Opinion ID: 1980664
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Ms. Soininen's perceived forthrightness.

Text: The Board also predicated its recommendation that Ms. Soininen receive nunc pro tunc treatment on the Hearing Committee's conclusion that she was responsible [and] forthright in her dealings with Bar Counsel and others, and that her actions were motivated by the desire to continue to provide service to clients. This conclusion paints a more favorable picture than is warranted by the record. Although Ms. Soininen apparently testified forthrightly before the Hearing Committee, this forthrightness was then of comparatively recent vintage. The undisputed record of repeated misrepresentations does not reflect a history of forthrightness on Ms. Soininen's part, and a desire to provide service to clients, while laudable in an individual licensed to represent these clients, is problematic where, as here, the prospective provider of legal services has been suspended from practice. Beginning with Soininen I, which the Board (unlike this court) viewed as part of this case, Ms. Soininen was not forthright when she stole property which did not belong to her. She was likewise less than truthful when she purposely filed a false notice of appearance before the EOIR, or when she failed to correct earlier notices upon learning that they were false, or when she repeatedly represented to clients at the DOL that she was licensed to practice law when in fact she was not, or when she used Esq. and similar titles in letters to clients even though her license to practice had been suspended. In addition, Ms. Soininen has at times been less than candid with this court. Indeed, as Bar Counsel points out, the timing and wording of Ms. Soininen's various affidavits undermine their credibility and weight. Ms. Soininen filed her first affidavit on August 28, 2000, almost one year after the court had ordered her interim suspension and had called her attention to the requirements of D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14. In the affidavit, Ms. Soininen asserted that she was in compliance with the rules and regulations of the INS, but she was not. In reality, Ms. Soininen was representing clients before the immigration courts and asserting that she was a member in good standing of the District of Columbia Bar, when in fact she had been suspended from practice. In its brief, the Board excuses this misstatement in Ms. Soininen's affidavit, arguing that Ms. Soininen may not have been aware that she was violating INS regulations when she claimed to be in compliance with them. But at the very least, for the reasons we have previously set forth, Ms. Soininen should have known that she was not authorized to practice before immigration courts or agencies; if she did not know, it was because she did not take the necessary steps to find out. Moreover, Ms. Soininen never withdrew or revised this affidavit even after she became aware that its contents were incorrect. Failure to correct a false affidavit, like failure to correct a false notice of appearance, perpetuates the deception. On April 18, 2002, Ms. Soininen filed a second affidavit. She claimed therein that she had not represented any clients in any District of Columbia court or tribunal since September 9, 1999, and that she had not filed any documents, application or corresponden[ce] on behalf of any client in any matter before the Immigration and Naturalization Service or the Executive Office of Immigration Review since July 6, 2001. Given the record, this second affidavit is as revealing in what it leaves out as in what it contains. In the affidavit, Ms. Soininen omitted any reference to her practice before the DOL. As an experienced immigration attorney, Ms. Soininen must have been aware that practice before the INS or the EOIR did not encompass her work before the DOL. Ms. Soininen's failure to mention her extensive representation of clients before the DOL had the effect and, inferably, the purpose, of leading those responsible for the disciplinary system to believe that she was not practicing law, when in fact she was. Further, Ms. Soininen stated that she had not filed any pleadings or papers on behalf of a client, but she did not claim that she had stopped holding herself out as an attorney, or that she had ceased representing the interests of clients by providing legal advice or by otherwise taking responsibility for furthering their legal objectives  the very misconduct in which she had engaged during her interim suspension. The second affidavit was thus incomplete and, by reason of the omitted information, misleading. Moreover, if the facts about Ms. Soininen's practice before the DOL had been disclosed, the affidavit would have demonstrated that there had been no genuine self-suspension; Ms. Soininen was still practicing law at that agency.