Pro-Choice, isn't she? Please explain. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I don't think she's 'pro-life'. That's a pro-life blog you linked.

Her tweets are definitely anti-Kline.

[CurtEastPoint]

12. My egregious error. Sorry and thanks for rectifying.

I didn't read carefully!

[panAmerican]

6. I guess she skipped Professional Behavior 101

[customerserviceguy]

8. Twitter: 21st Century crack.

I guess I could say the same thing about the evil known as texting. So very many idiots do it on the road every day, especially at stop lights.

[BlueMan Votes]

9. i've never tweeted or texted...

and i don't know if i ever will.

[customerserviceguy]

11. Good

I wish more people were like you. Twitter is just a silly fad, and with texting, we're just waiting for the body count to get high enough before it's banned at the mobile phone company level.

[Butterbean]

10. Well she was stupid as hell to do that. n/t