Maryland Discipline Chaos Remains Unexplained By Daily Record “Reporting”
The Maryland Daily Record (subscription required) has an article today about the mass departures and severe morale problems at the state’s Office of Bar Counsel.
The article reports that nine attorneys have left the office in the wake of the resignation of the former Bar Counsel in March of this year.
The Record has previously published its praise of former Bar Counsel as “tough but fair” and here suggests that the resignation was a consequence of harsh questioning by the Maryland Supreme Court for being a “stickler” with Rule compliance.
Notwithstanding these puff pieces, I have a different view.
The article suggests that former Bar Counsel fell into disfavor for taking on powerful and well-connected attorneys.
To the contrary, I believe that a series of cases showed the court that the Office abused its authority and exercised questionable judgment by taking on a series of powerless and/or minority attorneys.
I first became aware of concerns about the abuse of the undeniably awesome power of a bar counsel in this case, where the court soundly rejected the then Senior Assistant Bar Counsel’s intervention in ongoing litigation and prosecution of two attorneys (who since became my friends) who had challenged well-funded development interests on behalf of citizens they represented pro bono who had sought to oppose a zoning ordinance.
The senior assistant was then promoted to Bar Counsel.
Since that time, a series of cases – all involving minority attorneys – raised serious questions about the fairness and judgment that had led to a number of failed bar prosecutions.
I have some experience with taking on powerful interests and incurring blowback that the article accurately suggests comes with the bar prosecutor territory.
I prosecuted a partner at McDermott, Will and Emery for billing fraud and a partner at Steptoe and Johnson for lying in an SEC investigation and learned that there is one set of rules for solo practice and minority lawyers and another set of far more forgiving rules for highly compensated partners in big law firms.
I respectfully suggest that the above dynamic has nothing to do with the present Maryland turmoil.
I agree that mass departures and severe understaffing at Maryland Bar Counsel is a serious issue that creates an intolerable danger to the public interest.
I respectfully suggest that the Daily Record could do a much better job of reportage than this coverage with its reliance on anonymous lawyers who are leaving the office whining about tough questioning from the court.
Maybe the reason for the questions of fairness, judgment and candor raised in the Gray and Dyer, Dawn Jackson, Raj Sanjeet Singh and Marylin Pierre cases (all linked above) is just as newsworthy.
The Daily Record has managed to largely ignore the unprecedented call by a highly respected Maryland jurist (who happens to be a black female) for the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate the conduct of former Bar Counsel in the Pierre case.
There is an important story here that is not being told by the Daily Record. (Mike Frisch)