Opinion ID: 2558572
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: August 20, 2009 Report

Text: On August 20, 2009, the Board on Professional Responsibility concluded that respondent violated D.C. Bar Rule 1.11 (conflict in successive government and private employment), stemming from respondent's representation of Ms. Gladys Thomas. During respondent's tenure as head of the investigating unit at the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights (OHR), she had supervised the investigation of an age discrimination complaint filed by Ms. Thomas arising out of her discharge from a position with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The investigating agent had provided respondent with a draft Letter of Determination (LOD) concerning Ms. Thomas's complaint in July 2002; OHR's final LOD advised Ms. Thomas that there was no probable cause to support her complaint. Ms. Thomas pursued her age discrimination allegation by filing suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on January 9, 2003, the same month that respondent was terminated from OHR. In an e-mail between Ms. Thomas's counsel, Ms. Janet Cooper, and respondent dated January 6, 2004, the two discussed entering a co-counsel relationship for Ms. Thomas's suit. In mid-December 2003, respondent had telephoned an unidentified representative at the D.C. Bar Ethics Counsel to inquire about engaging in this representation; however respondent provided only a partial description of the relevant facts during that call and specifically omitted her involvement with the Thomas case while she was at OHR. Thereafter, respondent participated in reviewing and editing court filings, including a draft motion on behalf of Ms. Thomas, and attended a deposition of a witness in the case, Bernard Ferguson. Following respondent's attendance at the Ferguson deposition on January 13, 2004, Michael Bruckheim, the attorney representing the District, contacted Ms. Cooper to complain about respondent's involvement as a violation of Rule 1.11; he filed a motion to disqualify respondent and Ms. Cooper after Ms. Cooper refused to withdraw. Ms. Cooper and respondent each filed an affidavit asserting that respondent had not played a substantive role concerning Ms. Thomas's case while at OHR. On June 29, 2004, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted the motion to disqualify both respondent and Ms. Cooper, on the basis that respondent was the supervisor overseeing the investigation of Ms. Thomas's claim while she was at OHR. Bar Counsel filed charges against respondent on July 6, 2005, alleging that she had violated Rule 1.11 and Rule 8.4(d) (serious interference with the administration of justice), and evidentiary hearings followed from December 2005 through April 2006. On April 9, 2007, Hearing Committee Number Five found that respondent's representation of Ms. Thomas was adverse to the District of Columbia government, and was on a matter in which respondent had been personally and substantially involved when she worked in OHR. However, the Committee concluded that Bar Counsel had not proven a violation of Rule 8.4(d). Bar Counsel filed a brief in support of its exception to the conclusion regarding Rule 8.4(d) on June 15, 2007. Respondent filed her exceptions to Hearing Committee Number Five's report on June 21, 2007, which was well past an extended due date of May 24, 2007. Oral argument was scheduled on June 21, 2007, but respondent failed to appear. On July 2, 2007, the Board issued an order accepting respondent's lodged brief for filing but denied her request to reschedule oral argument. On August 20, 2009, the Board issued a report agreeing with the Hearing Committee that respondent had violated Rule 1.11 and that Bar Counsel had not proven a violation of Rule 8.4(d), and recommended that respondent be suspended for six months and be required to demonstrate fitness as a condition of reinstatement. On November 9, 2009, this court suspended respondent pending final action on the Board's report. On December 21, 2009, Bar Counsel filed with this court a Brief in Support of its Limited Exception to the Board on Professional Responsibility's Failure to Find that Respondent also Violated Rule 8.4(d). In its brief, Bar Counsel, like the Board, recommends that respondent be suspended for six months for these violations. We adopt the Board's conclusion as to the Rule 1.11 violation, but disagree with the Board's determination concerning Rule 8.4(d). We incorporate the Board's report of August 20, 2009, herein as set forth in Appendix A. [2] To establish a violation of Rule 8.4(d), Bar Counsel must show (1) that the attorney acted improperly in that the attorney either `[took] improper action or fail[ed] to take action when ... he or she should [have] act[ed]'; (2) that the conduct involved `bear[s] directly upon the judicial process ( i.e., the administration of justice) with respect to an identifiable case or tribunal'; and (3) that the conduct `taint[ed] the judicial process in more than a de minimis way,' meaning that it `at least potentially impact[ed] upon the process to a serious and adverse degree.' In re Owusu, 886 A.2d 536, 541 (D.C.2005) (quoting In re Hopkins, 677 A.2d 55, 60-61 (D.C.1996)) (alterations in original). The Board concluded that respondent's actions did not clearly satisfy these three criteria. It reasoned that though Judge Lamberth disqualified respondent, a disqualification motion, without more, does not support a finding that the conduct was a serious interference with the administration of justice. See In re Hallmark, 831 A.2d 366, 375 (D.C.2003) (requiring more egregious conduct than burden on court's administrative process). The Board also noted that Bar Counsel was unable to cite any case in which a Rule 1.11 violation standing alone supported a Rule 8.4(d) violation. It was the Board's view that it would have a pernicious effect on the administration of justice and the representation of individual clients [ ] [i]f the unsuccessful defense of a motion to disqualify were held to constitute sanctionable misconduct.... The Board reasoned that such a holding might lead lawyers with meritorious defenses [to] ... withdraw unnecessarily, rather than risk exposure to disciplinary charges. Board member Mercurio, joined by member Bolze, dissented from the Board's conclusions insofar as they pertained to Rule 8.4(d). He stated that the Board's conclusion fails to recognize that respondent's conduct met the test for impropriety under the third of the three Hopkins criteria, that the attorney's conduct must taint the judicial process in more than a de minimis way, that is, at least potentially impact upon the process to a serious and adverse degree. Hopkins, 677 A.2d at 61 (emphasis added). The dissenting statement took note of the Hearing Committee's finding that respondent undertook to act as co-counsel with Ms. Cooper in representing G. Thomas in her federal court suit. Respondent thereby showed a willingness and an ability ... to impart OHR confidential information to Cooper and Thomas, and actually gave them her recollection about Thomas's OHR investigation file and a tape recording of her interview of the OHR investigator in Thomas's case who investigated, or failed to investigate, matters Thomas complained about. This and other related conduct, the statement concluded, threatened to give Thomas and Cooper a significant and unfair advantage over their adversaries in Thomas's federal action, and thus posed, at the very least, a `potential impact upon the process [in that lawsuit] to a serious and adverse degree.' Bar Counsel, in urging this court to conclude that respondent violated Rule 8.4(d), cites the dissenting statement of the two Board members, and also notes that Judge Lamberth expressly found that respondent's participation in the deposition of witness Ferguson `tainted' the federal court proceedings, leading the court in its words to strike the deposition `because of the critical interests at stake with respect to the integrity of the judicial system.' (Brief for Bar Counsel at 14, n. 12 (quoting Bar Exhibit 8q at 12-13)). Bar Counsel points out that respondent's misconduct with respect to the federal court action was far more extensive than the evidence brought before Judge Lamberth in connection with the Ferguson deposition, and to make that point refers to some of the misbehavior discussed in the language quoted above from the Board dissent. Bar Counsel also points to respondent's reviewing and editing co-counsel's brief in the federal action, which argued that respondent's former employer, OHR, improperly handled the Ms. Thomas matter that respondent had supervised. ( Id. at 28.). Bar Counsel's position finds support in In re Evans, 902 A.2d 56, 58 (D.C.2006), where this court found a Rule 8.4(d) violation based on the conflict arising from counsel's dual roles in a single transaction. Respondent there had a conflict of interest that arose from his dual roles as the owner of a title company that handled real estate closings and as a lawyer whose practice included both probate and real estate matters. He undertook to represent a borrower in order to secure title for her to real property that belonged to the unprobated estate of her deceased mother-in-law, and thereby allow her to go to closing before respondent's title company. The conflict in Evans was less problematic than the conflict involved in the instant case because, as noted in Evans, respondent there could have attempted to secure a waiver of the conflict, something that respondent here doubtless could not achieve. While we afford great respect to a conclusion of the Board as to whether a disciplinary rule has been violated, we are not persuaded by its reasoning in this instance. Nor do we share its concern that a ruling that respondent's conduct at issue violated Rule 8.4(d) here would have a pernicious effect on the administration of justice and the representation of individual clients. What is before us is not simply a matter involving an attorney who unsuccessfully resisted a motion to disqualify. We consider not only the outcome of the disqualification motion, but also the nature of the misconduct that led to the filing of the motion to disqualify and the related misconduct that was not even before the judge who found that the respondent's misconduct had tainted the proceedings. We conclude that the evidence clearly and convincingly supports the conclusion that respondent violated Rule 8.4(d) with respect to her conduct during the Thomas litigation in federal court. The actions Judge Lamberth concluded that he was required to take can be said to have affected the judicial process in more than a de minimis manner. The entire litigation was disrupted and delayed while the District Court dealt with the motion to disqualify Ms. Cooper and respondent. Judge Lamberth concluded that respondent's participation had tainted the proceedings and struck the deposition of Bernard Ferguson because of respondent's presence. Ms. Cooper died while Ms. Thomas's Motion to Reconsider was still pending; nevertheless, Judge Lamberth concluded that respondent could not reenter the litigation because of her taint. Of still greater significance to the federal court litigation were the related actions cited above that respondent took to share her knowledge of the proceeding before OHR, her former employer, with co-counsel and client, the plaintiff, that threatened to give the plaintiff in the federal action an unfair advantage over her adversary and presented at least a potential impact upon its process to a serious and adverse degree. For the foregoing reasons, this court finds that respondent's conduct tainted the judicial process in more than a de minimis way and, contrary to the Board's recommendation, concludes that respondent violated Rule 8.4(d).