People v. Ellis.
No. 24PDJ002. 5/28/2024. Stipulation to Discipline.
August 13, 2024
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Jenna Lynn Ellis (attorney registration number 44026) for three years. If Ellis seeks to reinstate her Colorado law license following her suspension, she must prove by clear and convincing evidence that she has been rehabilitated, has complied with all disciplinary orders and rules, and is fit to practice law. Ellis’s suspension took effect July 2, 2024.
On October 24, 2023, Ellis pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to the felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in violation of OCGA § 16-10-20. Ellis was sentenced to a five-year period of probation, which includes a variety of conditions. Ellis’s conviction is premised on her actions in intentionally aiding and abetting Rudolph William Louis Giuliani and Ray Stallings Smith III in knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully making seven false statements regarding the 2020 presidential election at a Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting on December 3, 2020. At the time, Ellis was a senior legal advisor to the then-US president and counsel to one or more persons or entities associated with his reelection campaign. Ellis attended the meeting as a lawyer and in furtherance of her work in those roles.
Through this conduct, Ellis violated Ga. RPC 3.3(a) and 3.9 (requiring a lawyer to exercise candor before a legislative or administrative tribunal in a non-adjudicative proceeding); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(1) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to violate or knowingly attempt to violate the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(2) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to be convicted of a felony); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(4) (prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation); and Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(8) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct “for a lawyer to commit a criminal act that relates to the lawyer’s fitness to practice law or reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer,” where the lawyer has admitted before a judge the commission of that act).
Colorado disciplinary authorities charged the violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct under the choice of law provision contained in Colo. RPC 8.5(b), which calls for applying the rules of professional conduct of the jurisdiction in which the misconduct occurred or, when the misconduct is in connection with a tribunal, the rules of the jurisdiction in which the tribunal sits.
The case file is public per CRCP 242.41(a).