Opinion ID: 1188922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dishonesty, Fraud, Deceit, or Misrepresentation

Text: DR 1-102(A)(3) provides: (A) It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:      (3) Engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. The accused admits that he knew that the Shumway will and approximately 290 others were invalid at the time that the clients executed them because they were improperly witnessed. He also admits that he knew that his clients thought that the wills were valid. The accused failed to correct that misapprehension of material fact. Failure to disclose a material fact may be misrepresentation for the purposes of DR 1-102(A)(3). See In re Hedrick, 312 Or. 442, 446, 822 P.2d 1187 (1991) (violation of DR 1-102(A)(3) when accused failed to disclose that the will he offered for probate had been revoked by a subsequent will). Moreover, the accused solicited members of his staff to sign wills that falsely stated that the clients had signed the wills in staff members' presence. In addition, the accused notarized wills, each of which contained a jurat that provided that the will was subscribed and sworn before him by both the testator and the witness on a particular date. That statement also was false. See In re Benson, 311 Or. 473, 478, 814 P.2d 507 (1991) (recording a forged and falsely notarized deed violated former DR 1-102(A)(4) (current DR 1-102(A)(3))); In re Kraus, 289 Or. 661, 667-71, 616 P.2d 1173 (1980) (court suspended lawyer who notarized document signed outside his presence). The accused engaged in a pattern of conduct designed to deceive both his clients and subsequent readers of the wills and directives to physicians. Accordingly, we find that the accused engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. The accused violated DR 1-102(A)(3). See In re Purvis, 308 Or. 451, 457-58, 781 P.2d 850 (1989) (accused violated former DR 1-102(A)(4) (current DR 1-102(A)(3)) when he misrepresented to a client the progress of his case).