Kathleen Kane

HARRISBURG — The agency that investigates misconduct by Pennsylvania lawyers wants the state Supreme Court to suspend Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s law license to keep her from damaging the administration of justice.

The Aug. 25 petition by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, filed under seal, was obtained today by The Associated Press. Kane confirmed the existence of the petition Friday when she filed a lengthy response, but the petition contains details not previously made public.

It argued that Kane’s continued practice of law, a month after being charged with perjury and other offenses, “will result in the commonwealth lacking a loyal chief law enforcement officer and the administration of justice inevitably suffering prejudice, thus causing immediate and substantial public harm.”

The petition prompted the state Supreme Court to order Kane to respond, in which she denied claims of wrongdoing and said suspending her license would violate her right to due process.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel now has about a week to file its own response, after which the Supreme Court may take action.

In its Aug. 25 filing, disciplinary counsel lawyers wrote that Kane committed “egregious conduct” that justifies suspending her license by authorizing the disclosure to a reporter of secret information from a 2009 grand jury investigation and by failing to launch an internal investigation after the story was published.

“As the commonwealth’s chief law enforcement officer, it is a concurrent conflict of interest for (Kane) to continue practicing law while being prosecuted for violating the very laws she was vested with the power to enforce,” disciplinary counsel lawyers wrote.

Kane “has damaged the integrity of Pennsylvania’s legal profession and this damage will not be diminished until (she) discontinues her practice of law,” they said.