Get Mad But Not Even

An attorney who made false statements to immigration authorities to get his former client deported has been suspended for one year by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department.

In 2009, HE, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, retained respondent to represent him at a deferred inspection by federal immigration authorities to determine whether HE was admissible to re-enter the United States after a trip abroad. Respondent sent the immigration authorities a notice of appearance on HE’s behalf and a request for a 90-day adjournment of the inspection. Thereafter, before the scheduled date of the deferred inspection, while HE was on parole, HE’s wife informed respondent by telephone that her husband had retained another lawyer and no longer wanted respondent to represent him. Upon hearing that HE was discharging him, respondent became belligerent and verbally abusive toward HE’s wife and told her that he would phone the deferred inspection unit and give them HE’s work and home address so that they could arrest him before the scheduled inspection. The same day, respondent had a telephone conversation with an officer of the deferred inspection unit, in which he told the officer that he was no longer HE’s attorney, asked whether the officer knew that HE was deportable as a convicted felon, and asked whether the officer knew HE’s home address and phone number. Thereafter, respondent sent the immigration authorities a letter withdrawing his notice of appearance on behalf of HE and stating, falsely, that HE’s wife had told him that HE did not intend to appear for the scheduled deferred inspection…

Respondent’s misconduct includes intentionally making prejudicial statements to immigration authorities which were intended to cause the arrest and deportation of a former client. In addition, respondent admits that he willfully failed to meet his tax obligations for six years and used the funds wrongfully withheld from the government to invest in real estate. Moreover, respondent’s prior disciplinary record is not unblemished, as he has received two previous admonitions. Although respondent points to certain mitigating factors (health and personal issues he was experiencing at the times of the misconduct, his remorse, his admission of responsibility for failing to file tax returns, and the steps he has taken to address his tax debt), we do not find this mitigation sufficiently compelling to limit the sanction to a public censure, as respondent requests.

(Mike Frisch)