Fall From Prominence

The Iowa Supreme Court has suspended an attorney without possibility of reinstatement for at least six months.

Verla Jean Bartley was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1961. She rose to prominence in the profession over the years and was active in the state bar association. She has no prior disciplinary record. In 2002, she began practicing as “of counsel” with an Iowa City law firm and retired from the active practice of law in 2014.

The misconduct involved neglect and misrepresentations in two estate matters.

The court discounted her self-report

However, this mitigation is lessened somewhat when the self-reporting is at least in part motivated by knowledge that the law firm would otherwise be reporting the violation.

After considering mitigating and aggravating factors, the court concluded

We also observe that the misrepresentation was not only the most serious unethical conduct engaged in by Bartley, but measured against a career that spanned more than half a century, it appeared to be the most uncharacteristic. Bartley consciously engaged in the misrepresentation to cover up her neglect and, in the process, only elevated the seriousness of her conduct and the degree of sanctions we are responsible to impose. We have observed this result in other lawyer discipline cases, and it is one that all lawyers who face the prospect of discipline would be better off avoiding.

(Mike Frisch)