SALEM, Ore. (AP) - A high-ranking lawyer at the Oregon Department of Justice has been reprimanded and will work with an executive coach after an outside investigation found he violated state policy in an interaction with another lawyer.
The investigator found sufficient evidence to support claims that chief trial counsel Steve Lippold violated state policies that protect workers against harassment and retaliation and hold managers to a “higher standard” of behavior in 2017, The Statesman Journal reported Tuesday. The investigator’s 81-page report, dated Oct. 30, was released to the newspaper through a records request.
Steve Lippold has been the head of the trial division at DOJ, which defends the state and its employees against lawsuits, since 2014.
Lippold said he has asked Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to reconsider the reprimand, saying the claims of senior assistant attorney general Heather Van Meter - who resigned from DOJ in October - lack credibility.
Van Meter earlier this year made multiple allegations against Lippold and four others at DOJ. The outside investigator, Portland lawyer Lori Watson, found evidence to support two out of Van Meter’s 12 allegations, including one against Lippold.
The investigator also found a “preponderance of the evidence” supported Van Meter’s allegation that a human resources official - Leslie Anderson, who has since left DOJ - failed to investigate Van Meter’s complaint about the interaction with Lippold.
Anderson declined to comment for this story.
Van Meter’s lawyer, Sean Riddell, said his client “agrees in part and disagrees in part with the final report” and is exploring all options to hold the Oregon Department of Justice accountable.
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