Friday, Oct. 28, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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In campaigning to serve as Nevada’s attorney general, Sigal Chattah has sunk below the standards the American Bar Association (ABA) sets out as the bare minimum for ethical behavior by lawyers. Consider one recent statement in which Chattah declared that “America needs ... a lot less pronoun badges, trannies, criminals and corruption.” Dictionaries explain that “tranny” is “a contemptuous term used to refer to a transgender person, especially a transgender woman, or a crossdresser.” They classify the word as disparaging and offensive slang.
As Chattah now asks all Nevadans to vote for her to serve as our top lawyer and law enforcement official, her adherence to ethical rules and norms matters. Rule 8.4(g) of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules for Professional Conduct specifies that it “is professional misconduct for a lawyer to ... engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.”
Chattah should know that slurring the transgender community and calling for “a lot less” of them to have a place in our society crosses this line. Chattah surely must know that her offensive speech serves only to harass and encourage discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Chattah lacks any meaningful defenses here. She might argue that because she did not slur the transgender community while representing a particular client, her conduct might not be related to the practice of law. But the ABA takes a different view and explains in a comment to the rule that it applies beyond when representing clients and even to “business and social activities in connection with the practice of law.” As Chattah made the comment while campaigning to become Nevada’s top lawyer, it relates to how she would practice law on behalf of all Nevadans.
The ABA crafted Model Rule 8.4(g) to address invidious discrimination and to make clear that ethical attorneys do not harass or discriminate against people because of their identity characteristics, including their race, sex or gender identity. In contrast to the association calling lawyers to a higher standard, Chattah crawls into the gutter and campaigns by flinging filth.
Chattah might also try to defend herself by changing the subject to point out that Nevada has not adopted Model Rule 8.4(g). As the rule does not apply to Nevada lawyers, the Nevada bar will not sanction her for violating a rule that is not on our books. This does not mean she should be Nevada’s attorney general.
The core problem remains. Chattah should not be elected because she’s shown that she will not apply the law fairly as Nevada’s top lawyer or maintain high ethical standards in office. Her comments slurring and calling for the exclusion of transgender individuals hardly stand alone. In prior correspondence, she called for the current attorney general, Aaron Ford, to be hung from a crane. She indicated that she would use the power of the Attorney General’s Office to investigate journalists. These statements do not create confidence that she will use her office for the benefit of all Nevadans. Rather, it signals that she will likely use it to target her perceived enemies.
Chattah surely knows that her behavior falls well below the professional norm for lawyers. Her law firm’s oddly punctuated website claims she “is also a member of the State Bar of Nevada Ethics and Disciplinary Committee.” Although she claims to play this role for the State Bar of Nevada, the Bar’s website does not list her as a member of the Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board or the standing committee on ethics. This raises questions about whether Chattah complies with Nevada Rule 7.1, which prohibits lawyers from making a “false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services.” A call to the Nevada bar revealed that she has not sat on the Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board since 2019. An out-of-date website isn’t grounds for a bar complaint, but it does not create confidence in her ability to take over as Nevada’s attorney general.
Chattah does not offer ethical leadership for Nevada.
Benjamin Edwards is an associate professor of law at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law. The views expressed in this column are his and do not necessarily represent those of UNLV.
