Bar Council to decide whether to open disciplinary case against Matjošaitytė

Lithuania’s Bar Council will decide on October 21 whether to open a disciplinary case against Central Electoral Commission member Laura Matjošaitytė over legal consultations she provided to the Nemunas Dawn party without declaring the work, LRT reported.

The council will consider material from an investigation completed by the Lithuanian Bar Association’s Committee on Discipline and Disputes, the association’s representative Rūta Andriuškaitė told BNS. The committee concluded it had enough information to finish its investigation, she said.

If the council opens a case, it will be heard by the Bar Court of Honour. Matjošaitytė will be informed about the council meeting but is not required to attend. Andriuškaitė said she did not know whether Matjošaitytė had taken part in the committee’s meeting on Wednesday. Matjošaitytė had said she would join remotely.

The committee, made up of 10 lawyers, assessed Matjošaitytė’s position and information from media reports and parliamentary inquiries. Its findings for the Bar Council are confidential.

Bar Council chairman Mindaugas Kukaitis previously said the investigation was intended to establish whether Matjošaitytė provided services to Nemunas Dawn under a written contract. He said providing services without such a contract would breach the Law on the Bar.

Several institutions began inquiries after it emerged that a legal document on political party funding sources sent by Nemunas Dawn to the Central Electoral Commission in 2024 had been prepared by Matjošaitytė. Neither the party nor Matjošaitytė declared their previous cooperation. She initially declined to say whether she had been paid, but later said she had received no money. She has declined to discuss details of the professional relationship, citing lawyer-client confidentiality.

The Central Electoral Commission has launched its own investigation into the cooperation, while the Chief Official Ethics Commission is examining a possible conflict of interest. Matjošaitytė chaired the electoral commission from 2017 to 2021. She returned as a member in 2025 after Parliament approved her nomination by then-Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus, who had been delegated by Nemunas Dawn.