Left inset: Joshua Kindred in a court photo (9th Circuit Annual Report). Main: The James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, is pictured on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File).
An Alaska attorney, who was appointed to a lifetime federal judgeship by President Donald Trump in 2020 but resigned amidst a scandal involving sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, has now lost his law license. The former judge, Joshua Kindred, has been directed to complete ethics training as a prerequisite for any future attempt to regain his license.
On Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court endorsed the Disciplinary Board’s recommendations by ordering Kindred’s disbarment, effective immediately. As part of the conditions for potential reinstatement, Kindred is required to complete a minimum of 15 credit hours of continuing legal education focused on ethics, law office management, and the management of law office accounts.
According to a Law&Crime report from July 2024, Kindred’s departure followed a Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit panel’s findings. Their investigation, conducted by a Special Committee, revealed that Kindred had fostered a hostile work environment for his law clerks through unwanted and abusive behavior. The panel highlighted his treatment of the clerks as particularly egregious and hostile.
The panel’s report detailed Kindred’s misconduct, which included maintaining an inappropriately sexualized relationship with one of his law clerks during and shortly after her clerkship, while she was employed as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Alaska.
Furthermore, the review concluded that Kindred had been dishonest about engaging in two separate sexual encounters with a law clerk, one of which occurred in his chambers and the other at an Airbnb.
Text messages played a significant role in substantiating the allegations against Kindred.
“Didn’t imagine your exit interview would involve that much oral,” Kindred was quoted as saying, with the former clerk replying “*argument,” as in oral argument.
But under questioning about the texts, Kindred said “I’ve not seen [this law clerk] naked, so that doesn’t make any sense to me,” the report said.
The investigative body also found that Kindred “made inappropriate comments about sex, drinking, and drugs” in the workplace, telling law clerks “Who gives a f— about ethics, we need to get you paid,” joking about “punching multiple Supreme Court justices,” and talking about his divorce.
The Special Committee also made a finding that Kindred, while a judge, “failed to disclose potential conflicts of interests when he had inappropriate interaction and relationships with two attorneys who often appeared before him.”
When he was grilled about his behavior, a judicial misconduct report said, Kindred “admitted that he was overwhelmed with his job and would often discuss this with the law clerk,” whom he said was “often the only person I would interact with face to face” after the COVID-19 pandemic exploded.
Before Kindred’s confirmation to the bench, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, supported him as “well-qualified” and having “good judgment,” based on his educational history, his legal work in the public and private sector, the family he was raising, and the “good family” he married into.
