New Jersey: Where Lawyer Forgiveness Reigns

An attorney who got ticketed with a one-year Delaware suspension for unauthorized practice of law had that sanction reduced to a censure by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The Disciplinary Review Board favored that sanction and minimized the violations

Respondent never filed a lawsuit in Delaware and neither advertised nor actively solicited  clients in that State. Respondent never expressly told any of the clients nor represented to any court that he was a member of the Delaware bar. Nevertheless, respondent admitted that, by meeting with his Delaware clients in Delaware, he potentially created the impression that he was a licensed Delaware attorney. Finally, none of the clients were harmed by respondent’s actions.

The attorney had been reprimanded for a conflict of interest in 1997.

 The arguments before the board were whether to impose a censure or a reprimand as reciprocal discipline

Finally, there is the large number of cases — in all, about seventy-five, between 2009 and 2012 — in which respondent intentionally served Delaware clients~ We, therefore, determine to impose a censure for respondent’s misconduct.

 (Mike Frisch)