Hot Blooded And Reprimanded Rather Than Suspended

An attorney who was suspended for three years in New York got a reprimand as reciprocal discipline in New Jersey.

He had failed to supervise an employee who had threatened his client, leading to the 2003 suspension.

The story

On or about January 7, 1998, respondent sent or caused his office to send a letter to his client, Sulaiman Ahmad concerning a fee dispute. The letter was written on respondent’s office letterhead, identified as “The Law Offices of Jay Chatarpaul.” The purported signature on that letter was that of Robendranauth (Rob) Ramphul, who was identified in the letter as a law graduate. Mr. Ramphul had graduated from law school, but was not admitted to the practice of law in the State of New York. In an effort to collect payment for legal services purportedly rendered on Mr. Ahmad’s behalf, the letter implied that confidences and privileged information would be used against Mr. Ahmad as follows:

‘We will give you until January 15, 1998. This will be our last contact with you. We are trying to avoid you the pain and suffering of going through all of this. Mr. Ahmad, what you have done is very stupid. We are still your attorney. Your case is not over yet. Your case is still open. Your fingerprints will come to us within a few months. We have your rap sheet. We have your arrest record. We have your social security number. By the time you receive this letter, we will know where you work. We can subpoena your financial information from your credit card company. Where will you turn and hide. If you honestly believe that moving to another state will keep you safe, well you are really stupid.’

At or about the same time, respondent’s sister, Parbatie Ramdat, a nonlawyer employee in respondent’s office, went to Mr. Ahmad’s home address at the request of respondent. Mr.[sic] Ramdat affixed to Mr. Ahmad’s door, an unsigned letter containing similar implied threats. On or about January 19, 1998, respondent sent a letter to Martha Sherman of the First Savings Bank to which respondent annexed documents pertaining to Mr. Ahmad’s criminal court complaint, his interview prepared by the Criminal Justice Agency (CJA), and motion papers pertaining to his criminal matter. Mr. Ahmad’s case was still pending and was scheduled to be dismissed and the record sealed. On January 16, 1998 Mr. Ahmad filed a complaint against respondent with the petitioner Grievance Committee and enclosed the above mentioned January 7, 1998 letter. Respondent provided the petitioner Grievance Committee with a written answer dated January 24, 1998. He also enclosed a copy of the above mentioned January 19, 1998 letter. In respondent’s answer to the petitioner Grievance Committee he stated that it was his employee, Mr. Ramphul, who sent the letter dated January 7, 1998 to Mr. Ahmad because Mr. Ramphul had been outraged by the client’s failure to pay his fee. In an examination under oath before the petitioner Grievance Committee, on March 5, 1998, respondent testified that it was he and not Mr. Ramphul, who had drafted the January 7, 1998 letter and that respondent had directed Mr. Ramphul to sign it

The New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board

Although we were troubled by respondent’s conduct, we were not persuaded that a suspension is required in this case. Compelling mitigating circumstances convinced us that a reprimand adequately addresses the seriousness of respondent’s ethics transgressions and, at the same time, preserves the confidence of the public in the profession. Specifically, as pointed out in respondent’s February 25, 2002 letter to the OAE, respondent was a new and inexperienced attorney at the time, whose “young hotbloodedness’’ motivated his actions. Respondent has expressed regret for “each and every single act with respect to that client” and acknowledged that “he threw away all my humbleness and humanitarian beliefs out the window. I shamed myself, my client, and caused great grief to my self [sic] and those in this great profession.” Respondent claimed that, since these incidents, he has learned a lot and has become a mature individual. We also noted his recent humanitarian efforts toward police officers and firefighters following the tragic events of September 1 1, 2001.

The court agreed.

In a second matter, the court ordered that ethics charges against the same attorney be dismissed.

The court held that the dissemination of public record information did violate violate the duty of confidentiality and that there was a lack of precedent that the failure to preserve web page information violated Rule 7.2(b). 

The DRB had proposed a reprimand for 

respondent’s conduct in (1) publishing, on his law firm’s website, an article about a discrimination case that he had instituted on a client’s behalf and in which he made comments about the judge who had presided over the trial, (2) failing to remove the article from the website, as required by the terms of the settlement agreement executed by the parties, and (3) failing to comply with the RPCs governing attorney advertisements. 

There was a dissent in favor of dismissal of the charges

Like the special master who heard this matter, I do not think that re-publishing confidential information that has already been made public should be considered an ethics violation or that one should need a client’s permission to use already-public information in an article. cited by the majority Nor do I think that the legal authority (at p. 61) supports such a holding…

Although RPC 7.2(b) requires attorneys to keep a copy of “an advertisement or written communication” for three years “after its dissemination,” no prior case has found a violation of this rule or addressed this issue, and I disagree with the majority that failure to keep this type of record is comparable to violations of RPC 1.15(d) requiring attorneys to maintain financial and banking records. It is not even clear that RPC 7.2(b), adopted in 1984 before the wide use of the internet that exists today, requires attorneys to keep all versions of easily-changed websites that are often frequently updated. Moreover, this issue arose in this case only because a settlement agreement required respondent to remove his article from the internet and his failure to keep a copy of the various iterations of his website under these circumstances seems to be unintentional and, at most, a de minimis violation.

(Mike Frisch)