Case Name: THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. Kenneth David KOSSOW, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2005-05-19
Citations: 912 So. 2d 544
Docket Number: No. SC03-1900
Parties: THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. Kenneth David KOSSOW, Respondent.
Judges: PARIENTE, C.J., and WELLS, ANSTEAD, LEWIS, QUINCE, CANTERO, and BELL, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 912
Pages: 544–550

Head Matter:
THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. Kenneth David KOSSOW, Respondent.
No. SC03-1900.
Supreme Court of Florida.
May 19, 2005.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 28, 2005.
John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, John Anthony Boggs, Staff Counsel, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, FL, and Lillian Archbold, Bar Counsel, The Florida Bar, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Complainant.
Chandler R. Muller of Muller and Som-merville, P.A., Winter Park, FL and David A. Henson, Brevard, NC, for Respondent.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The Bar has petitioned for review of a referee's report recommending that attorney Kenneth Kossow receive a public reprimand for unethical conduct in connection with the violation of an agreement between Kossow and the law firm that employed him. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 15, Fla. Const. We consider Kossow's misconduct to be a serious breach of his duty of loyalty to his law firm, and for the reasons set forth below, we reject the referee's recommended discipline and impose a thirty-day suspension.
BACKGROUND
In July 2001, Kossow was hired by the law firm of Hunt, Cook, Riggs, Mehr & Miller, P.A. (the firm). At that time, Kos-sow advised the firm that he conducted a private law practice under the name Emergent Solutions Group (Emergent). He also advised the firm of the nature and extent of his practice.
On October 25, 2001, the firm's administrator sent a memo requesting that each firm associate "prepare a list of all matters in which you may be providing legal representation on a pro bono basis and/or representation of family or friends, or for any matters which have not been specifically set up as clients of the firm." The memo further advised that under the terms of employment with the firm, associates should not provide legal services in any capacity other than as employees of the firm. Kossow furnished the requested information. After receiving the memo and while continuing to work for the firm, Kos-sow accepted new business and represented clients for the benefit of Emergent and in violation of the firm's policy. Kossow did not disclose the outside work to the firm.
In January 2002, the firm intercepted a signed engagement letter and retainer check payable to Emergent that was addressed to Kossow at the firm's address. Without disclosing the interception to Kos-sow, a firm representative asked Kossow if he had done any work for that client. When Kossow denied having done any, the representative showed Kossow the engagement letter and fired him.
Pursuant to an unconditional guilty plea tendered by Kossow, the referee recommended that Kossow be found guilty of violating Rule Regulating the Florida Bar 4-8.4(c), which provides that a lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
At the hearing on discipline, Kossow testified that he earned approximately $18,500 in fees from handling matters for outside clients after he received the October 25 policy memo. He testified he knew that after October 25 his outside work was a violation of the policy outlined in the memo. He further testified that he did not share any of those outside fees with the firm. According to one of the firm's representatives (two testified at the hearing), the firm made no demand on Kossow for any portion of those fees or for return of any moneys, although the representative testified that he believed Kossow caused economic loss to the firm in billable hours and wasted firm resources. Both firm representatives testified that Kossow was hired at $135,000 per year but was transferred out of the tax division and into the estates division at a reduced salary of $100,000 per year, due in part to his failure to meet the billable hour requirements. One representative, who was also one of Kossow's supervisors, testified that Kos-sow's work product was never adequate. However, Kossow also introduced into evidence complimentary notations on his work from other firm supervisors.
As to discipline, the referee recommended that Kossow receive a public reprimand and that he pay the Bar's costs. In making this recommendation, the referee noted that Kossow has no prior disciplinary history. The referee found as the sole aggravating factor that Kossow's conduct was dishonest and selfish. The referee declined to find the aggravating factors of victim vulnerability, misappropriation or waste of firm resources, and failure to make restitution. The referee also found that no waste of firm resources was proven and that a theft of firm resources was not established. With regard to restitution, the referee noted that a firm representative made it clear the firm had no desire to represent the clients that Kossow had personally represented and made no demand for a portion of the fees received by Kos-sow as result of his representation of these clients.
As to mitigation, the referee found that Kossow was a young attorney (age 32) who was inexperienced with the demands of a hectic firm that expected him to supervise himself. The referee also found other factors in mitigation, including (1) Kossow now works successfully as a wealth strategist for Bank of America, (2) he has expressed embarrassment and remorse for his misconduct, (3) he has taken two CLE ethics courses, (4) he has good character, (5) he made full and free disclosure to the Bar, (6) he did not harm any clients of the firm or the public, and (7) his misconduct stemmed more from an imperfect understanding of his obligations to the firm than from deceit or any intent to harm the firm. The referee classified Kossow's misconduct as a failure to maintain his personal integrity.
The Bar has petitioned for review, challenging the referee's recommended discipline.
ANALYSIS
As a preliminary matter, neither of the parties challenges the referee's findings of fact and the recommended rule violation. Accordingly, we approve these findings without further discussion.
As to discipline, although a referee's recommendation is persuasive, this Court does not pay the same deference to this recommendation as it does to the guilt recommendation because this Court has the ultimate responsibility to determine the appropriate sanction. Generally speaking, this Court will not second-guess a referee's recommended discipline as long as that discipline has a reasonable basis in existing caselaw or in the Florida Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions. See Fla. Bar v. Temmer, 753 So.2d 555, 558 (Fla.1999). The Bar argues that the referee's recommendation is far too lenient, and asserts that a ninety-day suspension for Kossow's unethical misconduct is appropriate. On the other hand, Kos-sow argues that the referee's recommendation is reasonable in light of the significant mitigation found by the referee.
We agree with the Bar that a public reprimand is too lenient for what was blatantly dishonest and deceitful conduct on Kossow's part. Kossow continued to represent clients outside of the firm and accept new clients despite his knowledge of the firm's policy against outside employment. Further, Kossow furthered his own financial goals at the firm's expense. A firm representative testified that in servicing these outside clients, Kossow emailed documents to himself, had the firm's administrative staff copy books and treatises from the firm's library, and utilized work time to talk to the other members of the firm about his outside cases. It does not matter that Kossow's use of the firm's time and resources to represent nonfirm clients, contrary to the firm's stated policy, may not be quantifiable to an exact amount. It is unquestionable that by using the firm's equipment, materials, and time (during which Kossow could have been working for the firm, or the associates who discussed Kossow's cases with him could have been doing work for the firm), Kossow misappropriated the resources of the firm that employed him, thereby compromising the good of the firm to his own financial ends. Further, Kossow's unethical conduct did not end there. When a firm representative asked him a question related to his moonlighting, Kossow could have admitted that he had continued to represent clients outside of the firm and was accepting new clients as well. Instead, he attempted to conceal his ongoing misconduct by answering dishonestly when asked about having done work for the client whose letter was intercepted.
In prior cases, we have suspended attorneys who moonlighted in contravention of firm policy and who willfully deceived their firms with regard to this outside representation. In Florida Bar v. Cox, 655 So.2d 1122, 1122 (Fla.1995), an attorney accepted cases without the knowledge and consent of his firm even though the firm had a policy against unauthorized outside legal employment. Cox further collected and kept fees generated from his outside clients. Cox also billed the clients on the firm's stationery, thereby using firm resources in furtherance of his moonlighting. Id. As with Kossow, when Cox was initially confronted, he denied such conduct; however, when faced with documented evidence of his misconduct, he admitted to having collected fees. Id. The Court rejected Cox's claim that his misconduct merited only a public reprimand. Id. at 1123. Despite the lack of harm to either Cox's firm, his clients, or his firm's clients, the Court imposed the thirty-day suspension recommended by the referee, concluding that Cox's unauthorized moonlighting and willful deceit towards his firm "reflect[ed] a pattern of intentional misconduct and deception which warrants serious [discipline]." Id.
With regard to Kossow's ongoing misuse of the firm's resources to represent his own personal clients and thereby further his own financial interests, a thirty-day suspension is more than fair to Kossow, and could actually be considered lenient. Other states have imposed harsher discipline on attorneys who have engaged in such conduct. For example, in In re Cupples, 979 S.W.2d 932 (Mo.1998), the Missouri Supreme Court suspended indefinitely an attorney who concealed the fact that he was conducting a private law practice while engaged in full-time employment for a firm, used firm resources to represent his separate clients, and exposed the firm to potential malpractice liability based on possible conflicts of interest between his personal clients and the firm's clients. In aggravation, the court found that Cupples had a disciplinary history, possessed substantial experience in the practice of law, and refused to acknowledge the wrongful nature of his conduct. Id. at 937. In imposing an indefinite suspension, the court used language especially pertinent to the instant case:
[Cupples' conduct] involves dishonesty, deceit, and misrepresentation. The firm believed that Cupples was a full time employee who would devote one hundred percent of his professional time and efforts to the firm. Cupples' actions directly contradicted the firm's expectations, constituted an appropriation of firm resources for private gain, and exposed the firm to potential malpractice liability. His conduct was deceitful, dishonest, and misrepresentative. As a consequence, this case requires discipline and mandates sanctions.
Id. at 936.
We similarly conclude that Kos-sow's conduct towards the firm was disloy al and deceitful. An attorney who uses firm resources to place his or her pecuniary interests over those of the firm engages in misconduct that indubitably calls into question the attorney's fitness to practice law, and such ongoing and intentional misconduct by an attorney justifies serious discipline. Therefore, we conclude that a thirty-day suspension is the minimum discipline that should be imposed upon Kos-sow for his unethical and dishonest dealings with the firm. This conclusion is consistent with Florida Standard for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions 7.2, which provides that suspension is appropriate when a lawyer knowingly engages in conduct that is a violation of a duty owed as a professional and causes injury to the public, a client, or the legal system. Without question, Kossow intentionally violated his professional duty to the firm, and his misappropriation of firm time and resources harmed the firm. We caution that in the future, the discipline imposed may be harsher for attorneys who represent outside clients in violation of firm policy, misuse their firms' resources to represent those clients, and act dishonestly by failing to disclose those clients to their firms.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, Kenneth David Kossow is hereby suspended from the practice of law for a period of thirty days. The suspension will be effective thirty days from the filing of this opinion so that Kossow can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. If Kossow notifies this Court in writing that he is no longer practicing and does not need the thirty days to protect existing clients, this Court will enter an order making the suspension effective immediately. Kossow shall accept no new business from the date this opinion is filed until the suspension is completed. Judgment is entered for The Florida Bar, 651 East Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300, for recovery of costs from Kenneth David Kossow in the amount of $1,238.71, for which sum let execution issue.
It is so ordered.
PARIENTE, C.J., and WELLS, ANSTEAD, LEWIS, QUINCE, CANTERO, and BELL, JJ., concur.
LEWIS, J., concurs specially with an opinion, in which CANTERO, J., concurs.
. The court allowed the attorney to petition for reinstatement after a minimum of six months.