BREAKING: AZ Court Kicks Alan Dershowitz Out of Court; Kari Lake & Mark Finchem Lose Their Big Gun Due To "Noncompliance"

UPDATE, 6/15, 11:30am: The court has now granted Alan Dershowitz's motion to participate in the case - for the plaintiffs - as an out of state attorney. 

UPDATE, 5/19, 8:40pm: Alan Dershowitz tells Arizona's Law that his termination will be fixed. "Just a technical glitch in my pro hac application. It’s being fixed." He did not respond to the request for an interview regarding his involvement in the Arizona cases.

In an unexpected twist, an Arizona court has kicked out Alan Dershowitz for non-compliance. Dershowitz is a well-known attorney and Harvard Law professor who has been representing Arizona election deniers Kari Lake and Mark Finchem in the federal court case against Secretary of State Katie Hobbs*.

The court did not give details of the "termination", other than to indicate: "(O)ut of state attorney Alan M Dershowitz terminated as counsel of record for noncompliance with admission procedures." 

There is no record on the docket that Dershowitz had filed the required application to be admitted as an out of state attorney (i.e. pro hac vice". However, co-counsel Kurt Olsen was granted pro hac vice status, and he does not have an application on the docket, either.

Andrew Parker, the lead attorney (who is admitted to practice in federal court in Arizona), filed an Amended Complaint in the case earlier this month. The case attempts to prohibit Arizona from using electronic voting machines in the upcoming election.**

Here are the District Court's requirements for an out of state attorney to be permitted to represent a client in Arizona's federal court: 

The pro hac vice application must be presented to the Clerk and must state under penalty of perjury (i) the attorney's principal office address and city and state of principal residence as well as current telephone number, facsimile number and electronic mailing address, if any, (ii) by what courts the attorney has been admitted to practice and the dates of admissions, (iii) that the attorney is in good standing and eligible to practice in those courts, (iv) that the attorney is not currently suspended, disbarred or subject to disciplinary proceedings in any court, and (v) if the attorney has concurrently or within the year preceding the current application made any other pro hac vice applications to this Court, the title and number of each action in which such application was made, the date of each application, and whether each application was granted. The pro hac vice application must also be accompanied by payment of a pro hac vice fee to the Clerk, U.S. District Court and a current, original certificate of good standing from a federal court.

We have reached out Dershowitz for an explanation and will update as necessary.

*He is also representing the Arizona Republican Party and Kelli Ward in related cases in state court. The pro hac vice rules differ between state and federal court, and he has not yet been kicked out of the state court cases.

**Full disclosure: I am a candidate for the Arizona Legislature, and my name will appear on the paper ballots fed into the voting machines.