Joel Ryan/Associated Press J.K. RowlingChris Gossage, the lawyer whose indiscreet chatter led to the public unmasking of J. K. Rowling as the author of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” — the detective novel that she published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — has been fined £1,000 (about $1,645) by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breaking the authority’s client confidentiality rules. Mr. Gossage, a partner at Russells Solicitors, also received a written rebuke. The ruling was issued by the authority on Nov. 26, but was not made public until this week.
Ms. Rowling published the book as Galbraith last April, but was quickly unmasked when a columnist for The Sunday Times of London learned her identity and confronted her. At the time, many people suspected that Ms. Rowling herself was behind the leak, but Russells admitted that Mr. Gossage was the source, having revealed Galbraith’s identity to his wife’s friend Judith Callegari, who passed the news to the Times columnist in a Twitter exchange.
Russells has already apologized formally and agreed to what has been described only as “a substantial donation” to the Soldiers’ Charity, to which Ms. Rowling has also said that she is donating all royalties from the book.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 6, 2014
An earlier version of this post misidentified the person to whom Mr. Gossage revealed that Ms. Rowling was the author of "The Cuckoo's Calling." He told his wife's friend Judith Callegari, not his wife.