Court Opinion

ID: 9717672
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:08:27.994913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.665383
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting: In my judgment nothing short of disbarment is appropriate for a lawyer who in 21 of 23 adoptions handled by him in a three-year period regularly encouraged his clients to commit perjury and to violate the statute prohibiting payment of compensation to private persons for the placement of “black market” or “gray market” babies; who then filed the perjurious affidavits with the courts, advised some clients to lie to the judge if asked about them and remained silent when his clients were asked and answered falsely; and who finally converted $2,500 of one client’s funds. While characterizing respondent’s conduct in these terms may seem harsh, the fact is that he was systematically and regularly assisting his clients in deceiving the judges before whom they appeared and in committing serious violations of the law without, apparently, any explanation to them of the possible consequences of their conduct. Given the fact that respondent’s testimony leaves no doubt that he completely understood the situation, I find the psychologist’s testimony regarding respondent’s “accommodating personality” disorder insufficient to establish any real excuse for what was done. Nor, in my opinion, can the evidence as to respondent’s prior reputation and good character warrant limiting the sanction imposed here to suspension. In re Rosenthal (1978), 73 Ill. 2d 46. The fact that respondent may have been motivated, at least in part, by a desire to provide babies for couples who could not secure them by legitimate methods cannot serve to justify the deliberate and long-continued violation of the adoption and criminal laws of this State. But, even assuming respondent’s motives for those violations sufficient to warrant a sanction less than disbarment, nothing of a mitigating nature can be said of the conversion of the Kujak funds. In re Smith (1976), 63 Ill. 2d 250. While I find the disbarment of an attorney a most unwelcome duty, it seems to me that in the aggravated circumstances of this case nothing short of disbarment will serve to maintain the integrity of the profession. JUSTICE MORAN joins in this dissent.