Court Opinion

ID: 9711552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:34:14.740693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.857089
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in the opinion of the Court. I write separately only to comment upon what might appear to be a dilemma for those applicants to the Bar whose past is less than exemplary and who, if they reveal all, are fearful that their record alone will foreclose admission. They may, therefore, present their past in, if not an untruthful light, at least in the most palliating light, in the hope that their past misdeeds will be overlooked or not thought serious enough to prevent their admission to the Bar.
From my perspective, there should be no dilemma, for although a less than exemplary past must indeed be a major consideration in determining the moral fitness of an applicant to the Bar, I agree that a record indicating the applicant is rehabilitated will ameliorate a record of past indiscretions. But a lack of candor in the application, in a deliberate attempt to mislead us as to that past record, or the making of a feckless statement concerning that past record is, to me, a more significant indication that the applicant does not possess the requisite moral character needed for admission to the Bar. Although “candor to the Court” is no longer a phrase found in the Rules of Professional Conduct, its spirit still lives and it should be a guiding principle for any applicant to the Bar.