Opinion ID: 1283206
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the bar applicant's claim to admission by examination

Text: In a proceeding to review the Board's decision finding an applicant to lack ethical fitness to practice law, this court will examine the entire record tendered for relief and consider the applicant's quest for admission de novo. [8] Mailath contends the Board erroneously evaluated the adverse evidence as well as ignored his status as a certified public accountant [CPA] and the testimony on his present moral character. We disagree and hold on the record before us that the bar applicant failed to meet his burden of proving his ethical fitness for bar admission. The evidence is substantially uncontroverted. Mailath has been a practicing public accountant since 1975. He graduated from law school in 1980. The application presently before us, submitted in 1986, was for the February 1987 bar examination. [9] In 1981 the bar applicant began to expand his professional horizons. Through clients, friends and acquaintances he was introduced to prospective clients and business associates in need of a good accountant  one astute in the tax field who could assist in decreasing their liability. In the midst of his growing practice, he took a serious interest in the commercial real estate market and began forming partnerships for the purchase or development of several kinds of business property. Between 1981 and 1984 he was instrumental in forming over a dozen partnerships. Most of the agreements were drafted by Mailath. They followed the same basic format. He paid no money for his partnership interests but was obligated to contribute his expertise in accounting, finance, and development. Usually included as a partner was a certain loan officer whose bank financed many of the ventures, some of them in toto. Whatever prosperity the partnerships may have initially bestowed upon the partners, financial hardships quickly followed. Mailath and his enterprises were eventually plagued not only with cash-flow problems but also with the imminent threat of foreclosures. The methods Mailath used in his attempt to solve the financial woes form the very foundation for the Board's decision to refuse him admission by examination.