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Joshua Diamond, the deputy Vermont attorney general, wrote a legal agreement for an attorney in Newport that waived an employee’s right to sue the lawyer over sexual harassment or gender discrimination.

Diamond wrote the contract for his stepbrother Glenn Robinson, a family law and divorce attorney, who had a sexual relationship with his assistant, according to filings with the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board.

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Deputy Vermont Attorney General helped stepbrother avoid sexual misconduct lawsuit RELATED STORIES

Robinson was charged in June with multiple professional conduct violations between 2010 and 2013, including sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The Vermont Professional Responsibility Board will hear his case on Monday.

Robinson is accused of masturbating in his office in separate incidents in front of two women who were employees and former clients, documents show. Another woman says he pursued a romantic relationship with her while he represented her in a divorce case, which led to a charge of conflict of interest.

One of the women, who had been represented by Robinson in a grand larceny case, told a Vermont State Police trooper that Robinson had asked her in January 2012 to work off a $2,000 legal debt by serving as a receptionist and “legal assistant” in his law office. The woman told Detective Lance Burnham “it was complicated for her to work in public” because of “psychological issues,” including agoraphobia.

The assistant says working at Robinson’s law firm went well in the first few months until Robinson told her he loved her and at one point masturbated in front of her while she was at work.

In a deposition, Jerry Diamond, a former Vermont attorney general, said he suggested that his son, Josh Diamond, who practiced with his firm Diamond and Robinson in Montpelier, draw up a “mutual consent” contract for his stepson, Robinson.

In August 2012, Robinson asked the assistant and former client to sign a contract drafted by Joshua Diamond agreeing that “any romantic relationship with Employer is mutual and welcomes such a relationship with Employer. Employee agrees that her interest in pursuing a romantic relationship with Employer is done freely, voluntarily, and without any coercion or undue duress.” The assistant said she was undergoing psychiatric treatment at the time she was asked to sign the agreement, according to documents filed in the case.

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Joshua Diamond, who has practiced labor and family law for 23 years, said in a deposition that Robinson and the assistant were “contemplating dating each other” and Robinson wanted the document to reflect that “this is a mutual relationship, that there be a release from sexual harassment or gender discrimination claims, and I generally recall some request that there be some type of mutuality reflected.” Joshua Diamond was named deputy Vermont attorney general in January this year.

In a telephone call with Robinson and the assistant, Joshua Diamond said he “couldn’t guarantee the enforceability of such a document” and recommended that she review the contract with her own attorney.

In a subsequent email to Robinson about the contract, the assistant said she did not feel “respected as an employee, individual, or human being” due to his behavior and comments. She eventually signed it and was not represented by a lawyer.

Court filings show that this summer, after charges were brought against Robinson, Jerry Diamond repeatedly tried to contact Robinson’s former employee, suggesting that if she didn’t want to meet with him or Robinson, he could arrange for a “female investigator” to meet with her.

Robert Simpson, disciplinary counsel for the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board, wrote to the Diamonds’ attorney, saying that if the former employee was contacted again he would ask the board to “convene an emergency hearing to get the board’s help in stopping attempts by Atty. Robinson” to speak with the woman.

Jerry Diamond declined to comment and referred VTDigger to Robinson’s attorney, Scott McGee. Joshua Diamond could not immediately be reached.

McGee said Robinson “vigorously rejects the charges.”

“These are two people who wanted to form a more intimate relationship and they wanted to make sure the agreement reflected that,” McGee said.

Another woman named in the petition of misconduct first met Robinson when he began representing her in a fatal DUI case in 2003. He did not charge her for legal services and frequently reminded her that she owed him, the petition alleges. Robinson told the woman that the court wanted her to “do 15 years,” but he had “saved” her. She was employed by Robinson’s firm in early 2013, after she was released from prison, documents show.

According to the petition, Robinson warned the woman that he had told the “judge and Probation & Parole” that he would “keep track of her.” Because of that pledge, Robinson insisted that he needed to be with her at all times when she was working in the office, documents show.

She alleges that Robinson subjected her to unwanted sexual behavior in his office, including repeated instances in which he masturbated in front of her, sometimes with her sitting on his lap.

A third charge against Robinson is related to a relationship he allegedly had for more than a year with a woman he represented in a divorce case. The woman, who was raising five children, claims he promised to marry her and support her financially.

The relationship lasted from early 2011 until June 2012, when Robinson ended it shortly after the divorce proceedings concluded, documents show. When she was asked by Robinson’s attorney why she filed the conduct complaint, she responded that Robinson “used” her.

Robinson has maintained that the three relationships were “completely consensual.”

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The case has taken four years to resolve. At one point, the disciplinary counsel for the Professional Responsibility Board recommended a six-month suspension of Robinson’s license. That deal was rejected, and charges were brought in June.

McGee, the lawyer for Robinson, said the lengthy adjudication process “has nothing to do with” the Diamond family connection, and he refused to respond to questions about whether the Diamonds assisted in Robinson’s alleged misconduct. Documents show Jerry Diamond had talked with Robinson about his sexual relationships with the two other women who later filed complaints with the board.

Disciplinary action could range from a private reprimand to disbarment, which prohibits an attorney from practicing law for five years. The Professional Responsibility Board has publicly reprimanded lawyers who are negligent in filing paperwork in estate cases and has suspended attorneys who have filed misleading statements.

Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan, who was elected a year ago, hired Josh Diamond as deputy AG in January. Donovan declined to prosecute allegations of sexual misconduct against Robinson in 2013 while serving as Chittenden County state’s attorney. Donovan said he had referred the case to the special investigations unit in Chittenden County and, after further review, declined to bring charges. Donovan said in June that it was unclear why the case was referred to his office four years ago.

“We weren’t convinced we would satisfy our evidentiary burden,” Donovan said. He has said he does not know Robinson and that Robinson’s family connections played no role in the decision to drop the case.







RELATED STORIES Deputy Vermont Attorney General helped stepbrother avoid sexual misconduct lawsuit

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