The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday approved suspending former Jacksonville-area Public Defender Matt Shirk from practicing law for one year. Justices unanimously approved a suspension recommended in April by appointed referee Kenneth James Janesk.
A St. Johns County judge had recommended the suspension in April.
The Florida Bar pursued discipline against Shirk, who was elected public defender in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 in the 4th Judicial Circuit, which is made up of Duval, Nassau and Clay counties. Shirk came under investigation, including by a grand jury and the Florida Ethics Commission, for alleged misconduct.
Among the allegations were that he improperly hired women to work in the public defender’s office and then directed that they be fired “for the private benefit of himself and to save his marriage,” according to the referee’s report. An Ethics Commission report was more detailed. Shirk, a 2019 settlement found, violated the law “by hiring or directing the hiring of three women contrary to procedure, policies, or qualifications, or outside of normal hiring practices, engaging in workplace or work-related interactions with them of personal interest to himself and unrelated or marginally related to the function of the Public Defender’s Office, and terminating them or having them terminated from their employment at the Public Defender’s Office” to benefit himself.
None of the women “were at fault in any way,” the Grand Jury found.
He also was alleged to have had alcoholic beverages in a Jacksonville city building and improperly revealed information about a former juvenile client. Shirk admitted to the facts. The referee recommended that Shirk be found guilty of violating Florida Bar rules.
“While the Grand Jury believes that the personal life of public figures should be largely a private matter,” a Grand Jury found, “when those matters interfere with or undermine the ability of a public official to fairly, effectively and professionally run his office, create a perception of such in the public eye, or call into doubt the functioning of a public office, they become subject to public scrutiny.”
Shirk had no experience managing an office as large as the 4th Judicial Circuit Public Defender’s Office, nor had he the experience to handle many of the cases the office was routinely charged with, the Grand Jury found.
