Court Opinion

ID: 9568088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:00:33.806561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:20.099729
License: Public Domain

WORKMAN, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
In good conscience, I am unable to join in the majority opinion, because I believe Mr. Hobbs should be disbarred,1 not merely have his license suspended for two years.
I reach this conclusion in full recognition of the reign of fear and intimidation conducted by Judge Grubb in Logan County at the time Mark Hobbs bribed the judge. It is not difficult to believe that, had Mark Hobbs reported the judge to the authorities or even quietly refused to pay the bribe, the judge would have taken vengeance on the lawyer in some manner. Mr. Hobbs’ income and law practice probably would have suffered. But nowhere in the Code of Professional Responsibility (the code of ethics for lawyers) does it say that lawyers shall observe the basic and universal ethical tenets of the law profession only if it is easy or convenient.2
The majority’s focus on Mr. Hobbs’ “youth” (in his early 30’s at the time he paid the bribe) and his inexperience (admitted to the practice of law for approximately six years at the time of the bribe) are apologia which have no place in this type of case. Most seventh-grade civics students can say with certainty that paying a judge a bribe is wrong, wrong, wrong. It takes no fine-honed depth of integrity or professional experience to know how this act strikes at the very heart of the system a lawyer is sworn to uphold. What Mr. Hobbs is saying when all the superfluous language is expurgated, is that, had he failed to pay the bribe, his law practice would have suffered, he would not have been as successful. There are many ethical rules one can bend in the name of professional success, but the fact that doing the right thing can be difficult makes it no less incumbent on a lawyer to comport his conduct to the Code.
What further compounds the nature of Mr. Hobbs’ wrongdoing is that, subsequent to paying off the judge, this lawyer twice presented himself to the people of Logan County seeking to serve as their chief law enforcement officer by running for prosecuting attorney in 1988 and 1992. Can we surmise that, if he is threatened by a criminal while he is prosecutor, he will demonstrate the same lack of courage and integrity if he fears repercussion?
It is ironic now to read the dissent in Committee on Legal Ethics v. Boettner, 183 W.Va. 136, 141, 394 S.E.2d 735, 740 (1990) written by one member of the current majority. In that case, where we first established the right of a lawyer to request a mitigation hearing before the Committee on Legal Eth*616ics,3 the Court eventually suspended Mr. Bo-ettner for three years. His ethical violation grew out of a guilty plea in federal court for tax evasion as a result of failing to report constructive income of approximately $4,000 (payments which were made for him by a lobbyist on a mortgage loan). Id. at 137, 394 S.E.2d at 736.
The writer of that dissent literally railed about the majority’s decision to permit mitigation hearings in some circumstances and, later, in the opinion suspending Mr. Boett-ner’s license for three years, he reiterated his dissent:
After reading the majority opinion, I wonder if the legal profession will ever climb in the eyes of the general public to a position other than that just ahead of a used car salesman. It seems that for every step forward, we take two steps back. In these days of increased awareness of ethics, both professional and personal, one would expect this Court to tighten the ethical standards applicable to members of the legal profession. Instead, the majority loosens the standards to allow erring attorneys to explain away their misdeeds. Who better than lawyers can master that hurdle?
Id. at 141, 394 S.E.2d at 740.
In In re Brown, 157 W.Va. 1, 197 S.E.2d 814 (1973), this Court annulled the law license of Bonn Brown after he was convicted in federal court of bribing a juror. Subsequently, in In re Brown, 166 W.Va. 226, 273 S.E.2d 567 (1980), this Court even declined to reinstate Mr. Brown, saying: “We are not aware of any case where an attorney convicted of bribing a juror has been reinstated.” Id. at 237, 273 S.E.2d at 573. This Court also stated that the nature of the crimes (here Brown was convicted of bribing a jury as well as conspiracy to bribe public officials), “directed as they were to the core of the legal system and the integrity of governmental institutions demonstrates a profound lack of moral character on the part of the applicant.” Id. at 239, 273 S.E.2d at 574.
In that majority opinion, Justice Miller said it all most eloquently, and his words bear repeating:
Woven throughout our disciplinary cases involving attorneys is the thought that they occupy a special position because they are actively involved in administering the legal system 'whose ultimate goal is the evenhanded administration of justice. Integrity and honor are critical components of a lawyer’s character as are a sense of duty and fairness. Because the legal system embraces the whole of society, the public has a vital expectation that it will be properly administered. From this expectancy arises the concept of preserving public confidence in the administration of justice by disciplining those lawyers who fail to conform to professional standards.
Id. at 232, 273 S.E.2d at 570 (footnote omitted).
Although each disciplinary case must be judged on its own merits, there must be some thread of reason and consistency in how ethical sanctions are meted out. This case stands as an aberration on the landscape of law relating to legal ethics in West Virginia. Let us hope that young lawyers, whose faces are so full of energy and vision on the day they raise their hands and take their solemn professional oaths, know that these words must have meaning:
T do solemnly swear or affirm that: I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of West Virginia; that I will honestly demean myself in the practice of law; and, to the best of my ability, execute my office of attorney-at-law; so help me God.’
See Rule 7.0(c) of the Rules for Admission to the Practice of Law.
Let us hope this Court will never again fail so abysmally to breathe life into the meaning of those words.

. Article VI, § 35 of the By-Laws of the West Virginia State Bar provides that an attorney who has been disbarred may, after the expiration of five years from the date of the disbarment, petition this Court for reinstatement.

. Throughout this case, Mr. Hobbs attempts to focus the discussion on Judge Grubb. Judge Grubb has been disbarred and is in a federal penitentiary. The focus here must be on lawyer Mark Hobbs.

. The Court specified that no such hearing was automatic.