Shame On You; Private Admonition On Me

The Iowa Supreme Court has privately admonished an attorney who sent an ex parte email to the judge reviewing an arbitration award of a county bar association.

His (non-frivolous) beef with the award was that his former attorney was the bar association president.

The email

Dear Robert Hutchison:

Like I stated in my motion to expand and correct your pathetic ruling; I never communicated with you exparte until now. Because you choose to play fast and loose with your ethical responsibilities and irresponsible rulings please accept this as your first exparte communication from me.

The rest you unethical behavior you can explain to your judicial committee. You should be ashamed of yourself and I’m sure you have heard this before. Your shameless cover up for your circle of buddies will not go unaddressed. Hopefully I never have to deal with your arrogant unethical behavior again.

Have a nice holiday. FYI this isn’t a tactic I’ve used before but when observe unethical arrogant men who abuse their power I believe its important to call it as i see it just like now. In my book you’re no better than the convicted scum you sentence to jail several times a month.

Shame on you.

Judge Hutchison reported the email to the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board (Board).

 The court on sanction

While Attorney Doe’s email was unprofessional, we do not believe a license suspension or a public reprimand is the appropriate sanction. However, had we found other properly charged and proven violations, a public sanction would be appropriate. Instead, we choose to privately admonish Attorney Doe. We do note that, while a private reprimand is not discipline, it serves as a warning and puts the attorney on notice that his or her behavior violates certain ethical requirements…Likewise, in imposing only a private admonition, we are in no way minimizing or condoning the unwarranted and unprofessional attack on a judicial officer.

(Mike Frisch)