An Unethical Question: Did You Have Sex With Minors?

The Minnesota Supreme Court imposed a 60-day suspension of an attorney

The petition alleged that Kurzman asked a question during a deposition that assumed the witness had been accused of sexual misconduct with minors without a good faith basis, failed to provide a copy of a client’s file for an unreasonable period of time, failed to submit records to the court as directed, and provided materials from multiple clients’ files to another client. We referred the matter to a referee.

The question was asked of a court-appointed parenting consultant.

During the evidentiary hearing before the referee, Kurzman testified that prior to the deposition he recalled that M.S. had been accused of sexual contact with minors. However, Kurzman had no evidence to support that recollection. The referee found that Kurzman’s testimony was not credible, that the deposition question “appeared to be intended to embarrass and humiliate” M.S., and that the question was asked without a good faith basis.

Misconduct was found in other matters.

The court

Although comprised of relatively minor violations, Kurzman’s disciplinary history is extensive. Since Kurzman joined the Minnesota bar in 1972, he has been disciplined 10 times for violating 19 provisions of the professional rules, some multiple times. Between 1994 and 2013, the Director privately admonished him eight times. In 2007, Kurzman was placed on private probation. In 2010, we publicly reprimanded him for trust account recordkeeping violations and placed him on supervised probation for 2 years.

The deposition misconduct took place while the attorney was on probation

The law is clear: misconduct while on probation is an aggravating factor, whether the rule violations are the same or different…

Considered together, Kurzman’s rule violations were serious and weighty. Kurzman’s misconduct consists of two counts arising out of separate incidents that occurred over the course of several years. Asserting without a good faith basis that M.S. had been accused of sexual misconduct with minors was serious misconduct. In addition, Kurzman failed to submit records to the court as directed or to seek an extension of the deadline, failed to provide a client her complete file for six months after being discharged, and provided materials from other clients’ files to a client, for a total of six rule violations. This is a pattern of misconduct.

He is not required to petition for reinstatement. (Mike Frisch)