A lawyer has been fined 1,000 pounds ($1,650) and received a written warning from a British legal watchdog after he revealed JK Rowling had written a detective novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, Reuters reported.
Chris Gossage, a partner at Russells Solicitors, which represented the Harry Potter author, leaked one of the publishing world's biggest secrets to his wife's best friend - who then tweeted Galbraith's real identity to a journalist.
Rowling, Britain's best-selling author, was furious when she found out that a partner at her London-based law firm revealed she was the author of "The Cuckoo's Calling". The debut novel's publicity material described it as that of retired military policeman Galbraith, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, after taking legal action against Gossage and his friend Judith Callegari, Rowling accepted an apology from the law firm which paid her legal costs and made a substantial, undisclosed donation to a charity of her choice, the Soldiers' Charity.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority said in a ruling released this week that Gossage had also received a written rebuke and was ordered to pay a 1,000 pound fine for disclosing confidential information about a client to a third party. Still listed as a partner at the firm, Gossage's mistake makes it clear that unmasking Rowling was an error and not a marketing stunt.
At the time, Rowling, 48, said it had been "wonderful" to publish without hype or expectation and to get feedback under a different name even if that meant some publishers rejected her work as they had when she first touted her Harry Potter books.
Released last April, the novel received strong reviews but minimal sales. It topped the best-selling list when Rowling's involvement was publicized, Reuters reported.
"I feel very angry that my trust turned out to be misplaced," Rowling said in a statement in July. "To say that I am disappointed is an understatement."
The novel, about a war veteran turned private eye investigating the death of a model, was published by Little, Brown, which in 2012 published Rowling's first adult novel "The Casual Vacancy".
