Title: The Florida Bar v. Hirsch
Citation: 342 So. 2d 970
Docket Number: 50149, 51577
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: February 17, 1977

342 So. 2d 970 (1977)
THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant,
v.
David N. HIRSCH, Respondent.
No. 50149.

Supreme Court of Florida.
February 17, 1977.
Stanley B. Powell, Bar Counsel, and David G. McGunegle, Asst. Staff Counsel, Tallahassee, for complainant.
David N. Hirsch, in pro. per.
DREW, Justice, Retired.
The Referee recommends that David N. Hirsch be suspended from the practice of law for three months for violating Integration Rule, Art. XI, Rule 11.02(2) and 11.02(4). Pertinent portions of his cogent and well reasoned findings are:
The Florida Bar recommends that the punishment here should be disbarment instead of suspension.
We cannot say that the record here establishes that this respondent is one that has been demonstrated to fall within that class of lawyers "unworthy to practice law in this State" as provided in Integration Rule 11.02. Disbarment is the extreme and ultimate penalty in disciplinary proceedings. It occupies the same rung of the ladder in these proceedings as the death penalty in criminal proceedings. It is reserved, as the rule provides, for those who should not be permitted to associate with the honorable members of a great profession. But, in disciplinary proceedings, as in criminal proceedings, the purpose of the law is not only to punish but to reclaim those who violate the rules of the profession or the laws of the Society of which they are a part.
Mr. Henry S. Drinker of the Philadelphia Bar served as Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the American Bar Association under 9 presidents of that organization. His book, Legal Ethics, first published in 1953, has long been considered the best work yet prepared on the subject. Until this publication appeared in 1953 "almost the only work obtainable" on the subject was Judge Sharswood's lectures on legal ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.[1]
Mr. Drinker, in his discussion of the type of punishment that should be imposed says:
We have found no better guideline in this troublesome area than those set forth with *972 such clarity by Mr. Drinker. They are just as pertinent in times where the bar sails on placid seas as when it is caught up in the storms of criticism of public servants and all those in positions of trust, such as we are now experiencing in the aftermath of Watergate. We are cognizant of the difficulty of the bar, or this Court, being completely objective in disciplinary cases where the whole profession, including those charged with enforcing its moral codes and concepts, are affected by whatever judgment is rendered. For this reason great care should be exercised to the end that the ultimate judgment does not become an expression of frustration.
In our view the conclusion of the Referee that the judgment be one of suspension from the practice of law for three months, is correct and is hereby adopted as the judgment of this Court.
It is ordered that the period of suspension commence with the filing of this decision and shall continue thereafter for a period of three months and until the costs in the amount of $301.50 are paid.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C.J., and BOYD, SUNDBERG and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.
[1]  See Foreword Legal Ethics by Henry S. Drinker.
[2]  Id. at 46, 47.