On July 18, 2012, Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel John Gleason and Chief Deputy Jamie Sudler will be in the CBA-CLE classroom to share their experiences from their two-year investigation and prosecution in Maricopa County and what became the “most significant attorney discipline case to ever go to hearing.”

Their story begins with years of intimidation and retaliation by the former Maricopa County Attorney. His targets were sitting judges, County Supervisors, County administrators, and private lawyers. After years of prosecutorial misconduct, the Rule of Law in Maricopa County was fast disappearing. As the elected head of the fourth-largest county in the United States, his misuse of power led to the largest lawyer discipline prosecution in history (chronicled in a 33-count, 247-page opinion).

Over the course of their investigation and prosecution, Gleason and Sudler were subject to shocking levels of harassment and intimidation as they worked to bring down a web of abuses at the highest levels. This program will allow them to speak directly to attorneys so that their extensive investigation into the ethical abuses in Maricopa County can serve as a lesson about prosecutorial misconduct, the Rule of Law, and professional conduct. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear first-hand about their experience in Arizona and their attempt to return justice to Maricopa County.

Law Week Colorado recently ran a story, Into The Shadows, which documented Gleason’s and Sudler’s investigation. Read an except below, followed by registration information.

The Arizona Bar Association, which licenses and regulates attorneys, . . . asked the Supreme Court to appoint an independent investigator to look into possible ethical violations by [Andrew] Thomas and two subordinates — Lisa Aubuchon and Rachel Alexander. The court reached out to a trusted name, the person who’d just helped revamp the state’s attorney ethics system. Regulation counsel Gleason and his team would be paid by Arizona, set up shop in that state’s Supreme Court building and somehow still manage the Colorado office.

When the chief justice first called, Gleason was far from certain of a positive outcome.

Either way, he and Sudler knew from the beginning this was a career case. As Thomas’ own attorney put it in the weeks leading up to the decision, “This was the largest and most significant attorney discipline case to ever go to hearing.”

It would also be the toughest. In a sense, Gleason and Sudler carried on their backs the hopes of a legal community long frustrated with what Phoenix’s mayor termed a “reign of terror.” Numerous ethics complaints had been filed against Thomas in the past, but none came to fruition.

The case was a piñata waiting to burst open. And when it did, the two attorneys had to deal with more than the legal soap opera. They became targets themselves. As Sudler would later say, “I never thought we’d get through it.”