Opinion ID: 1758124
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Four Specifications of Misconduct

Text: Based on the showing made at the formal investigative hearing, the bar-association petition recommends disciplinary action based upon four specifications of professional misconduct. Three of them (Nos. 1, 3, and 4 [1] ) involve a failure to account to clients for moneys received in their behalf, and one of them (No. 5) involves a failure of the respondent to cooperate with the bar investigation or to furnish the bar committee with any information concerning the charges, despite notices and other demands for such cooperation. We shall at this point note that, as the commissioner found, the evidence supports a finding of serious breaches of professional duty instanced by the latter three specifications. [2] By themselves they would deserve substantial disciplinary sanction. However, we will limit our discussion to Specification No. 1 (Matlock), because it represents the grossest breach of professional ethics and, by itself, requires the disbarment of the attorney.