Stop The Presses

A District of Columbia Hearing Committee has approved a petition for a negotiated disposition in a matter involving an attorney’s representation of a Japanese company before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.

The client manufactures large printing presses. The representation involved so-called “anti-dumping” matters, which involve the sale of foreign goods in the United States at an unfair low price.

The client was being investigated for anti-dumping violations. During the period, it  sold two printing presses to the Dallas Morning News. The attorney submitted a questionnaire to Commerce in a petition to lift an order that omitted material facts about the Dallas sale.

According to the stipulated facts, the attorney had advised the client to make the appropriate disclosures and the client “rejected the advice.”

The misconduct took place in 1998. It appears that the conduct did not result in a criminal or other proceeding against the attorney.

The stipulated sanction is a one-year suspension.

The case is In re Yoshihiro Saito and can be accessed through this link. The attorney had been a partner at Perkins Coie.

My view is that this is a reasonable and appropriate outcome for an aging case. (Mike Frisch)