.jpg)
Goshen Town Attorney Jared Jenkins is facing potential disciplinary action from the Virginia State Bar Association in a suit filed in Rockbridge County Circuit Court in November. A hearing with a three-judge panel will be held on Jan. 17.
The action was instigated by a three-member subcommittee of the Virginia State Bar Association’s Eighth Disciplinary District committee, which oversees disciplinary matters in the 25th Circuit Court District, which includes Rockbridge County.
Following the subcommittee’s meeting on June 15, Jenkins was served with a certified determination of its findings, which lay out its reasons for bringing disciplinary action against Jenkins. Jenkins submitted a response on Aug. 8, in which he requested a hearing before a three-judge panel.
The Eighth District subcommittee primarily focused on two instances in determining that disciplin- ary action was warranted: Jenkins’ intervention in a case involving a land trust and subsequent comments and actions that resulted in his privileges to appear as an attorney of record in Rockbridge County Circuit Court being revoked in the fall of 2022, and an incident in which he was accused of embezzling money from the Mann Legal Group, where he was a partner at the time. -The first matter the subcommittee reviewed involved a land trust case in which Jenkins filed a motion to intervene in January of 2022 on behalf of beneficiaries of the Dudley Land Trust to stop a sale of land from the trust by Joanne Dudley Moore to Christopher Irvine.
Jenkins argued in his motion that the sale is void as Moore is not the trustee of the trust and no trustee is currently appointed. The previous trustee, Otho Jackson Dudley, died in 2013 and no successor has been appointed. Moore filed a petition in 2019 to be named a successor trustee in order to enact the sale of land from the trust to Irvine, with other beneficiaries filing a counterclaim. The case was heard before Judge Christopher Russell on Nov. 12, 2020, before being dismissed on Feb. 9, 2021.
On Dec. 17, 2021, a complaint was filed with the court by Wayne Heslep on behalf of Irvine, asking that a special commissioner be appointed to enact the sale Moore had agreed to. On Dec. 22, Russell ordered a special commissioner appointed and ordered that the trust pay Irvine’s attorney’s fees. On Dec. 27, a deed was filed by Bruce Patterson, the appointees’ special commissioner, awarding the land in question to Irvine. Otho Jackson Dudley was listed as the trustee on the deed.
Jenkins, on behalf of the beneficiaries of the trust, filed the motion to intervene on Jan. 18, 2022. In the motion, Jenkins argued that “the Parties and the Court have ignored multiple procedural safeguards designed to insure the property of a Trust is not stolen from that Trust,” and that his clients “see an explanation of the current posture of this case, an explanation of the authority supporting the actions taken and reconsideration of those actions,” adding that “if these actions are allowed to stand, the citizens of Rockbridge County will rightly question the rule of law.”
Judge Russell issued sanctions against Jenkins for his comments and ordered him to pay attorney’s fees for Heslep and his partner Brian Kearney. When Jenkins did not pay the fees as ordered, he was ordered to appear in court to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court.
In his response to the rule to show cause, which was filed on Sept. 29, 2022, Jenkins reiterated his arguments that the sale of the land from the Dudley Land Trust to Irvine was void due to the fact that the trust does not currently have a trustee, and the fact that the court had previously ruled that Moore “did not have the power to convey the property because she was not a trustee and that a sale of the property could only take place after a trustee was appointed.
“The Court cannot create subject matter jurisdiction over the property merely by appointing a special commissioner to sign a deed of conveyance, especially when that deed includes the long-dead former trustee as a party,” he argued.
At the hearing on Oct. 6, 2022, Russell held Jenkins in contempt of court and added an additional fine of $200 per day for each day that the fees weren’t paid. He also addressed Jenkins’ comments in his response to the show cause summons and scheduled a hearing on his privilege to appear as the attorney of record in Rockbridge County Circuit Court. When Jenkins attempted to reiterate his arguments at the hearing on his privileges, held on Oct. 20, 2022, Russell cut him off and revoked his privileges.
The Eighth District Subcommittee determined that Jenkins violated several provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct throughout the matter. By both filing the motion to intervene in the first place, which was, in the subcommittee’s determination, “contrary to the rule of law and deemed frivolous by the trial court,” and “making false statements about the court’s integrity” both in court and in his responses to summons, the subcommittee ruled that Jenkins had violated rules regarding meritorious claims and contentions and bar admissions and disciplinary matters.
Jenkins, in his response, reiterated his arguments regarding the appointment of a trustee and his opinions on the court’s ruling. -The second matter on which the subcommittee focused stemmed from Jenkins efforts to pay the fees and fines accrued in his attempts to intervene in the Dudley Land Trust case.
Jenkins approached Larry Mann, senior partner of the Mann Legal Group, about using some of the firm’s funds to pay the fees, but Mann denied the request, stating that the firm could not afford to pay the sanctions.
Jenkins then wrote a check from the firm’s checkbook for $15,000 and cashed it.
When it was discovered that Jenkins had taken the check and cashed it, Mann called the Lexington Police Department to report Jenkins for embezzlement. In an email exchange dated Nov. 7, 2022, when asked by Mann about the withdrawal, Jenkins replied, “I don’t know why you think I have somehow forfeited my rights in this partnership, but I can assure you I haven’t,” and then added, “You should know better than anyone that I will sue to enforce them if necessary.”
The Eighth District Subcommittee cited the withdrawal of the money and statements made by Jenkins following the incident, specifically regarding how much of a share he had in the firm, as examples of misconduct. Jenkins maintains that he was entitled to the money per an agreement with Mann when he joined the firm that they would be equal partners and split everything 50-50. The contract that Jenkins signed, cited by the subcommittee, gives Mann the majority share of the profits at 98 percent and Jenkins has a 2 percent share in the firm and contains no amendments indicating a 50-50 partnership.
In his response to the conclusions of the subcommittee, Jenkins said that accusing him of “making false statements when those statements are obviously supported by all relevant facts and legal arguments is personally offensive and defamatory.”
Jenkins was fired from the Mann Legal Group following the incident, forcing him to step down as the city attorney for Lexington.
As of Jan. 2, no criminal charges have been filed against Jenkins in relation to the $15,000 and he maintains his private practice, through which he serves as the town attorney for Goshen.
Jenkins has filed a defamation lawsuit against Mann and Julie Crowder, a legal assistant at the Mann Legal Group, in response to the statements they made to the police regarding his alleged criminal activity.
He is seeking general damages of $5 million and special damages of $150,000 for direct costs associated with “responding to and recovering from the defamation.” Additionally, he is seeking punitive damages of $1 million from Mann and Crowder jointly and another $2 million from them jointly.
