The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has summarily reinstated an attorney who was the subject of two disciplinary sanctions culminating in her January 2011 suspension with fitness

The Board adopted in toto the Hearing Committee’s findings of fact. The Board noted that the “single most important determinant of [its] sanction recommendation” was that respondent’s violations, “serious in themselves,” occurred while the Board’s recommended suspension for respondent’s persistent refusal to respond to Bar Counsel’s inquiries in Lea I was pending before this court. The Board found that respondent’s blatant disregard of the District’s unauthorized practice of law regulation, her repeated refusal to respond to Bar Counsel’s request for a response to allegations against her, and her dishonesty in holding herself out as a lawyer authorized to practice in the District of Columbia rendered a suspension of 180 days “amply warranted by the record.” The Board also recommended that respondent be put “on notice” that she will need to “address [her] misconduct involved in this case” if and when she seeks reinstatement. Although the Hearing Committee recommended that respondent’s reinstatement be conditioned on her responding to the complaints against her, the Board concluded that since this court’s acceptance of the recommendation of a 180-day suspension “would adjudicate the ethical complaints in this matter, . . . a requirement that Respondent make a response to those complaints” is not necessary.

When Disciplinary Counsel does not oppose reinstatement, no hearings are held if the court accepts as sufficient the report that Disciplinary Counsel submits. (Mike Frisch)