A Dysfunctional System

In what may well be the longest hearing committee report (a fulsome 263 pages) in District of Columbia Bar history, an Ad Hoc Hearing Committee has recommended a six-month suspension with fitness

Respondent…is charged with violating Rules 3.1, 3.3(a)(1), 3.4(c), 8.4(a), 8.4(c), and 8.4(d) of the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct (the “Rule” or “Rules”), arising from a civil judgment against him and his conduct in connection with a subsequent settlement agreement. Disciplinary Counsel contends that Respondent committed all of the charged Rule violations and that, as a sanction for his misconduct, Respondent should be suspended for six months, with reinstatement conditioned upon a showing of fitness, payment of any outstanding sanctions, and compliance with any pending court orders. Respondent contends that Disciplinary Counsel has failed to establish, by clear and convincing evidence, any of the charged Rule violations.

The investigation began eight years and one name change (it was Bar Counsel back then) ago.

The hearing was held in 2016.

The prosecutor has long since retired.

It gets worse – the investigation was predicated on long ago completed civil litigation.

On December 28, 2009, Respondent filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals from the $1.2 million judgment against him. This appeal was docketed as No. 09-CV-1593. DCX 53 (Docket Sheet for Appeal No. 09-CV-1593) at 2; DCX 17 (Memorandum Opinion and Order, dated Dec. 14, 2012) at 3 n.7. Respondent’s appeal from this non-appealable order was frivolous. The Court of Appeals later dismissed Respondent’s appeal [in December 2012].

On the proposed sanction

We believe that the scope and seriousness of Respondent’s misconduct (particularly his false statements and related dishonesty to the court) could easily justify recommending a more severe sanction than the sanction that Disciplinary Counsel recommends. We are loath to recommend a harsher sanction than that proposed by Disciplinary Counsel, however.

Because the matter must be reviewed in turn by the Board of Professional Responsibility and the Court of Appeals, count on adding a few more years before the case is resolved.

The court has seen a steady stream of bar discipline matters that take a decade or more from soup to nuts without so much as a disapproving tut-tut.

It would be nice – but unexpected – if this embarrassed someone. (Mike Frisch)