Bar Assn. Ordered to End Inquiry

A judge today ordered the Georgia state bar association to drop its investigation into an ethics complaint filed against state Atty. Gen. Michael Bowers by a state agency.

The State Personnel Board had asserted that Bowers violated the lawyers’ code of ethics when he sued the board for holding a closed meeting. Bowers argued that, as an elected constitutional official, he is not bound by rules that make it unethical for a private attorney to sue a client. The complaint had claimed that Bowers, because he is state attorney general, was the personnel board’s lawyer. DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Curtis Tillman ordered the bar association to drop its investigation of the complaint.