Disqualified Attorney Reprimanded

The Ohio Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded a side-switching attorney

In a complaint certified to the Board of Professional Conduct on November 30, 2017, relator, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, alleged that Hackerd committed several ethical violations by representing the former spouse of a former client in a child-custody case and opposing the former client’s motion to disqualify him from that representation.

The story

In November 2006, Hackerd agreed to represent Rainie Krenn, the wife of his longtime friend and former client Tim Krenn, in a child-support and visitation matter involving Ms. Krenn’s daughter from a previous relationship. Mr. Krenn later agreed to adopt the child, and Hackerd represented the couple in the stepparent-adoption proceeding. The Krenns divorced in 2015, and Hackerd did not participate in those proceedings.

In January 2017, Ms. Krenn initiated postdecree proceedings seeking to have Mr. Krenn cited for contempt, to modify the court’s prior school-placement order, and to enforce the parenting-time and child-support orders. Mr. Krenn retained Hackerd to represent him in the postdecree proceedings.

In March 2017, Ms. Krenn asked the trial court to disqualify Hackerd from representing Mr. Krenn in the proceedings. At a hearing on the motion, Ms. Krenn testified that when Hackerd was representing her, she told him personal, and possibly inflammatory, things about her past, and she expressed concern that this information might be used against her in the pending litigation.

On March 15, 2017, the trial court granted Ms. Krenn’s motion. Five days later, Hackerd appealed the judgment. While that appeal was pending, the trial court issued an order suspending Mr. Krenn’s parenting time. Hackerd moved the court of appeals to vacate that ruling and filed a brief opposing Ms. Krenn’s motion to dismiss the motion to vacate. The court of appeals denied Hackerd’s motion and later affirmed the disqualification entry. On October 19, 2017, Hackerd withdrew from the case.

Sanction

Based on our independent review of the record in this case and our precedent, we agree that Hackerd’s continued representation of Mr. Krenn in violation of the trial court’s disqualification order violated Prof.Cond.R. 8.4. Given this single rule violation, the absence of any aggravating factors, and the presence of significant mitigating factors, we agree that a public reprimand is the appropriate sanction in this case.