Opinion ID: 1926278
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Reardon's Prior Disciplinary Record

Text: In 1972, Reardon received a private admonition. [20] In 1977, Reardon was suspended for one year for misconduct in several different matters involving mishandling client funds, failing to pursue client cases with diligence and competence, and failing to file personal income tax returns. [21] Reardon completed his period of suspension without incident and returned to the practice of law without restriction. Twenty years later, in 1997, Reardon was publicly reprimanded and given a two year probation for failing to file and pay personal income taxes and for filing a false registration with this Court in 1995 concerning tax issues. [22] The 1997 probation was imposed after the underlying misconduct occurred in the Atlantic Roofing and Pierce and Miller cases. Reardon successfully completed his two year probationary period and has since been engaged in the practice of law without apparent incident. We are deeply troubled that a lawyer with Reardon's disciplinary history would not exercise more care in dealing with client (or potential client) matters. We cannot conclude, however, that Reardon's 1972 and 1977 sanctions can fairly be linked to the present case in order to discern a pattern of misconduct, given the passage of so many years. Nor do we find Reardon's 1997 tax problems, which occurred prior to the misconduct in the pending cases and have since been resolved, to be recognizably consistent with the pending charges in order to establish a pattern of misconduct. ODC asserts that the sanction Reardon received in 1997 appears lenient in retrospect. [23] But we cannot, as the ODC suggests, allow the failure to impose a harsher sanction in 1997 to form the sole basis for increasing the sanction in the case before us now, even if we assume arguendo that the 1997 sanction was lenient (which we do not decide). Such a result would not advance any of the objectives of the lawyer disciplinary system and, in fact, would serve no purpose except to punish Reardon for conduct that is not even at issue in this case. Even the ODC concedes that, without considering the arguable leniency of the 1997 sanction, the present case does not appear to require suspension. After considering the mitigating factors involved in this case, we agree with that conclusion.