Suspension For Failure To Update Admissions Application

The New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department imposed a one-year suspension for an attorney’s failure to disclose a post-application, pre-admission matter

Respondent, who maintains a law office in the City of Buffalo, Erie County, was admitted to practice by this Court on April 13, 2011 after submitting an application for admission to this Court in late November 2010. On December 11, 2010, however, respondent was arrested in Erie County and charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident. As a result of this arrest, respondent was charged with violating the student rules and regulations of the university where he was then-matriculated. In late March 2011, the criminal matter was resolved by respondent’s plea of guilty to the violation of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600 [1] [a]) and, shortly after his admission by this Court, respondent pleaded responsible to a university rule violation and was placed on probation. In 2017, respondent sought a copy of his New York bar admission application 
as he was then seeking admission in another jurisdiction. Following his receipt of the application, respondent inquired about the whereabouts of an addendum purportedly in the possession of this Court’s Office of Attorney Admissions, which he alleged had been sent in January 2011 and in which he claimed that the December 2010 criminal matter had been disclosed. Upon confirmation from the Office of Attorney Admissions that no such addendum existed, respondent self-reported the arrest and the criminal plea in a January 2017 affidavit provided to the Office.

Findings

The documentary evidence and testimony elicited at the hearing reveal that respondent acknowledged his obligation to disclose the relevant matters, but conversely do not support his assertions that he submitted an addendum disclosing the criminal matter prior to his admission. As the Referee found, the record reveals that respondent has provided inconsistent statements throughout the proceeding, with his statements varying as to when and to whom the disclosure was purportedly made prior to his admission, and are further not supported by any documentary evidence, except an email that respondent sent only to himself. Moreover, respondent’s statements at the hearing that he submitted the addendum in February 2011 and did not do so prior to that time as he wanted to resolve the criminal matter and provide the Office of Attorney Admissions a complete set of documents are starkly contrasted with documentary evidence indicating that the criminal and academic matters were not resolved until March 2011 and April 2011, respectively. As such, we find that respondent, while his application for admission remained pending before us, failed to disclose the arrest, criminal conviction and academic disciplinary matter, despite an ongoing obligation to do so, and such conduct constitutes professional misconduct.

The court noted that revocation could be imposed but

we conclude that the appropriate penalty is a one-year suspension.

Egan Jr., J.P., Ceresia and McShan, JJ., concur. Aarons, J., concurs in part and dissents in part, and would grant petitioner’s motion to confirm and issue a censure. Reynolds Fitzgerald, J., dissents, and would deny petitioner’s motion to confirm.