Source: http://dc.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19990401_42057.DC.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2017-05-01 00:17:25
Document Index: 127106639

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 9', '§ 11', '§ 14']

IN RE JOSE A. RIVERA, RESPONDENT. Before Ruiz and Reid, Associate Judges, and Mack, Senior Judge.
Submitted March 16, 199
Respondent, Jose A. Rivera, was admitted to the State Bar of New York and the Bar of the District of Columbia. On September 16, 1991, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, disbarred respondent, "sustaining 22 charges of professional misconduct." The charges ranged "from simple and gross neglect, to taking and then abandoning manifestly meritless matters, to dipping into escrow funds entrusted to him, to falsely assuring clients that their cases were pending long after they had been dismissed for his default, to pressuring a client who he knew to be depressed and under a doctor's care to lend him a large sum on a non-negotiable promissory note prepared by him . . . and defaulting on the note after a few payments leaving a still unpaid balance, to commingling clients and personal moneys, to outright conversion."
Respondent did not report the disbarrment to Bar Counsel as required by D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11 (b). After learning of respondent's disbarrment in February 1998 from the New York disciplinary counsel, Bar Counsel filed with this court a certified copy of the New York disciplinary order. This court temporarily suspended respondent pursuant to D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11 (d), and referred the matter to the Board of Professional Responsibility ("Board"), "to determine whether reciprocal discipline should be imposed."
The Board has recommended disbarrment as reciprocal discipline. Bar Counsel has informed the court that he takes no exception to the Board's report and recommendation. *fn1 Respondent has not filed any opposition to the Board's report and recommendation. We accept the Board's recommendation. See In re Powell, 686 A.2d 247, 248 (D.C. 1996) ("District of Columbia Bar Rule XI, § 11 (c) requires that reciprocal discipline be imposed in this jurisdiction unless the respondent can demonstrate, by clear and convincing evidence, that one of the exceptions set forth in the rule applies to his case."); D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9 (g)(2) (1988) ("When no exceptions are filed . . . the Court will enter an order imposing the discipline recommended by the Board upon the expiration of the time permitted for filing exceptions."); D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11 (f). Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that Jose A. Rivera is disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia. For the purposes of reinstatement to the Bar, respondent's disbarrment shall commence on the date he files a sufficient affidavit pursuant to D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (g).