Rearmed With Law License

The Maryland Court of Appeals has ordered the reinstatement of an attorney who had been suspended for giving a firearm to a convicted felon.

Reprimanding Reno would not suffice to protect the public and deter other lawyers from similar misconduct. Reno potentially endangered the public by giving a deadly weapon to a convicted felon. Although the hearing judge found that Reno did not know that Stevens could not legally possess a regulated firearm, the hearing judge found that Reno should have known. Despite knowing that the Firearms Registration Section of the Maryland State Police had disapproved Stevens’s application to buy a handgun, Reno circumvented the law by intentionally giving the same kind of handgun to Stevens, who, as Reno should have known, could not legally possess a regulated firearm. We cannot take lightly a lawyer’s failure to obey the law that the lawyer swore to uphold. Nor can we ignore the potential for danger that Reno caused.

 (Mike Frisch)