Respite From The Nitwits
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has reciprocally disbarred an attorney
The Grievance Administrator filed a Notice of Filing of Reciprocal Discipline pursuant to MCR 9.120(C), that attached a certified copy of a Final Judgment and Order issued by the presiding disciplinary judge of the Supreme Court of Arizona, disbarring respondent from the practice of law in Arizona, effective August 15, 2024, in a matter titled In the Matter of a Suspended Member of the State Bar of Arizona, Mark D. Goldman, PDJ 2024-9058.
An order regarding imposition of reciprocal discipline was issued by the Board on November 7, 2024, ordering the parties to, within 21 days from service of the order, inform the Board in writing: (i) of any objection to the imposition of comparable discipline in Michigan based on the grounds set forth in MCR 9.120(C)(1), and (ii) whether a hearing was requested. The 21-day period referenced in MCR 9.120(C)(2)(b) expired without objections by either party and respondent was deemed to be in default. As a result, the Attorney Discipline Board ordered that respondent be disbarred from the practice of law in Michigan. Costs were assessed in the amount of $1,525.3
Arizona New Times reported
When Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio battled contempt of court charges in 2017, Mark Goldman was hard to miss.
The Scottsdale attorney cut a flamboyant figure. Goldman rocked silk ties, a diamond earring, a piratelike jet-black beard and long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. As he defended Arpaio in court and helped him win a presidential pardon from Donald Trump — and, later, as he tried to get actor Steven Seagal out of jury duty — Goldman became a wacky character in Arizona’s legal community.
But Goldman’s a member of that community no more. On Aug. 15, the State Bar of Arizona revoked his law license over a slew of ethical violations. Goldman had stopped communicating with his clients and had failed to show up for court hearings. He hadn’t complied with subpoenas and mishandled client funds, according to the bar.
A three-person disciplinary panel found that Goldman “knowingly violated duties owed to his clients, the legal system, and the legal profession,” according to State Bar records, thereby causing “substantial harm” in the process. Eight days after a bar hearing — which Goldman skipped — the panel ordered him disbarred “effective immediately.
Not that Goldman particularly cares.
“I don’t have to worry about what I said or to whom,” he told Phoenix New Times. “I’m no longer under the yoke of these, essentially, fascists who want to control what you say.”
Goldman said he now works as a legal clerk, which doesn’t require a law license. But that’s just his day job. In his free time, he pursues a new passion: stand-up comedy.
Instead of lobbing objections in court and penning legal briefs, he writes set-ups and tosses out punchlines. Stand-up, he said, “is so much better than arguing with nitwits all day.”
(Mike Frisch)