Failure To Supervise

The Maryland Court of Appeals has suspended an attorney who was admitted in 1972 and has practiced discipline-free for nearly 50 years.

The six-month and a day suspension will require him to petition for reinstatement.

The ethics issues involved his relationship with a paralegal group

Respondent admitted that, on some occasions, RT & Associates settled claims for clients of which he had no knowledge. This establishes that the staff at RT & Associates was engaging in activity that required the close supervision of Respondent—to the extent they could engage in that activity at all—and Respondent failed to supervise them in accordance with Rule 5.3(b). Based on his knowledge and acceptance of the conduct of the staff at RT & Associates, Respondent also failed to “make reasonable efforts to ensure that [his law firm had] in effect measures giving reasonable assurance that [RT & Associates’] conduct [was] compatible with [his] professional obligations.” Rule 5.3(a). We therefore conclude that Respondent violated Rule 5.3(a) and (b).

Rule 5.4

As the hearing judge found, that table, which was admitted at the hearing as Petitioner’s Exhibit 17, shows that in nearly every case Respondent paid the majority of the total attorney’s fees to RT & Associates. In fact, an independent review of that schedule shows that out of the approximately 800 total settlements, Respondent retained the majority
of the attorney’s fee in fewer than 3% of the cases. Moreover, nearly 90% of the time RT & Associates was paid between 50 and 70% of the earned attorney’s fee. In sum, out of all the attorney’s fees Respondent earned during that five-year period, Respondent paid more than 63% of that amount to RT & Associates.

…even if Respondent would also somehow take into account other factors, such as the nature of the case and how much work RT & Associates likely contributed, we cannot escape the conclusion that Respondent’s payment structure with RT & Associates constituted improper fee sharing.

Facilitating unauthorized practice

Respondent admitted that RT & Associates sometimes settled claims for clients of which Respondent was unaware. At least with respect to such clients, RT & Associates was effectively acting as their attorney, notwithstanding the fact that no one at RT & Associates was licensed to practice law. As Respondent was apparently aware of this practice and allowed it to continue, while RT & Associates was using his letterhead and sending correspondence bearing his signature without his awareness but with his authorization, Respondent was assisting the paralegals at RT & Associates in the unauthorized practice of law.

The court affirmed recordkeeping violations but agreed with the hearing judge that the conduct was not dishonest.

Oral argument is linked here. (Mike Frisch)