Upping The Ante

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals imposed the substantially different discipline of a 30 day suspension in a reciprocal matter from Virginia. The attorney had made false statements in a certificate of service and in open court and misleading representations to Bar Counsel. The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board had imposed an admonitions with terms.

The court concluded that Bar Counsel here met its burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that a more severe sanction was appropriate: “Our case law is replete with instances in which we have suspended attorneys who have engaged in acts of dishonesty, and there should be no doubt that a suspension from the practice of law is substantially different from an admonition. We recognize that [the attorney] has no prior disciplinary history, but his conduct involved serious acts of dishonesty for which a thirty-day suspension is appropriate.” (Mike Frisch)