Lawyers from one Atlanta law firm, Taylor English Duma, are facing potential conflict-of-interest issues as they represent both outgoing president Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” voter disenfranchisement efforts and the Georgia Secretary of State in election integrity lawsuits, the Atlanta Constitution Journal reports.
It’s not unheard-of for lawyers from major firms to have clients who may have conflicting interests–for example, one client being an oil company and another being an environmental group–but the 170-lawyer Taylor English firm would likely have significant crossover of resources in two major cases.
Taylor English lawyers represented the Trump campaign in its quest to invalidate ballots in Chatham County, claiming county election officials mishandled ballots that should make them void. A judge threw out the case due to lack of evidence.
The firm is also defending the Georgia Secretary of State in a lawsuit related to the security of the state voting system.
The firm is also alleged to be committed to representing the Trump campaign and the GOP in other potential lawsuits which could concern the upcoming Senate runoff races in January.
However, questions of improprieties with information provided by the Secretary of State’s office in the same firm as lawyers handling complaints about that office are bound to lead to questions of conflict of interest, improprieties and the risk of cross-polluting the cases.
Three lawyers from the firm–Bryan Tyson, Jonathan Crumly Sr., Bryan Jacoutot and Loree Anne Paradise–are reportedly working on both cases, but the law firm claims that there are no ethical issues.
“There is no conflict that exists between providing advice to a campaign about Georgia law and representing government officials who are carrying out those same laws,” said Molly Metz, a spokeswoman for Taylor English Duma, to the AJC.
“I am surprised and dismayed that senior lawyers at the Taylor English law firm agreed to advocate the interests of the Trump campaign, which is attacking the accuracy of the Nov. 3 vote count in Georgia, at the same time they were responsible for defending the secretary of state in pending federal litigation,” Clark Cunningham, an attorney and legal ethics professor at Georgia State University, said.