Opinion ID: 2290854
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The Recommended Discipline

Text: As has been indicated, we must take it as established in these proceedings that Respondent engaged in a disbarment offenseintentional misappropriation of funds. However, for this offense, the Maryland Court of Appeals suspended Respondent for a minimum period of ninety days and for an indefinite period thereafter. In so doing, the Court imposed a form of discipline that is not recognized in this jurisdiction. Under our rules, an attorney cannot be suspended for an indefinite period. Moreover, disbarment here precludes an attorney from seeking reinstatement for five years from the date of disbarment. Thus, the misconduct established in Maryland warrants substantially different discipline in this jurisdiction in that the upper range of any sanction here would be `substantially different' from the sanction imposed by the Maryland Court. In re Garner, 576 A.2d 1356 (D.C.1990). See also In re Reid, 540 A.2d 754, 759 (D.C.1988). In Reid, the Maryland Court had indefinitely suspended the lawyer, but entered its order without prejudice to his right to apply for reinstatement after the expiration of a period of thirty (30) days. 540 A.2d at 755. The lawyer in Reid had been found guilty of an intentional misappropriation of client funds. Nevertheless, because the lawyer was an alcoholic, a condition that was proven to be the cause of the misconduct, and because treatment was underway, the Court treated the alcoholism as a mitigating factor as in In re Kersey, 520 A.2d 321 (D.C.1987). The Court in Reid followed our recommendation that, although the lawyer should be disbarred, execution of the disbarment should be immediately stayed, and the lawyer should be placed on probation for five years subject to monitoring and other conditions. Supra, 540 A.2d at 756. The Reid case involved alcoholism while the present proceedings involve manic-depressive mental illness as the proposed mitigating factor. Despite this distinction, we believe the approach laid out in Reid should be followed. The Court recently held that mental illness of the sort that Respondent demonstrated in this case may, like alcoholism, be treated as a mitigating factor in appropriate cases, observing: Where, as in this case, the Respondent himself proffers evidence of chronic depression at the time of the alleged misconduct and consents to the recommended probation, we can appropriately approve an extended, supervised period of probation in lieu of all or part of a shorter period of suspension. In re Peek, 565 A.2d 627, 634 (D.C.1989). [footnote omitted]. Although the offense in Peek was attorney neglect, an offense that is less serious than the intentional misappropriation conclusively established here, whether a physical or mental condition may serve as mitigation without regard to the seriousness of the violation. [4] The violations in Kersey were far more serious than those in Reid, yet mitigation was allowed in both cases. As the Court said in Reid, The sanction imposed in Kersey did not necessarily turn on the egregiousness of the conduct at issue there. 540 A.2d at 759. If, for purposes of mitigation, mental illness of the type demonstrated by Respondent (and of the type found by the Board in Peek ) may be treated the same as the alcoholism in Kersey, then the type of discipline we recommended in Reid may also be imposed here. We may recommend the imposition of conditions more exacting than those imposed by the Maryland authorities for the same offense. In Reid, we recommended that probation be in effect for five years, whereas Maryland only required two years' probation. The Court approved our action in Reid, and we view that as precedent for the discipline we recommend in this case. [5] Accordingly, the Board recommends that Respondent be disbarred for misappropration of funds. However, consistently with what the Court did in Kersey, Reid, and, most recently, in Peek, the Board recommends that the Court should immediately suspend the disbarment and impose probation for a three year period, [6] dating from when Respondent was first suspended in the District of ColumbiaJanuary 18, 1990. During such three year period, Respondent should be required to continue therapy at his expense with a psychiatrist of his choice or a medical provider approved by D.C.Bar Counsel, and quarterly reports of such therapy shall be submitted to Bar Counsel. In addition, Respondent's practice in the District of Columbia should also be supervised by a lawyer-monitor selected by the Board, and this monitor shall take such action as is necessary to make reasonable determinations at appropriate intervals that Respondent is not neglecting any District of Columbia legal matter entrusted to him or mishandling any financial matters relating to his practice here. The monitor will co-sign all escrow checks to and by Respondent in District of Columbia matters and should promptly report to District of Columbia Bar Counsel if Respondent fails to act promptly or properly on behalf of his clients. If District Bar Counsel or the D.C. monitor believes that Respondent may have violated a probation condition or disciplinary rule, he or she should be required to report the violation to the Board, which will then direct Bar Counsel to investigate the alleged violation and proceed to prove such violation in proceedings brought before a Hearing Committee. If the violation is found, Respondent would be suspended from practice in the District of Columbia immediately. The Board would then determine whether or not Respondent's violation requires probation revocation and would so recommend to the Court. Any party will have the right to petition the Board for a stay of the suspension pending its decision and the Board's decision on revocation may then be appealed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In our decision in Reid, we discussed the interrelationship between the monitoring that had been ordered in Maryland as a condition to Respondent's reinstatement and the new monitoring we were ordering. The Board was concerned about possible needless duplication of effort and noted in that opinion that: If reciprocal discipline imposed in this jurisdiction is conceptually nothing more than the shadow of the discipline in a foreign jurisdiction, then in this case Respondent's right to practice in the District of Columbia could rise and fall automatically with its right to practice in Maryland. On the other hand, if the concept of reciprocal discipline imposed by this jurisdiction ends with the initial order entered here, then all reinstatement and probation matters would be governed by the rules and procedures in this jurisdiction. In Reid, the Board resolved the issue by appointing its own monitors (a practice and financial monitor) for the lawyer's District of Columbia mattersrather than relying on the monitors who were supervising Respondent's Maryland practice. This was felt to be appropriate because the probation we were imposing was to run for a longer period than the Maryland probation and because there was concern that, if no monitors are appointed in the District of Columbia, Respondent's monitors in Maryland might be unaware of a violation committed in the District of Columbia, or might feel that they had no jurisdiction over, or little concern about, a violation occurring only in the District of Columbia. We believe that the same considerations are applicable in the present case, although we think that one District of Columbia monitor should be sufficient for Respondent's financial and practice matters.