Elevator Going Down

An attorney who consented to disbarment in Pennsylvania has been reciprocally disbarred in New Jersey. 

The attorney engaged in deceitful misconduct (not for personal financial gain) in defending an elevator company in two persobal injury actions. He falsely billed a second elevator company (Otis) for legal services.

The motive was unclear

Here, respondent has provided no evidence to us that he was unable to keep up with his work assignments. It is possible that he was simply overwhelmed by his workload or inexperienced and/or unwilling to ask his employer for help or guidance. He entered into his course of misconduct in 2008. He had been admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 2005 and to the New Jersey bar in 2007. This may well be a case of a young attorney who was simply in over his head or in a  That being said, the burden of going forward with a defense or mitigation falls on respondent. He has provided no indication that he has any defense to his actions or factors tending to mitigate them.

The record shows that, in addition to his false billing practices, respondent was guilty of an assembly of various forms of deception. Setting aside, for the moment, his fraudulent billing, we find that he is guilty of misrepresentations to his clients, his adversaries, his law firm, and the court. He has displayed a pattern of duplicity that evidences a serious deficiency in his character. He also settled cases without his clients’ authorization, lacked diligence in his representation of their interests, failed to communicate with his clients, and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice by wasting judicial resources in resolving his clients’ matters, without authorization to do so, and causing additional judicial action to be required.

(Mike Frisch)