Court Opinion

ID: 9687124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:16:27.016752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:24.392958
License: Public Domain

PAGE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
At the outset it is important to state that I do not condone, nor should this court tolerate conduct by people wishing to practice law in this state which is dishonest, misleading, and lacking in candor. In fact, our obligation is to protect the public from such behavior. Indeed, in some cases we have not acted as strongly as we should in that regard. However, in determining who shall practice law in this state and the conditions under which they shall be permitted to practice, we must be consistent, and we must be fair. In denying petitioner’s admission, we are not being consistent or fair. If petitioner were currently admitted to practice law in Minnesota and was subject to discipline for the same acts for which we now deny him admission, I do not believe that the result would be as harsh as here. Certainly, as the majority says, admission to the bar must not be ill-gotten. However, I believe, based on the facts before the court, that this applicant to the bar should not be subject to a far more harsh sanction than licensed attorneys who have, in addition to breaking the trust of their clients, committed forgery, perjury, or misappropriated client funds.
Petitioner was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin in 1989. After his admission in Wisconsin, petitioner was employed as a law clerk at the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In September of 1990, he began working as an associate at the Minneapolis law firm of Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel. Petitioner’s employment there was terminated following the denial of his application for admission to practice law in Minnesota. During this time, he did not engage in any act meriting professional discipline, and he earned the respect and trust of his colleagues. Indeed, three individuals from the law firm testified in support of petitioner’s honesty, including a former managing partner of the firm who stated that he found petitioner to be “very straightforward, very honest, very candid” and that petitioner would “be a strong asset to the Bar.” One of those individuals, an attorney at the firm, stated in a supplemental character and fitness report to the National Conference of Bar Examiners that, “In my opinion, Mr. Cunningham’s ethical standards * * * outshine all of those in his law school class at this firm.”
Judging from this court’s recent actions, petitioner’s acts would not merit such severe discipline if he was already a member of our bar. In In re Brenner, 498 N.W.2d 256 (Minn.1993), we suspended for a mere 45 days an attorney whose acts were much more egregious than those of petitioner. Brenner committed numerous trust account violations, including the misuse, misappropriation, and commingling of funds; failed to maintain the trust account books and records required by Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board Amended Opinion No. 9 for a period of several years; falsely certified to this court on his attorney registration fee statements that he properly maintained such books and records; and engaged in an ongoing pattern of neglect and noncommunication with regard to three separate client matters entrusted to him. At the time of Brenner’s suspension, his disciplinary history included admonitions in January 1985 and March 1988, as well as an August 1990 public reprimand and probation for neglect of client matters, submission of a false affidavit to the court, and failure to communicate with clients. Brenner was still on probation when the allegations resulting in his suspension arose.
In In re Boyd, 430 N.W.2d 663 (Minn.1988), we held that conduct which included preparing a false deed and causing it to be forged, notarized and filed, and issuing a false title opinion based on that deed warranted only a six-month suspension for a lawyer who had received three previous disciplinary admonitions. Id.
*60In In re Danna, 403 N.W.2d 239 (Minn.1987), we suspended for only 90 days a lawyer who had, without the client’s knowledge or consent, prepared and submitted to the court as evidence false affidavits, and who attempted to cover up this conduct by giving perjured testimony.
In contrast to Boyd, Danna, and Brenner, the conduct which underlies the allegations against petitioner involved his personal affairs. He did not misuse client funds, engage in any misconduct in representing a client, or engage in any conduct of a criminal nature. If the appropriate sanctions for these individuals were 6 month, 90 day and 45 day suspensions, respectively, I fail to see how we can say that petitioner is unfit to practice law in Minnesota. I would grant petitioner’s application for admission to practice law in Minnesota subject to two years of supervised probation.