If No Violations, No Aggravating Factors

The Iowa Supreme Court has found that an attorney did not commit any charged ethical violations and rejected the recommendation of its Grievance Commission for a 30-day suspension. The court dismissed the case.

The attorney is admitted in Minnesota and South Dakota. He represented the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in a business deal with a now-defunct Iowa software company. The company “offered software that potentially could be used to store information about a person’s ancestry and verify whether that person was a bona fide member of an Indian tribe.”

The rather complex set of facts alleged he engaged in unauthorized communications with a company representative while the company was represented by counsel and made knowing false statements in the course of the conversation.

The court:

…this matter requires us to consider what was said or not said in a few oral communications. For reasons we have discussed, as we reconstruct what happened in those conversations, we are unable to conclude by the required convincing preponderance of the evidence that [the attorney] violated [the charged rules].

The court declined to consider aggravating factors in the manner that the attorney defended the charges, as there were no rule violations. (Mike Frisch)