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The Call for Candidates for the newest election of the two democratically elected seats of the Bar Association Ethics Committee was one of the most active ones in Bar history with more than 20 attorneys running for the positions, which included known figures such as Lyoko, Ppatpat, Alexa, Xi4, Gato, Ivy, Quad, and many more.
Bar Director Palmer tried to halt the election and advocated for a change in voting system (the current is First Past the Post) before it happened, but this decision was faced with harsh criticism by other Bar Members, and thus nothing happened.
The SimDemocracy Bar Association’s Ethics Committee is tasked with imposing disciplinary sanctions on Bar Members who do not display professional conduct in public or in court. These sanctions go all the way from a simple reprimand to a permanent removal from the Bar, and thus a complete ban from practicing SimDem law.
It consists of five seats, one of which is always staffed with the Bar Director (currently Palmer). Two of them are directly appointed by them, but subject to confirmation through a public vote among Bar Members, and the last two are democratically elected once a month. This system serves as a well thought-out balance between ensuring competency and respectability in the Committee through meritocracy and ensuring public approval of the Committee’s decision through democracy.
The election results were announced one day later by Hmquetionable: The first seat was won by Mrgamerboy, a competent Judge and former Bar Director, but the second seat was a point of contention, with there being a three-way tie between Gato, Xi4 and Notcom. It would have to come to a runoff election.
Many Bar Members saw all three of these options as "terrible" choices: Gato had just been found guilty of ToS Violation by a court for telling other users to “kys”, Xi4 used to be the Party Leader of the highly controversial Legal Union party which housed many alt accounts of the terrorist organization TIDE, and Notcom ruined SimDem’s international reputation weeks earlier by couping a foreign nation.
In response to this situation, many lawyers began advocating for a reform of this system. Popular proposals were abolishing the democratically-elected seats entirely, or only allowing Senior Counsels to run in the elections for them.
But no changes have been made thus far and the runoff election was won by Gato, the convicted felon.
There currently are disbarment procedures running against the newly elected Ethics Committee member in the Ethics Committee itself. They were initiated by the other newly elected Committee member Mrgamerboy, who cited the recent verdict by Judge Terak finding Gato guilty of ToS Violation as reason.
What happens with the Ethics Committee when one of its members is disbarred is clearly defined in §4 Section 4 of the Bar Bylaws, stating that they are removed from their office in the Committee. Thus, if the proceedings find success, the Committee would be left with only four members until the next election of the two seats in one month.
Update
Update written on 28th July 2025
She has been disbarred for four months.