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Understanding the Office of Professional Responsibility

Understanding the Office of Professional Responsibility What is the Office of Professional Responsibility?

The Office of Professional Responsibility is part of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for investigating attorneys who are employed by the DOJ and have been formally accused of misconduct or crimes in their professional functions.

The Office of Professional responsibility will promulgate independent standards of ethical and criminal conduct for all Department of Justice Attorneys, whereas the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General possesses specific jurisdiction of all non-attorney employees of the Department of Justice.

To conduct investigations and initiate trials the Office of Professional Responsibility must first receive reports of alleged misconduct. The Office of Professional Responsibility receives such reports made against Department of Justice Attorneys from a variety of sources; nearly half of all allegations are reported to the Office of Professional Responsibility from DOJ sources, private attorneys, defendants and civil litigants, other federal agencies, judicial and congressional referrals, media reports and various state or local government officials.

How does the Office of Professional Responsibility go about their Business?

Upon reviewing such reports, the Office of Professional Responsibility will review each allegation and determine whether further investigation is warranted. The determination is a matter of judgment that will evaluate many factors, including the nature of the allegations, the credibility of the claim and source, the specificity of the allegation and its susceptibility to verification.

A decision to formally open a matter does not give immediate rise to a presumption of misconduct, not shift the necessary burden of proof to the accused. The Office of Professional Responsibility’s investigation, however, will involve a wide range of allegations and various investigative methods used accordingly. In the majority of cases, the Office of Professional Responsibility will notify the accused attorney and formally request a written response; that being said, sometimes, the OPR will also conduct on-site investigations.

Regardless of investigatory method, the OPR will report the results of the investigation to the component head concerned and to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General; furthermore, the Office of Professional Responsibility is required to advise the complainant and the accused attorney of their findings and ultimate conclusion.
Government Agency of the Executive Branch

Government agencies are defined as organizations, councils, and offices operating under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government of the United States of America; each federal agency retains specific administrative jurisdiction over specific facets latent within the operations of the United States Government. The Professional Responsibility Advisory Office functions as a government agency under the Executive Branch of the United States government, which is comprised of 3 total branches; in addition to the Executive branch – which is responsible for the regulation and enforcement of operational legislation existing within the United States of America – there also exists the Legislative and Judicial Branches.

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