Opinion ID: 2359750
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: D.R. 6-101(A)(3): Neglect of a legal matter entrusted to the lawyer.

Text: The Hearing Committee, the Bar Counsel, and both the majority and minority of the Board agreed that Reback and Parsons had violated D.R. 6-101(A)(3) by neglecting the divorce suit that Lewis had entrusted to them. This consensus is clearly correct. An ABA Informal Opinion states: Neglect involves indifference and a consistent failure to carry out the obligations which the lawyer has assumed to his client or a conscious disregard for the responsibility owed to the client. The concept of ordinary negligence is different. Neglect usually involves more than a single act or omission. Neglect cannot be found if the acts or omissions complained of were inadvertent or the result of an error of judgment made in good faith. ABA Comm. on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Informal Op. 1273 (1973). Among other things, Reback and Parsons failed over an extended period of time to put the first complaint at issue and failed to ensure that their associate put the second one at issue. Thus they committed more than a single act or omission. Reback and Parsons argue that the Board improperly held them accountable for their associate's ethical breaches. The majority did not impute the associate's violations to the partners, however. Rather it viewed the associate's mistakes as evidence of the partner's failure to supervise him; that failure to supervise, combined with the partners' other lapses, constituted neglect under D.R. 6-101(A)(3). See In re Alexander, 466 A.2d 447 (D.C.1983) (attorney violated D.R. 6-101(A)(3) by delegating responsibility for a case to an inexperienced associate and then failing to prepare the associate for the representation; attorney's failure to rectify associate's errors, failure to appear for court hearings, and failure to return client's telephone calls also supported the Board's finding of the violation), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 1680, 80 L.Ed.2d 154 (1984).