Disclose, Disclose

From the California Bar Journal:

[An attorney]  was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on two years of probation and was ordered to take the MPRE within one year. The order took effect Jan. 3, 2009.

In 2005, [he] represented a defendant in federal court in Oklahoma although he was not a member of that state’s bar. He and his co-counsel incorrectly believed [he] could be admitted if the co-counsel sponsored and “waived” him in. When they learned that was not the case, [He] filed a formal application for admission to the Oklahoma District Court Bar.

As part of the application, he was required to disclose all legal proceedings in which he had been charged with the commission of a crime. Although [he] disclosed he had pleaded no contest to a charge of driving under the influence in 1996, he did not disclose that between 1989 and 2003, other criminal charges, including reckless driving and disturbing the peace, had been filed against him. Some were dismissed and some resulted in conviction.

[The attorney] stipulated that by filing an incomplete application, he failed to maintain the respect due to the courts.

He also was privately reproved in 2001.

(Mike Frisch)