Lawyer fined for revealing pseudonymous author was JK Rowling

Author J.K. Rowling hosts a special family fundraising evening in aid of her children's charity, Lumos, at the "Warner Bros. Studio - The Making of Harry Potter in Hertfordfshire" in London November 9, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

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A lawyer who blew JK Rowling's cover when she wrote a detective novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith has been fined 1,000 pounds ($1,650) and received a written warning from a British legal watchdog.

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 had revealed she was the author of "The Cuckoo's Calling".

Publicity material for the book had described it as the debut novel of retired military policeman Galbraith.

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.