Rocky Mountain (Too) High

The Minnesota Supreme Court imposed a shorter suspension as reciprocal discipline based on a Colorado sanction

Respondent was suspended in Colorado after she submitted false billing entries for the December 2016 billing cycle. Respondent initially lied to attorneys at her firm when they confronted her about the falsified billing entries but confessed later that day. Respondent submitted the false billing entries in order to meet her law firm’s yearly billable-hours expectation for associates. No client paid an inflated billing entry. Respondent’s misconduct violated Colo. R. Prof. Conduct4.l(a) and 8.4(c). The Presiding Disciplinary Judge found the existence of one aggravating factor and several mitigating factors. When respondent, who is a resident of Colorado, was reinstated to practice law in Colorado in May 2018, she was not placed on probation.

Here

The parties contend that reciprocal discipline is not appropriate in this case because the imposition of the same discipline would be substantially different than the discipline warranted in Minnesota.

The court has independently reviewed the file and approves the jointly recommended disposition. Although we typically impose identical discipline in a reciprocal disciplinary proceeding, identical discipline is not required if it is “substantially different from [the] discipline warranted in Minnesota.” Rule 12(d), RLPR. We have imposed less-severe discipline in similar cases involving false billing entries when the misconduct occurred during a short period of time and no client paid an inflated time entry.

…We conclude that a 9-month suspension is substantially different from the discipline warranted in Minnesota and agree that a 6- month suspension is appropriate. 

 (Mike Frisch)