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The Utah State Bar emailed a photo of a topless woman to lawyers — and now it is investigating how it happened

The Utah State Bar is “investigating” after a photo of a topless woman was sent to state lawyers in an email intended to advertise for its spring convention.

At just after 3:10 p.m. on Monday, an email with two images was sent to Utah lawyers. The first was an image advertising the Bar’s 2018 Spring Convention in St. George. Beneath it was a photo of a woman’s bare chest.

“We are aware of the situation,” Bar communications director Matt Page said Monday afternoon. “We’re investigating how it got out.”

Page said the email was created “in-house” and sent to Utah lawyers, adding that he had no idea how the inappropriate image got into the message. He said he created the image advertising the Spring Convention, but no images of topless women were included at that time.

The email was sent to all active attorneys in Utah, according to a press release.

“We are horrified,” said John Baldwin, executive director of the Bar. “We are investigating to discover how this occurred. Our goal is to find out what happened and insure it never happens again.”

Some lawyers reacted on Twitter to the email, one asking, “What the hell with that email?” Another said he opened the email while working on the House floor at the Utah State Capitol.

The Bar apologized for the email on its social media channels within 30 minutes after the email was sent.

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