Bar Council investigates lawyer’s services to Nemunas Dawn

The Lithuanian Bar Council on Friday opened an investigation into legal services that lawyer and Central Electoral Commission member Laura Matjošaitytė provided to the Nemunas Dawn party and did not declare, LRT reported.

Bar Association spokesperson Rūta Andriuškaitė said the investigation was launched on the recommendation of the chair of the Bar Council. It will assess whether Matjošaitytė’s actions complied with the Law on the Bar and the Lithuanian Code of Professional Ethics.

The investigation is scheduled to be considered by the Bar Council’s Disciplinary and Consumer Disputes Committee on October 7. The council is expected to assess the investigation material at its meeting on October 24.

The request to assess Matjošaitytė’s conduct was submitted by opposition Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats lawmakers Giedrė Balčytytė and Arvydas Anušauskas. They asked the council to examine possible breaches of the Electoral Code and the Code of Professional Ethics related to her consultations, the use of professional secrecy and her failure to recuse herself from issues concerning Nemunas Dawn at the Central Electoral Commission.

The commission opened its own investigation into the matter on Thursday. Its chair, Lina Petronienė, said the investigation was needed to determine the scope of the services Matjošaitytė provided to the party before becoming a commission member.

The commission said this week that metadata showed Matjošaitytė had prepared Nemunas Dawn’s response to questions about membership fees two years ago. Delfi also reported that in September 2024, more than a month before the parliamentary election, she sent the party’s deputy leader, Robertas Puchovičius, a draft response to the commission. She reportedly asked him to transfer the text into a Word document he had created so that her metadata would not remain in it.

Puchovičius told Delfi that he did not remember receiving such an email.

The Chief Official Ethics Commission has also received a complaint about Matjošaitytė. Last week, it decided to collect additional information before determining whether to open an investigation.

Nemunas Dawn leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis said the party had consulted Matjošaitytė on various issues but had not paid her. Matjošaitytė has said she received “not a single euro” for the consultations.