Question Of The Day

As a follow up to our post yesterday on plea bargaining in attorney discipline matters, I pose the following question.

You are Disciplinary Counsel in your jurisdiction. You have completed an investigation and believe you have persuasive evidence that the Respondent attorney has engaged in acts that amount to intentional misappropriation of entrusted funds.

The presumptive sanction for such misconduct in your jurisdiction  is disbarment absent extraordinary circumstances. Disbarment, in functional effect, is a five-year suspension with any reinstatement conditioned on proof of the Respondent’s present fitness to practice law.

 Respondent, through counsel, approaches you with an offer to consider. The attorney tells you that the Respondent knows he likely will eventually be disbarred.

Respondent is 67 years old and wishes to retire without the stigma of disbarment. He offers to immediately accept a three-year consent suspension with any possible reinstatement conditioned on proof of fitness.

You know (1) that a fully litigated case might take five years  or longer to result in disbarment, (2) the three-year suspension will mean there is virtually no possibility of actual reinstatement in less than five years, and (3) the earliest that an interim suspension will be imposed is when there is a board report that approves a hearing committee finding of the charged misconduct.

That happy event is likely at least two to three years away.

So, you can get Respondent out of the practice today. He accepts the functional equivalent of the most severe sanction but avoids the Mark of Cain. He may (but then, may not) try to get his license restored someday.

Do you take the deal if your system gives you the authority and responsibility to do so?

If your system does not permit a consent disposition under these circumstances, is there something wrong with your system?

We may have some present and former disciplinary counsel that occasionally read this blog. I’d be most interested in their reaction by comment or otherwise. (Mike Frisch)