Opinion ID: 1680259
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Nature of the Misconduct Involved and the Duty Violated

Text: ¶ 7. This Court has previously stated that [s]olicitation has never been recognized as beneficial to the profession or to the client. It has the potential for creating litigation, creating fraudulent claims, and turning our profession from one of service to one of profit. Solicitation can result in a diminished status for the lawyer and be harmful to the profession's reputation. Emil v. Miss. Bar, 690 So.2d 301, 327 (Miss.1997). Notwithstanding this clear statement of potential harm, this Court found that Emil's multiple acts of solicitation, without more, would warrant only a public reprimand. [8] These concerns should apply equally to prohibit paying others to locate prospective clients, recommend a lawyer's services, and obtain those prospective clients' signatures on professional service agreements. ¶ 8. Here, the Mississippi Bar disputes the Tribunal's characterization of Turnage's solicitation of approximately 100 potential clients as a single incident. Both the Bar and the Tribunal emphasize the large number of potential clients contacted by inappropriate means in this case, and the Bar argues that each contact should be judged as a single violation. Turnage argues that Williams contacted the potential clients over a six-week period for the purpose of advancing litigation against Life of Georgia, thus implying only one lawsuit. We hold that under the facts of the present case, it is not necessary to determine a specific number of incidents, violations, or potential law suits. ¶ 9. In Emil, this Court found that Emil solicited a number of clients through a private investigator between 1984 and 1988 and that he also shared fees with nonlawyers. Id. at 305, 316-317, 327, 328. These solicitations involved multiple cases. We found that for the solicitation of business the appropriate punishment for Mr. Emil is a public reprimand. We also find that Mr. Emil was guilty of soliciting business and sharing legal fees. For this violation we order [indefinite] suspension of Mr. Emil's license to practice law. Id. at 328. The implication clearly was that more than one solicitation would still warrant only a public reprimand, but no specific guidance was given regarding how many is too many. Although Turnage's violation of the rule against solicitation involved 100 potential clients, the infractions occurred over a very short period of time, and more importantly, Turnage took immediate action to acknowledge the error of his ways and to rectify the problem. There was no proof presented to the Tribunal of any harm to any of the many people who were solicited.