Opinion ID: 1921960
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: The Sanction Options

Text: Taking all of these factors into consideration, we are called upon to determine what sanction would be appropriate and consistent with sanctions ordered in comparable cases. The conflict of interest cases decided by the Court of Appeals address facts that differ substantially from the unusual facts of this case. Sanctions for conflicts of interest have ranged from informal admonitions to lengthy suspensions. See, e.g., In re McGarvey, M-129-82 (D.C. Dec. 9, 1982)(public censure for attorney found to have engaged in a conflict of interest when he accepted employment that conflicted with prior representation of another client); In re Hughes, M-80-81 (D.C. Oct. 28, 1981)(public censure for violating four ethical rules, including conflict of interest, by representing both husband and wife in divorce proceeding); In re McLain, 671 A.2d 951 (D.C.1996) (90-day suspension for conflict of interest where attorney borrowed money from clients without disclosing adverse interest); In re McGean, M-43-80 (D.C. Nov. 6, 1980) (suspension for a year and a day where lawyer representing client in divorce proceeding became romantically involved with client's wife); In re James, 452 A.2d 163 (D.C.1982)(two-year suspension for attorney found to have engaged in conflict of interest and dishonesty involving retaining client funds for his personal enrichment). The range of sanctions in dishonesty and misrepresentation cases is similarly wide, depending on the circumstances of the case. Sanctions for dishonesty have ranged from public censure to suspension for a year to disbarment. See In re Jackson, 650 A.2d 675, 678 (D.C.1994), citing, inter alia, In re Hadzi-Antich, 497 A.2d 1062 (D.C.1985) (public censure for false statement on resume); In re Rosen, 481 A.2d 451 (D.C.1984) (30-day suspension for three separate false statements to a court); In re Kennedy, 542 A.2d 1225 (D.C. 1988)(90-day suspension for lying about salary on an application for a bank loan); In re Hutchinson, 534 A.2d 919 (D.C.1987) (one-year suspension for providing false, sworn testimony to government concerning attorney's stock purchase). The participants in this case have presented the Board with recommendations that also vary significantly. Respondent argues for an informal admonition by Bar Counsel or a Board reprimand. Bar Counsel suggests a 60-day suspension but cites no specific cases to support his suggestion. The Hearing Committee has recommended a public censure. We conclude that a suspension is warranted on this record because the conflict of interest was serious; it put a client at risk for a period of six years and caused her understandable emotional harm; it deprived a client of vigorous independent legal representation; and it was accompanied by dishonesty. Respondent's misrepresentation to E.Y. in her will that J.C. was her husband, when Respondent knew that he was not, helped lull E.Y., for many years, into continuing to believe that J.C. was her lawful husband. The Board does not hold Respondent accountable for J.C.'s conduct, which was far more reprehensible than Respondent's. The Board concludes that Respondent's dishonesty violation, which arose because Respondent failed to heed the conflict of interest rules, coupled with the duration of the violations, pushes this case into the realm where a suspension is appropriate. In selecting the length of the suspension, we have focused our attention on four cases where the Court imposed suspensions for violations that included dishonesty and conflict of interest. In the case that we find to be most analogous to the instant case, a lawyer who was found to have violated disciplinary rules prohibiting conduct involving dishonesty, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and conduct the lawyer knows to be illegal or fraudulent, was suspended for 90 days by the Court. In re Sandground, 542 A.2d at 1249. In an effort to assist a client and a friend who was in the throes of a contentious divorce and who wanted to conceal his whereabouts from his wife, Sandground entered into a letter agreement with his client pursuant to which he agreed to be the purchaser of a house and to resell it to his client in a secret transaction once the client's divorce property settlement became final. Sandground gave the realtor a $6,800 promissory note as a deposit on the house; his client in turn gave Sandground a check in the same amount. The next day, the offer to purchase the house was not accepted by the owner of the property and all of the funds were returned. [10] Discovery was also underway in the divorce proceeding. Sandground assisted his client in preparing unverified discovery responses that did not disclose the fact that Sandground had temporarily held funds for his client on two occasions and that inaccurately reflected the client's financial position by not counting $12,000 in funds held by Sandground in an escrow account for his client on the day that the interrogatory answer was prepared. [11] The client changed attorneys shortly thereafter. The new attorney advised the client to recover the funds from Sandground and submit a verified response to the discovery requests, disclosing the funds. There are notable similarities between this case and the Sandground case. Both respondents engaged in activities to assist a distraught client and friend who was involved in a difficult divorce. The actions of both respondents were discovered when legal documents that they prepared came into the possession of the aggrieved spouses. Neither respondent was found to have initiated the deception. [12] Both respondents maintained throughout the hearings that their actions were proper and did not violate any disciplinary rules. Finally, both respondents had an unblemished record and offered strong character witnesses. There are also some notable differences between the cases. In Sandground, the deception with respect to Sandground's purchase of a house for his client never materialized and the erroneous discovery response was corrected by new counsel when verified discovery responses were filed with the Court three months later. In this case, the will with the dishonest statement that Respondent drafted and J.C.'s reciprocal will naming Respondent as the executor remained in effect for more than six years. Additionally, this case involves conflict of interest violations that span the same six-year period and that result in the charge that Respondent failed to protect E.Y.'s interest with respect to her will and with respect to the Riggs loan that contained her forged signature. We have also looked at In re McLain, supra , where the Court again imposed a 90-day suspension on a Respondent who violated the conflict of interest rule when he entered into a business deal with a firm client with whom he had developed a platonic friendship and who had become a close confidante and personal friend. [13] We see the McLain case as different because the conflict of interest there has an element of self-dealing that does not appear in the current case. It is instructive, however, on the issue of mitigation. In reaching its decision to recommend a 90-day suspension, the Board took into account the respondent's remorse, his representation of needy clients, and the fact that the conduct is unlikely to recur. In this case, there is no evidence that Respondent had represented needy clients and there is only scant evidence of Respondent's remorse. Indeed, Respondent has only barely acknowledged the conflicts of interest that caused the violations at issue here. We do acknowledge that the uniqueness of the facts in this case make it highly unlikely that the same facts would again present themselves. In the third case we have examined, the Court agreed with the Board's recommendation to suspend a lawyer for 60 days, who misclassified expenses in the course of submitting bills to a client. In re Bikoff, 748 A.2d 915 (D.C.1995). The expenses were misclassified in order to lead the client to believe that they were of a type that the client had paid in the past, when in fact they were expenses to which the client might have objected. Because clients should expect scrupulous honesty in billing by lawyers, the Court concluded that this misconduct warranted a 60-day suspension. There is no evidence of self-dealing on the part of the Respondent in this case. Although the facts are different, the Bikoff case is instructive in that it underscores the importance the Court places on attorney honesty to clients even when self-dealing is not an issue. The final case that we have reviewed is the Court's recent decision in In re Jones-Terrell, 712 A.2d 496 (D.C.1998). The Court accepted the Board's recommendation and suspended a lawyer for 60 days for conduct involving a conflict of interest and for engaging in a prohibited business transaction with a client without full disclosure, accompanied by other violations including dishonesty and conduct that seriously interfered with the administration of justice. In her first brush with the disciplinary system, Jones-Terrell, a relatively inexperienced attorney, was found to have made direct contact with an elderly neighbor and friend of the family who was represented by another attorney and who was considered to be incapacitated person regarding her potential employment as her lawyer and about living rent-free in her house. Jones-Terrell persuaded the woman to sign an agreement to change attorneys and let the respondent and her husband live rent-free in her house. Jones-Terrell was further found to have made misrepresentations to the Court, by way of omission and misstatement, about her actions with respect to her client and to have taken $250 of the woman's funds for questionable expenses. The offending conduct occurred during a five month period, and was stopped when the woman's conservator and guardian filed an emergency petition with the court to nullify the agreement. When making its recommendation on sanctions in Jones-Terrell, the Board considered a 90-day suspension, but recommended a 60-day suspension in light of respondent's inexperience, her lack of prior discipline and her failure to act out of evil or corrupt intent. Id. at 500. The Court accepted our recommendation, finding that it would not foster a tendency toward inconsistent dispositions for comparable conduct and would not be unwarranted. Id. at 496, citing In re McLain, 671 A.2d 951. [14] Respondent in this case also lacked prior discipline and did not act out of an evil or corrupt intent. Respondent is also considerably more experienced than the respondent in Jones-Terrell. Having reviewed these cases, we follow the Sandground precedent and recommend a 90-day suspension because we conclude that this case combines a violation of a per se conflict of interest rule with a dishonesty violation that lasted for more than six years. We also note that for most of the disciplinary process, Respondent evidenced little remorse and maintained that she had not committed any rule violation. In reaching our recommended sanction of a 90-day suspension, we have taken into consideration the mitigating factors described above. Respondent has argued that her circumstances are unique and has urged us to take that fact into account when we recommend a sanction. We agree that the factual predicate for this case is highly unusual, but the violations are not unique. More than a decade ago, the Court in Sandground said: The practice of law demands rigid honesty from attorneys if justice is to prevail. The obligation to serve one's client does not justify gaining the client an advantage by ethically impermissible tactics. Moreover the level of disciplinary sanctions must preserve the system's interest in unflinching honesty. Thus even if we could be convinced that Sandground would never let his judgment be swayed again, a sanction that is reasonably commensurate with the seriousness of his conduct in this instance must nonetheless be imposed. See Reback, supra, 513 A.2d at 231 (deter other attorneys from engaging in similar conduct). 542 A.2d at 1248. A 90-day suspension sends a message that attorney dishonesty that involves deceiving a client over an extended period of time because an attorney has not been mindful of conflict of interest obligations is a serious offense and will be treated as such. We have considered whether our recommendation in this case is too harsh in light of our recommendation of a 60-day suspension in Jones-Terrell. We conclude that it is not because of the differences between Respondent's case and the Jones-Terrell case. The respondent in Jones-Terrell. was a solo practitioner, while Respondent in this case was a more experienced attorney and the managing partner of a medium size law firm at the time of the misconduct. Additionally, the misconduct of Respondent extended over a six-year period, while the respondent's misconduct in Jones-Terrell occurred during a five-month period. We acknowledge that the conduct of the respondent in Jones-Terrell towards her elderly and incapacitated client and the Court during the five-month period could be considered to be more serious than Respondent's conduct toward E.Y. over the six-year-period. If anything, our recommendation in Jones-Terrell may have been too lenient for the violations that were found. Rather than scale down the sanction in this case or future cases involving attorney dishonesty and conflict of interest, we have opted to inform the Court and the Bar that we consider the 60-day suspension in Jones-Terrell to be on the low end of the range of sanctions that the Board will recommend in future cases involving dishonesty coupled with other violations.