Court Opinion

ID: 9885186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:41:42.254146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:45.778092
License: Public Domain

HARRELL, J.,
concurring and dissenting, in which BATTAGLIA, J., joins.
Although I agree with the Majority opinion’s discussion and resolution of the exceptions, I depart somewhat from its *540analysis and imposition of sanction. Rather than a 60-day suspension, I would impose a 90-day suspension. Less than that, in my judgment, will not be a “significant suspension” (Majority op. at 538, 44 A.3d at 1031-32) or “a stronger deterrent” (Majority op. at 539, 44 A.3d at 1032), in light of Butler’s disciplinary track record. In short, I have my doubts that any incentive to mend one’s ways and avoid the next “occasion of sin” (with a predictably greater penance) is sufficient at the level the Majority selects.1
Considering the relatively narrow window of practice within which Butler’s overall disciplinary record was formed and the remarkably common subject matter characteristics of the transgressions, two reprimands and a 30-day suspension had no effect. That apparent failure suggests to me that Butler has not yet identified what constitutes the proper conduct of the practice of law. His ongoing “active participation in multiple bar associations,” noted by the Majority (Majority op. at 538-39 n. 13, 44 A.3d at 1032 n. 13), would be deserving ordinarily of approbation, but here implies that it is part of the problem with compliance with his primary duties to clients and our courts.
It is my judgment that a 90-day suspension is at the very least required to persuade Butler (and the Bar) that description of a suspension as “significant” or “a strong deterrent” is more than gainsaid or mere rhetoric.

. Noting that a sanction is not meant to punish the errant lawyer, but rather to protect the public and demonstrate to the Bar ethical expectations and boundaries, my remarks are tendered in that vein, and not as a "sentencing judge.”