Opinion ID: 1909158
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Respondent's Fitness to Practice

Text: In accordance with D.C. Bar Rule XI, § 9(g), we adopt the Board's recommendation to condition respondent's reinstatement on proof of fitness. Even if we merely considered the three cases in which respondent has failed to respond to Bar Counsel's inquiries and the Board's orders, we would find a fitness requirement consistent with the dispositions in comparable cases and appropriate to the concerns raised by respondent's proven misconduct. As the Board states, the circumstances reveal a pattern of lack of cooperation in multiple proceedings over an eighteen month period. Coming after her appearances before the Hearing Committee in BDN 139-01, respondent's refusals to cooperate in BDN 372-01 and 428-01 indeed constitute[d] an egregious disregard for the disciplinary process. [29] The Board appreciated that respondent had been through some personal hardship, but it noted that this did not prevent her from advising the Hearing Committee in BDN 139-01 of her circumstances. We agree with the Board that [r]espondent's continuing reliance on the same personal hardship that formed the basis for the [Hearing] Committee's grant of a continuance ten months earlier [in BDN 139-01] cannot serve as a blanket protection from disciplinary sanction in BDN 372-01 and 428-01. The deliberate and unjustified disregard for the administration of justice exhibited by respondent causes us to entertain serious doubts as to her fitness to practice law. We would add that the proven circumstances of respondent's misconduct in failing to supervise her secretary supply additional compelling reasons to doubt her present qualifications and competence to practice law. Several of the surrounding facts are particularly disturbing. It is troubling that so many months passed after Ms. Summers absconded before respondent discovered that over $40,000 was missing from the Morton Estate account. Respondent's written explanation for the delay, see footnote 5, supra, is hardly reassuring; on the contrary, it reveals inattention to her fiduciary duties bordering on paralysis, or even willful blindness, in the face of mounting evidence of serious problems with the account. For the same reasons, it is troubling that so many more months passed after the defalcations from the Morton Estate account were finally discovered before respondent discovered and reported that the Hinton Estate too had been invaded. A conscientious attorney in respondent's position would have checked the condition of all her other conservatorship accounts posthaste upon finding out that her secretary had embezzled funds from one of them. Lastly, we cannot ignore respondent's unexplained failure to appear at the hearing in BDN 337-99a failure all the more significant because the hearing was rescheduled to accommodate respondent and enable her to participate. That she did not attend the rescheduled hearing is another clear indication that respondent lacked, and may still lack, the capacity to function as an effective and responsible attorney. Taking all the warning signals into consideration, we have the most serious doubts about whether respondent will be fit to resume the practice of law at the end of her prescribed period of suspension. The evidence engendering those doubts is clear and convincing, and respondent has failed to refute it.