Crowell & Moring lawyers involved in a high-profile ethics dispute concerning Appalachian inbreeding are in the clear, The Am Law Daily reported on Wednesday.
Two decisions that just recently came to light—one issued in December and another handed down a year ago—squelched a 58-page complaint filed against the four Crowell lawyers with the Office of Bar Counsel in Washington after they penned a controversial mining industry-related memo in 2011 that raised the specter of inbreeding in the Appalachian region.
The memo, in which the word "consanguinity"—a synonym for inbreeding—was misspelled, provoked a storm of protest that elicited a formal apology from Crowell in July 2011. The firm quickly removed the offending document from its website.
Jason Huber, an Appalachia native and assistant professor at the Charlotte School of Law, filed the complaint against Crowell products liability and torts practice chair Clifford Zatz, along with environmental and energy resources partner Kirsten Nathanson, products liability partner William Anderson, and products liability counsel Monica Welt.
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