Oh, Canada

A lack of candor in the bar admissions process has resulted in the revocation of a license by the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department

On his December 2009 application for admission, in response to inquiries concerning other bar admissions, respondent indicated only that he was “in the process of completing Saskatchewan’s version of the ‘bar examination’ (i.e. ‘competency evaluations’), which must be completed prior to applying for admission in Saskatchewan.”  However, at that time, respondent had already been suspended from the program in question after it had been revealed that he had impermissibly collaborated and shared answers with a fellow student on a pair of the program’s online modules. As a result, a mere three months before his application for admission by this Court, respondent was found by the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s Admission and Education Committee to have engaged in a “serious breach of integrity” that warranted the imposition of several monetary and academic sanctions. As a consequence of respondent’s nondisclosure of these material facts (see Rules of Professional Conduct [22m, NYCRR] § 1200.0] rule 8.1 [a] [2]), he was admitted to practice in this state without any consideration of the circumstances existing in Saskatchewan during the time that his application was pending here. Moreover, following a lengthy hearing, respondent was ultimately denied admission in Saskatchewan. But, again, due to respondent’s nondisclosure in the first instance, this Court and its Committee on Character and Fitness were deprived of the opportunity to consider the full record and the factual findings of Saskatchewan admission authorities in assessing respondent’s candidacy for admission in New York. Under these circumstances, we conclude that respondent’s admission should be revoked, without prejudice to his submission of a renewed application for admission based upon the record in this proceeding and any additional information deemed necessary by this Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness.

 (Mike Frisch)