Court Lacks Confidence: Oral Argument Did Not Help

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a one-year suspension of an attorney for misconduct in the sale of a trucking business he had founded with a childhood friend.

The disciplinary case was based on a civil judgment finding a breach of fiduciary duty to the buyers. 

The court on sanction

At the hearing before this court, respondent’s counsel argued that his client was guilty of sloppy recordkeeping after the trucking company sale and that the filing of the amended journal entry after disciplinary proceedings were under way was the work of lawyers representing his client in the civil litigation, rather than based on any desire or action of his client. Given the record compiled in the lawsuit, the record of the panel hearing, and the respondent’s decision not to file exceptions to the panel’s findings and conclusions, counsel’s efforts to minimize respondent’s culpability for dishonesty were unpersuasive.

When respondent spoke for himself at the hearing before this court, he asserted that he had not thought of himself as a fiduciary in the trucking company transaction, that he had been a passive investor who thought of himself as a mere seller, and that he had left the details of receivables and their correct distribution to his fellow seller. These arguments do not fill us with confidence that, even today, respondent has a firm grasp on the nature and wrongfulness of his ethical lapses, and we are particularly troubled because of his substantial training and experience not only as a tax lawyer but also as a certified public accountant.

I have now seen a number of Kansas cases where the respondent attorney directly addresses the court. The video of the oral argument is linked here.

Are there other places where an attorney represented by counsel argues their own case? (Mike Frisch)