Legal Ethics and Professional Discipline

The Justice Department has proposed a new internal policy, published in the Federal Register, that would give DOJ priority in investigating ethics complaints against its lawyers and ask state bar associations to pause their own disciplinary probes until the department finishes its review. The move comes amid what multiple sources describe as growing resistance from career DOJ attorneys who fear they could lose their law licenses if they carry out orders they view as unethical. At the same time, DOJ is seeking to have former senior antitrust official Roger Alford disbarred after forcing him out over a contested merger settlement; Alford responded with a public speech accusing top department officials of corruption, and a federal judge has now opened an inquiry into the settlement that led to his ouster. His former supervisor, antitrust leader Gail Slater, quietly left DOJ last month, adding to questions about what happened inside the division. The proposal has no legal force over state bars, which control law licenses, but it is an unmistakable signal that the department is trying to shield its own people procedurally at the very moment it is moving aggressively to punish an internal critic—tension that legal-ethics observers and bar leaders are already debating as a direct challenge to independent oversight of government lawyers.