Suspension For Lawyer Whose Client Guessed Email Password

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the law license of a part-time prosecutor and lawyer for a series of rules violations, including knowingly failing to disclose information that a client obtained by hacking into his estranged wife’s email.

Joel B. Eisenstein, 70, can apply for the reinstatement of his law license in six months, the ruling says. Eisenstein has an office in St. Charles and is a part-time prosecutor in Lincoln County. He has also been a municipal judge and prosecutor in other jurisdictions. He has been a lawyer since 1974.

Missouri’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel sought a suspension of at least a year, citing the hacked information as well as claims that Eisenstein lied about it and threatened the wife’s attorney.

Eisenstein’s former client, Gregory J. Koch, accessed his wife’s personal mail at least three times, downloading financial information and a list of questions that his wife’s lawyer, Stephanie L. Jones, had prepared for trial. Koch, who died last year, guessed his wife’s password and then gave the information to his lawyer, filings say.

Disciplinary officials claim Eisenstein failed to disclose the information to Jones, and then lied about it when Jones spotted the paper work and went to the judge in the case.

Eisenstein said he had never reviewed or used the document.

The court’s opinion is linked here. The court states

Mr. Eisenstein asserts that any discipline should be mitigated by his lack of a dishonest or selfish motive. The ABA Standards indicate that a suspension is warranted where the lawyer knowingly and improperly withholds information. The lack of a dishonest or selfish motive is not dispositive. As established, the preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that Mr. Eisenstein knowingly retained the improperly obtained evidence and did not promptly disclose his receipt of that information so that protective measures could be employed.

Mr. Eisenstein also asserts that he suffers from post-traumatic distress syndrome due to his military service in Vietnam. Mr. Eisenstein does not elaborate on how this past military service in any way excuses the professional misconduct in this case. There are no mitigating factors.

Hat tip ABA Journal. (Mike Frisch)