State Ex Rel. Sowa v. Sommerville

Harshbarger, Chief Justice:

Lawyer Sowa is an associate in the firm Garrett, Whittier and Garrett, with offices in Webster and Braxton Counties, and seeks to prohibit circuit judges of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, in which are situate those counties, from appointing him to represent indigent criminal defendants in Braxton County. A partner and an associate in his five-lawyer firm are prosecutors in Webster County, and Sowa avers that his Braxton County appointments create a conflict of interest and appear improper, violating professional ethics.

We are final arbiters of legal ethics…