A Co-Counsel Conflict
An attorney’s resignation has been accepted by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The respondent submitted an Affidavit of Resignation to the Board of Bar Overseers, see S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 15, in which she admitted a range of misconduct in two matters. As to the first, she agreed that in the context of a dispute with co-counsel on a federal case, she filed an amended complaint bearing co-counsel’s signature against co-counsel’s express wishes and without her clients’ permission; filed a withdrawal motion revealing confidential information in which she criticized her co-counsel on the case; filed a state lawsuit for breach of contract against co-counsel that made damage demands that did not have a substantial basis; and, in the context of that lawsuit, revealed confidential information of the former clients without their permission. In the second matter, she billed a prospective client who had rescinded an offer of employment, and threatened to bring a lawsuit in which harmful information provided to her by the prospective client would have become public, unless the bill was paid; contacted the non-lawyer staff of an adverse party after they had asked her to contact only their legal counsel; and threatened to sue an individual officer of the prospective client in part because she filed a complaint with the Board of Bar Overseers.
The dispute referenced in the first matter was extensively reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
One of the lawyers for a group of Kenosha protesters has withdrawn from their case against Facebook and rifle-toting men, after trying to add a plaintiff who turned out to have past credibility issues.
But as she left, Jennifer Sirrine took some shots at her former co-counsel, whom she accused of underpaying and misleading her and resenting that she talked to news media about the case, which accuses the men of conspiring to violate the plaintiffs’ rights and Facebook of negligence in allowing the posts the plaintiffs say fueled the conspiracy.
Sirrine runs her solo, two-year-old practice in Massachusetts. Jason Flores-Williams is a Denver lawyer known for his high-profile activist cases on behalf of homeless people, death row inmates and the Colorado River.
(Mike Frisch)