Admission Denied But Not Because Of Online Posts
A disclosure issue led the Maryland Court of Appeals to deny an application for bar admission notwithstanding the favorable recommendation of its Board of Law Examiners
Applicant’s failure to disclose a Petition to Violate Probation on his Bar Application in the face of his known obligations to candidly, accurately and currently disclose impinged upon his character and fitness to practice law warranting denial of his application for admission to the Bar of Maryland.
Judge Battaglia’s majority opinion
[Applicant] Gjini’s Bar application was forwarded to a member of the Character Committee for the Seventh Appellate Circuit, David DeJong, Esquire, because Gjini reflected a Montgomery County address. Mr. DeJong interviewed Gjini on September 9, 2014 and October 23, 2014 and concluded that Gjini had failed to bear his burden of proving his character and moral fitness for the practice of law in Maryland because of Gjini’s August 13, 2013 driving while impaired charge as well as his extensive driving record which included another alcohol related offense for which Gjini was not prosecuted. In addition, Mr. DeJong was concerned about on-line comments he found that Gjini had written on internet message boards while in law school. After Mr. DeJong forwarded his recommendation to the Character Committee for the Seventh Appellate Circuit and before it conducted a hearing under Rule 5(b)(2),6 Gjini received a Petition to Violate Probation filed by his probation officer on December 30, 2014 alleging that Gjini had “failed to verify attending and successfully completing a local Health Department alcohol treatment program” with a corresponding Show Cause Order in which Gjini was required to appear on February 18, 2015 in the District Court for Montgomery County. Gjini’s hearing was postponed due to weather, and Gjini appeared before a district court judge in Montgomery County on March 23, 2015, just a few days before his Character Committee hearing. The district court judge determined that Gjini had not satisfied the alcohol education program requirement and gave him sixty days to complete another program at which time Gjini would need to reappear. Gjini did not supplement his Bar Application with any of this information at any time.
The committee learned of the violation from another source.
For those who post comments on line, there is this from the proceedings below
During his investigation of Mr. Gjini’s application, Mr. DeJong discovered, rather serendipitously, several statements which Mr. Gjini had posted to various chat-rooms on the internet as recently as his last semester in law-school. Those postings included commentary upon martial arts videos and similar matters and are set forth, verbatim, as follows:
“This guy is a dipshit.”
“Yo, shut the fuck up so we can watch the video.”
“The both fight like hoes.”
“The bully kid was a pussie.”
“That girl is hot as fuck.”
“Who is the faggot that made this video?”
“Just keep games like they are with a PS3 controller. None of this gay shit.”
“Straight NUTT in that bitch.”
Mr. Gjini admitted that he posted the statements, above. He admitted, further, that the statements were posted while he was in law school and, in fact, many were placed during his last semester in law school. While the undersigned find these postings to be troubling, we do not believe that they are of sufficient magnitude to preclude Mr. Gjini from the practice of law.
The substance and nature of the postings may reflect something of a chasm between persons of Mr. Gjini’s generation and the undersigned members of the Hearing Committee. The language employed by Mr. Gjini certainly is not to be applauded and the undersigned would not encourage its use. Nonetheless, it appears no worse than that which is commonly found on the internet, and that which is regularly employed by pop-music stars and sports figures.
Further, we note that Mr. Gjini expressed what we believe was sincere regrets with respect to the use of such language in his sworn testimony before this Committee.
The court
Based upon our review of the record, contrary to the recommendation of the State Board of Law Examiners based upon the omission of any consideration to address Gjini’s failure to disclose his Petition to Violate Probation and its attendant Show Cause Order and the hearing that followed, we determine that Gjini does not possess the present good moral character to practice law in Maryland; Gjini completely failed to supplement his Bar application with any of the facts developed solely through the efforts of Mr. Vaughan, the Chair of the Character Committee.
We are not persuaded that Gjini’s failure to disclose is mitigated in any way by his various excuses which varied from initially not knowing he had to disclose, then with his assumption that he did not have to disclose and finally, that his failure was a calculated error. We have consistently stated that disclosure on the Bar application and supplementation is mandatory…
Judge Adkins dissented
Respectfully, I dissent from the decision of the Majority to deny admission to Mr. Gjini to the Maryland Bar for lack of character and fitness. The Majority finds offensive his failure to disclose to the State Board of Law Examiners the fact that he received a Petition to Violate Probation and an attendant Show Cause Order after he chose to take an online course, instead of an appropriate in person course, to satisfy a condition of his probation…
I agree with the Board of Law Examiners and the Character Committee that he should be admitted. His alleged violation of probation—the taking of an online course rather than participating in an appropriate course in person—is a rather minor transgression…
Although Mr. Gjini clearly was under the obligation to supplement his Application for Bar Admission, not doing so under these circumstances should not constitute the basis for denying him the privilege of practicing law for which he has studied.
Chief Judge Barbera and Judge McDonald have authorized me to state that they join in the views expressed in this dissenting opinion.
(Mike Frisch)