Opinion ID: 2604440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Certain Elements of Reinmiller's Defense

Text: There are certain factors of his defense which contribute an overall pattern common to many, if not all, the charges laid by the State Bar in Case 538. They may well be called excuses or pleas of extenuating circumstances or matters which should be considered in mitigation. Speaking generally, they may be classified as: (1) inefficient office help, that is, secretarial and junior legal assistants; (2) the burdens incident to too much business; and (3) distracting family matters, requiring time out of his office and trips to the state of Nebraska. 8. We are unimpressed by his repeated assertions that certain matters were not brought to his attention, especially when he was at his home, or that others had failed to carry out his directions. From the record, we glean that he had attached to his office more than the usual quota of employees and most of the time two or three able lawyers as office associates. But if his employees failed to carry on in his absence, no matter what the reason, it was his ultimate responsibility to see that his business went forward, and if in any sense delayed by an inefficient office staff, then he had a duty to correct it. We note, too, that the oldest business from whence these charges spring began as far back as 1946 and that delays were still continuing in some matters when the State Bar filed its complaint in 1955 in Case 538. 9. The burden of too much business is an excuse which we cannot seriously countenance, and less so when coupled with the excuse of an inefficient or ineffective office organization. Our answer to this is found in the words of Mr. Justice Jackson in Knickerbocker Printing Corporation v. United States (1954), 348 US 875, 75 S Ct 212, 213. In response to a request for extension of time in which to file petition for writ of certiorari in that case, because of other trial work engaging the petitioning attorneys attention, he said:    When more business becomes concentrated in one firm than it can handle, it has two obvious remedies: to put on more legal help, or let some of the business go to offices which have time to attend to it. I doubt if any court should be a party to encouraging the accumulation of more business in one law office than it can attend to in due time. We give more serious attention to the defendant's representations concerning the disturbing and distracting family matters which kept him out of his office and occasioned some of his trips out of the state. Briefly, they comprehend the serious and continuing illness of his daughter, the very distressing nervous maladies of his wife, tending at times as a threat to destroy the family unity. Then, too, in 1952 and 1953, his father's serious condition necessitating surgery and hospitalization, was followed closely by his mother's illness and death. These unhappy events in the lives of his parents required Mr. Reinmiller to make several trips to their Nebraska home. On one such trip he suffered injury to his leg which required confinement in his own home for an extended period in 1953. It must be noted, however, that all of these trials and tribulations under which the defendant labored did not occur in the same period nor can they be said to be coincident with all the periods of procrastination and delay for which he is charged. The peak period of the distractions which took him out of his office seems to be in 1952 and 1953 when his parents' conditions called him to Nebraska and where he suffered his leg injury. It was also in 1953 that his wife's condition necessitated treatment and the attention and solicitude he properly accorded her. 10. No lawyer is expected to abandon pressing and urgent family demands of that character in preference to client interests. On the other hand, no lawyer can ignore his duties to his clients because of unfortunate crises in the area of his family. He cannot arbitrarily turn his attention to claims upon him arising in the home to the neglect of his professional obligations to complete matters entrusted to him by his clients. If he would absolve himself from possible censure for disregard of professional duty under such conditions, he should promptly withdraw from the relationship of attorney and client, or, with his clients' consent, place their unfinished legal business in the hands of others competent to carry it to an expeditious conclusion. Unless such consideration is given to those who are depending upon his professional services by way of saving clients from being penalized by his possible neglect of their business, a lawyer's pleas of extenuating circumstances lose their force and effect as excuses for his failure in his duty to do what he should and could have done to protect them. More certainly, they cannot exonerate him from ignoring the legitimate inquiries which the Bar may make in behalf of his anxious and disappointed clients. We will defer our conclusion in Case 538 until we have discussed the charges made by the State Bar in Case 597.