Case Title: Cleveland Metro. Bar Assn. v. Brooks

Citation: 2022-Ohio-3712

Docket Number: 2022-0714

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2022-10-20T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Cleveland Metro. Bar Assn. v. Brooks, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-3712.] 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an 
advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested to 
promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 
South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other 
formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before 
the opinion is published. 
 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2022-OHIO-3712 
CLEVELAND METROPOLITAN BAR ASSOCIATION v. BROOKS. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Cleveland Metro. Bar Assn. v. Brooks, Slip Opinion No.  
2022-Ohio-3712.] 
Attorneys—Misconduct—Violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct—
Indefinite suspension. 
(No. 2022-0714—Submitted August 2, 2022—Decided October 20, 2022.) 
ON CERTIFIED REPORT by the Board of Professional Conduct of the Supreme 
Court, No. 2021-019. 
_______________________ 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} Respondent, Robert Chester Brooks II, of Cleveland, Ohio, Attorney 
Registration No. 0040881, was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1988.  On 
November 1, 2019, we suspended Brooks’s license for failing to register as an 
attorney for the 2019/2020 biennium.  In re Attorney Registration of Brooks, 157 
Ohio St.3d 1472, 2019-Ohio-4529, 134 N.E.3d 183.  On October 14, 2020, we 
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suspended his license again for failing to comply with the continuing-legal-
education (“CLE”) requirements of Gov.Bar R. X.  160 Ohio St.3d 1424, 2020-
Ohio-4908, 155 N.E.3d 918.  Those suspensions remain in effect. 
{¶ 2} In July 2021, relator, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, 
charged Brooks with violating the Rules of Professional Conduct for, among other 
things, continuing to practice law after his attorney-registration and CLE 
suspensions had been imposed.  Brooks stipulated to the charged misconduct, but 
the parties could not agree on a recommended sanction.  After a hearing, the Board 
of Professional Conduct issued a report finding that Brooks had engaged in the 
stipulated misconduct and recommending that we indefinitely suspend him and 
impose a condition on his potential reinstatement to the practice of law.  Neither 
party has objected to the board’s report. 
{¶ 3} Based on our independent review of the record, we adopt the board’s 
findings of misconduct and its recommended sanction. 
Misconduct 
{¶ 4} When we imposed Brooks’s attorney-registration suspension in 
November 2019, we ordered that he “immediately cease and desist from the 
practice of law in any form” and we expressly prohibited him from “appear[ing] on 
behalf of another before any court [or] judge.”  157 Ohio St.3d 1472, 2019-Ohio-
4529, 134 N.E.3d 183.  Although Brooks received notice of the suspension in 
December 2019, he continued to practice law.  In February 2020, he represented a 
client in a contempt hearing in the Garfield Heights Municipal Court.  In July 2020, 
he appeared as counsel at a hearing in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common 
Pleas.  In August 2020, he filed a motion in a different case pending in the 
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, and in the same case he attempted to 
appear at a September 2020 hearing, although the judge prohibited Brooks from 
participating after learning of his suspension.  Brooks told the judge that he had 
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already sent in his registration fees and fine, but he had not done so.  Brooks failed 
to notify the other courts that his license was suspended. 
{¶ 5} As noted above, on October 14, 2020, we imposed Brooks’s CLE 
suspension.  A few days later, relator notified Brooks that it had received a 
grievance alleging that he had been practicing law while under suspension.  Brooks 
responded to the grievance in November 2020.  Despite his knowledge of both 
suspensions and relator’s investigation, Brooks continued to practice law.  In 
November 2020 through March 2021, he appeared on behalf of a client at four 
hearings in the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court.  Brooks failed to notify that court 
of his suspension before any of those hearings.  In February 2021, he filed a notice 
of appearance and a request for discovery in the Garfield Heights Municipal Court, 
although the following month, he moved to withdraw and advised the court of his 
suspension. 
{¶ 6} Relator notified Brooks that it had received two more grievances 
against him and requested that he respond to each.  Brooks, however, failed to do 
so.  In May 2021, Brooks spoke on the telephone with relator’s counsel, who asked 
Brooks to provide him with a list of all matters in which Brooks had appeared as 
counsel while under suspension.  Brooks failed to provide the list.  In July 2021, 
relator filed its disciplinary complaint, and Brooks waived his right to a 
determination of probable cause.  Despite Brooks’s awareness of the complaint, he 
continued to represent a client in a matter pending in the Cuyahoga County Court 
of Common Pleas until December 2021, a little over a month before his disciplinary 
hearing. 
{¶ 7} The board concluded that Brooks “showed little regard for the 
multiple grievances submitted against him, Relator’s investigation, or the pending 
complaint.”  The board noted that after relator repeatedly requested information 
about the extent to which Brooks had continued representing clients while 
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suspended, Brooks either failed to provide the information or submitted 
information that was incomplete or inaccurate. 
{¶ 8} Based on this conduct, the parties stipulated and the board found that 
Brooks committed five violations of Prof.Cond.R. 3.4(c) (prohibiting a lawyer from 
knowingly disobeying an obligation under the rules of a tribunal), five violations 
of Prof.Cond.R. 5.5(a) (prohibiting a lawyer from practicing law in a jurisdiction 
in violation of the regulation of the legal profession in that jurisdiction), five 
violations of Prof.Cond.R. 8.4(c) (prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in conduct 
involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation), and one violation each 
of Prof.Cond.R. 8.1(b) and Gov.Bar R. V(9)(G) (both requiring a lawyer to 
cooperate with a disciplinary investigation).  In addition, Brooks admitted that 
before his suspensions, he had not maintained professional-liability insurance and 
had failed to notify his clients in writing that he did not carry such insurance.  The 
parties therefore stipulated and the board found that he had also violated 
Prof.Cond.R. 1.4(c) (requiring a lawyer to inform a client if the lawyer does not 
maintain professional-liability insurance and to obtain a signed acknowledgment of 
that notice from the client). 
{¶ 9} We adopt the board’s findings of misconduct. 
Sanction 
{¶ 10} When imposing sanctions for attorney misconduct, we consider all 
relevant factors, including the ethical duties that the attorney violated, the 
aggravating and mitigating factors listed in Gov.Bar R. V(13), and the sanctions 
imposed in similar cases. 
{¶ 11} As for aggravating factors, the parties stipulated and the board found 
that Brooks had engaged in a pattern of misconduct, committed multiple offenses, 
failed to cooperate in the disciplinary investigation, and engaged in deceptive 
practices during the disciplinary process.  See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(B)(3) through (6).  
The board emphasized that Brooks had “failed to display true candor” during 
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relator’s investigation and “never completely disclosed the number of matters that 
he appeared in while under suspension.” 
{¶ 12} As for mitigation, the board noted that Brooks had submitted 
evidence of good character and reputation and that prior to his suspensions, his law 
practice had served an underrepresented segment of the community.  See Gov.Bar 
R. V(13)(C)(5).  But those factors, the board noted, did not outweigh the fact that 
he had continued practicing law despite “full knowledge of this disciplinary 
proceeding.”  Brooks also testified that he had a mental disorder, that he had 
communicated with the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program (“OLAP”), and that he 
would benefit from treatment.  The board concluded, however, that Brooks had not 
provided the necessary evidence to substantiate his belief that he suffered from a 
mental disorder.  Brooks therefore failed to establish that he had a disorder that 
qualifies as a mitigating factor under Gov.Bar R. V(13)(C)(7). 
{¶ 13} To determine the appropriate sanction, the board reviewed a number 
of cases involving attorneys who continued practicing law while under a CLE or 
attorney-registration suspension and who either failed to cooperate in the ensuing 
disciplinary investigation or engaged in deceitful conduct.  See, e.g., Disciplinary 
Counsel v. Higgins, 117 Ohio St.3d 473, 2008-Ohio-1509, 884 N.E.2d 1070 
(indefinitely suspending an attorney for representing a client in a divorce and child-
custody case while under a CLE suspension and for failing to cooperate in the 
disciplinary investigation); Toledo Bar Assn. v. Crandall, 98 Ohio St.3d 444, 2003-
Ohio-1637, 786 N.E.2d 872 (indefinitely suspending an attorney for continuing to 
represent clients in two separate matters while under a CLE suspension and failing 
to cooperate in the disciplinary investigation); Disciplinary Counsel v. Squeo, 133 
Ohio St.3d 536, 2012-Ohio-5004, 979 N.E.2d 321 (indefinitely suspending an 
attorney who held himself out as an attorney while under CLE and attorney-
registration suspensions, engaged in dishonest conduct, and failed to cooperate in 
the disciplinary investigation); Disciplinary Counsel v. Mitchell, 124 Ohio St.3d 
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266, 2010-Ohio-135, 921 N.E.2d 634 (indefinitely suspending an attorney for 
attempting to represent a minor in juvenile court while under an attorney-
registration suspension and providing false information to the court about his 
identity and the status of his law license). 
{¶ 14} Considering that Brooks continued practicing law—and therefore 
continued to mislead courts—up until almost a month before his disciplinary 
hearing, the board concluded that he had showed “a sheer unwillingness to 
cooperate in the disciplinary process.”  Therefore, the board concluded that an 
indefinite suspension was necessary to protect the public “due to [Brooks’s] 
continued course of conduct to completely disregard his suspension and the 
disciplinary process.”  Additionally, the board agreed with Brooks’s own 
assessment that he may benefit from counseling and/or other mental-health 
treatment and therefore recommended that as a condition of his reinstatement to the 
practice of law, we require him to provide proof that he has undergone an OLAP 
evaluation and complied with any treatment recommendations. 
{¶ 15} Having considered Brooks’s misconduct, the relevant aggravating 
and mitigating factors, and our applicable precedent, we agree with the board’s 
recommended sanction.  “We have routinely imposed indefinite suspensions on 
attorneys who have continued to practice law while under suspension for CLE and 
registration violations and who have then failed to respond to the ensuing 
disciplinary investigation.”  Disciplinary Counsel v. Eisler, 143 Ohio St.3d 51, 
2015-Ohio-967, 34 N.E.3d 99, ¶ 17.  In light of our precedent, an indefinite 
suspension is the appropriate sanction in this case. 
Conclusion 
{¶ 16} Robert Chester Brooks II is hereby indefinitely suspended from the 
practice of law in Ohio.  In addition to the requirements of Gov.Bar R. V(25), 
Brooks’s reinstatement shall be conditioned on submission of proof that he has 
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undergone an OLAP evaluation and complied with any resulting recommendations 
for counseling and/or other mental-health treatment.  Costs are taxed to Brooks. 
Judgment accordingly. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and KENNEDY, FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, 
and BRUNNER, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
Christopher Joseph Klasa, Bar Counsel, and Stephanie R. Anderson, 
Deputy Bar Counsel, for relator. 
Robert Chester Brooks II, pro se. 
_________________