Finchem's election-challenge lawyer agrees to retire to end Bar complaint

An attorney has agreed to retire to resolve a State Bar complaint over the way he represented Mark Finchem’s unsuccessful bid to overturn the 2022 election for attorney general.

The order issued this week suspended Daniel McCauley’s ability to practice law for 30 days. It says he admitted some of his claims on behalf of Finchem, a former Oro Valley legislator, “were false, inaccurate, frivolous, or based on speculation.”

It also requires the Cave Creek attorney, at the end of that period, to change his State Bar membership status to “retired’’ for at least one year.

But McCauley has said he’s not likely to be back in the courtroom again. He told the State Bar is “has no plans to practice again.’’

He also told a judge, in the Finchem case that got him into trouble in the first place, that his retirement was “impending.’’

The disciplinary action stems from McCauley’s decision to represent Finchem’s election challenge despite official results showing the GOP candidate lost the 2022 race for Arizona secretary of state to Democrat Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes.

After hearing the arguments in that challenge, Judge Melissa Julian ordered Finchem to pay $40,565 in Fontes’ legal fees. She imposed a separate $7,434 penalty against McCauley for filing a lawsuit she called “groundless and not brought in good faith.’’

The State Bar order says McCauley admitted “he lacked a sufficient factual or legal basis for several allegations advanced in those proceedings, and further admits that some of his claims were false, inaccurate, frivolous, or based on speculation.’’

McCauley did not respond to a request for comment. Finchem, however, had a lot to say.

“The real story here is, why is the Arizona bar persecuting every single attorney that dared to represent an America First candidate in a contest?’’ he told Capitol Media Services. “Welcome to the banana republic.’’

Finchem, who is now running for the state Senate from Prescott, also said “the Bar cartel takes glee at persecuting lawyers for doing their ethical duty to give all ‘equal protection under the laws.’” He also claimed that “every single attorney who dared to represent a Republican has been persecuted by the radical Left Bar.’’

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Complaints have been filed against several lawyers who represented other losing GOP candidates after the 2022 election, including gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake and attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh. But Finchem brushed aside a list of other attorneys who continue to represent Republican interests.

McCauley alleged a series of issues he said affected Fontes’ win over Finchem.

They included the malfunctioning of ballot tabulators in Maricopa County on Election Day. The problem with that, Julian said, is that Finchem and McCauley “offered no tether between the machine malfunctions and the outcome of the election.’’

The judge also noted that Finchem, despite alleging “missing votes,” withdrew his request to inspect ballots, suggesting he had no expectation it would yield a favorable outcome.

“This demonstrates that Finchem challenged his election loss despite knowing that his claims regarding misconduct and procedural irregularities were insufficient under the law to sustain the contest,’’ she wrote.

McCauley admitted in court he decided to file the case after “a number of experience litigators’’ declined to pursue it. Put another way, Julian said, McCauley conceded “a more experienced litigator with a larger staff was needed to prosecute the action completely.’’

“That should have been a deterrent,’’ the judge wrote. “At a minimum, concerns raised by other attorneys should have prompted further investigation into the contest’s validity.’’

Something else got the attention of the judge. She said McCauley made comments during oral arguments that he “expressed being less at risk of being disbarred as a result of the filing given his impending retirement.’’

“This, too, supports sanctions as it demonstrates a conscious decision to pursue the matter despite appreciating that the contest had no legal merit,’’ Julian said.

As part of the deal to resolve the Bar complaint, McCauley was ordered to pay $1,200 to the State Bar to cover its expenses in its investigation.