Hercules Defeats Bankruptcy Court Order

The New Jersey Supreme Court admonished an attorney for failure to cooperate in a matter where a sanction had been ordered by the United States District Court For the Eastern District of Pennsylvania bankruptcy court.

The sanction purported to prohibit him from practicing before any bankruptcy court.

The court concluded that the attorney did not engage in unauthorized bankruptcy practice in New Jersey federal court as the Eastern District’s sanction exceeded its powers.

From the report of the Disciplinary Review Board

It appears clear, therefore, that only an attorney’s disbarment by consent in or a resignation from another court, be it federal or state, operates as an automatic bar to practice in the District of New Jersey. The EDPA, thus, did not have authority to extend its order of temporary suspension to the DNJ.

Certainly, respondent was properly enjoined from practicing in the EDPA until he satisfied the CLE requirements of the order issued by the bankruptcy judge there. The condition that enjoined Respondent from practicing in any jurisdiction where he was licensed, however, was unenforceable. It denied him any of the due process rights to which he was entitled by way of Supreme Court case law and the local rules of the DNJ. Furthermore, the record contains  no information beyond a quotation of the court’s order enjoining him from practicing law or any detail as to the circumstances that resulted in the of that order. For these reasons, we dismiss the alleged violation of RPC 5.5(a)(i).

He had failed to respond in the New Jersey matter, resulting in the sanction.

The DRB declined to set aside the default. (Mike Frisch)