Ohio Denies Bar Admission

The Ohio Supreme Court has denied an application for admission

In Phares’s application to register as a candidate for the July 2019 bar exam, he reported that he had been employed by Ohio Link from March through August 2016 and that he left that employment because he was starting law school. He answered “no” to another question that asked, “Have you ever been terminated, suspended, disciplined, laid off, or permitted to resign in lieu of termination from any job?” In response to an inquiry from the National Conference of Bar Examiners, however, Ohio Link reported that it terminated Phares’s employment in August 2016 and that it would not rehire him.

His job  

Phares and his Ohio Link supervisor, Beth Miller, offered similar accounts about how the incident that ended his employment began. As an Ohio Link community-reentry specialist, one of Phares’s duties was to check on clients who were serving home detention.

He tested positive for marijuana. 

The circumstances of his departure

Based on Miller’s and Banks’s testimony, the board concluded that Phares was suspended from his job on the day of his accident and later terminated based on his failed drug test. Although the board acknowledged that Phares may not have taken affirmative steps to remain at Ohio Link because he was going to start law school in just a few weeks, it found that his registration application “gross[ly] mischaracteriz[ed]” what actually transpired. Phares then compounded the problem by giving false testimony to the panel at both of his admissions hearings. Indeed, the board found that Phares made the conscious decision to maintain that he had quit his job and that he had not initiated or engaged in any contact with anyone at Ohio Link since the day of his accident—despite Miller’s and Banks’s independent testimony to the contrary.

Result

Here, Phares engaged in a pattern of dishonesty that began with his omission of potentially damaging information in his November 2017 registration application and his certification that he had answered all the questions in the application “fully and frankly.” Phares’s pattern of dishonesty culminated with his giving false testimony under oath at his admissions hearings in May and October 2019—after he had graduated from law school. On these facts, we agree with the board’s finding that Phares has failed to carry his burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that he currently possesses the requisite character, fitness, and moral qualifications to practice law in Ohio.

He may reapply in July 2022. (Mike Frisch)