Court Opinion

ID: 9749599
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:53:04.793215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:53.427269
License: Public Domain

TERRY, Associate Judge,
with whom Associate Judge NEWMAN joins, dissenting:
I cannot, in good conscience, join my colleagues in refusing to admit Mr. Demos to our bar. My views are essentially the same as those expressed in the Per Curiam opinion for the division, In re Demos, 564 A.2d 1147 (D.C.1989). Unlike the majority today, I believe the only matter that we may properly consider on the issue of “good moral character” is the contempt conviction in Texas, for reasons set forth in the division opinion. Though it cannot be ignored entirely, I think the contempt conviction is too unimportant to stand in the way of his admission — especially when this court (over two dissents, including mine) saw fit to admit three convicted felons — a murderer,1 a bank robber, and a drug pusher — in In re Manville, 538 A.2d 1128 (D.C.1988) (en banc). What the court is doing today is plainly at odds with Manville. If we admitted the three petitioners in that case to our bar, I cannot understand why we deny admission to Mr. Demos, whose major flaw seems to be that he has difficulty controlling his temper.
In particular, I think the majority goes too far in attaching any weight at all to the alleged unauthorized practice in New Mexico. I say this because the New Mexico authorities, who are presumably as competent as those in the District of Columbia, have never seen fit to bring charges against Mr. Demos as a result of that incident, as my colleagues acknowledge in footnote 2 of the majority opinion. If the officials with primary responsibility for enforcing New Mexico’s laws against unauthorized practice concluded, for whatever reason, that Mr. Demos’ case did not warrant prosecution, then I think it is beyond the province of the Committee on Admissions to reopen the case and, in effect, to find that Mr. Demos did engage in the unauthorized practice of law in New Mexico. Such overreaching by the Committee should not be countenanced by this court.
After all is said and done, I am left with the firm conviction that an injustice has been done to Mr. Demos. It would be inaccurate to describe him as a diamond in the rough; he is a good deal more rough than diamondlike. He has a volatile temperament and tends at times to speak without reflecting on the impact of what he says. He is not a particularly good writer. As another member of the court remarked at oral argument before the division, he is “his own worst enemy.” But none of these traits should preclude his admission to the bar. Like my colleagues, ante at 674, I cannot and do not conclude “that the Committee was motivated by personal animus against [Mr. Demos] or that it sought to mislead the court and knowingly convey false or misleading information to it about [his] fitness and character.” Nevertheless, I cannot help feeling that if Mr. Demos were a bit more polished or had gone before the Committee with a bit more deference (or a lot more), he would- not still be fighting for admission to the bar seven years after passing the bar examination.
*676As judges we see a wide variety of lawyers in the courtroom every day. Their talents and professional skills range from brilliant to appalling. I think there is a place on that spectrum for Mr. Demos. He would be neither the best nor the worst, but on the record before us there is no reason to deny him admission to the bar.

. To be precise, I should say a “manslaughter-er." Mr. Manville was originally charged with murder, but was allowed to' plead guilty to the lesser included offense of manslaughter as a result of a plea bargain.