Court Opinion

ID: 9524385
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:52:16.998004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:09:52.077944
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Justice
(concurring specialty)-
1. I concur in the result, but write separately to clarify the limits of this decision. Professional discipline for noneriminal sexual misconduct outside the attorney-client relationship raises a host of ambiguities. The Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board apparently recognized as much, as it investigated the original complaint and determined discipline was not warranted. The matter was appealed under Rule 8(d) and after a hearing a board panel found probable cause to believe the alleged conduct occurred, but was uncertain whether the acts warranted public discipline and submitted the petition to this court for resolution.
We appointed a referee, whose findings do not entirely dispel the uncertainty about this matter. In addition to the facts recounted by the majority, the referee found (1) Peters was a “tactile dean”; (2) there was no evidence establishing sexual intent or moral turpitude; (3) Peters never touched body areas normally considered sexual; (4) Peters never used language proposing or suggesting sexual contacts; and (5) some of the incidents occurred in social settings in the presence of the parties’ friends or acquaintances. The women also conceded that they viewed some of Peters’ actions as friendly and supportive, and never remonstrated with him or complained to a corporate officer or director.
We do not, then, face an attorney who made sexual advances to a client or committed a sexual crime, as is typical in attorney discipline cases involving sexual misconduct. See Comment, Disciplining Attorney for Non-Professional Conduct Involving Alcohol and Sex, 1975 Ariz.St.L.J. 411, 420 (1975); Annotation, Sexual Misconduct as Ground for Disciplining Attorney or Judge, 43 A.L.R. 4th 1062 (1986). Instead, the misconduct turns on an interpretation of social interactions in the workplace. The line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in this area is not sharp, and probably varies with the factual setting and the individuals involved. Questions arise, too, about the connection between these kinds of allegations and an attorney’s “fitness to practice law,” which should be our only concern in disciplinary proceedings.
*3832. With these reservations in mind, I agree some discipline is warranted on this record. The referee specifically found Peters created a hostile work environment for all four women, and a hostile educational environment for two of them. He also found that the women’s perception of Peters’ actions as sexual and objectionable was reasonable. As the majority observes, this conduct constitutes sexual harassment under both Title VII and Minn.Stat. § 363.01, subd. 10A (1986).
Evidence supports this conclusion, though I remain troubled by some of the incidents cited by the referee and the majority. Claims that Peters put his arm around a woman or leaned against her while the two reviewed materials are insubstantial. Not every touch is sexual, and incidents like these are far too ambiguous to form a basis for discipline. Such conduct is commonplace, perhaps inevitable, in working relationships.
Other touches, though, went beyond what anyone would describe as collegial. Without consent, Peters pulled some of the women against his body, held one against a file cabinet, and placed his hands on another “high up on her rib cage underneath her breast and squeezed her ribs.” Absent an understanding that such intimacy was mutually acceptable, the women reasonably found Peters’ behavior distressing.
The relationship between these parties is also critical. Peters was a law school dean, the women his employees. Two were also students at the school. We recently stressed the abuse of power evident in a judge’s advances toward his close personal assistant, finding such conduct “no less troubling when engaged in by an attorney.” In re Miera, 426 N.W.2d 860, 859 (Minn.1988).
A law school dean stands in a similar position of authority over his student assistants and other school staff. Even if Peters had no sexual intent, he physically imposed himself on persons in a vulnerable position, never attempting to clarify or obtain approval for his actions. He thus placed an onus to object on persons least likely to do so. While I find it lamentable that hugging and touching so often carry sexual connotations, a person in Dean Peters’ position is not free to assume his employees consent to intimate physical contact that crosses the boundary of normal workplace interactions. Given the repeated pattern of unwelcome conduct, I agree that in this factual context Peters’ behavior adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law.
3. What discipline to impose is, for me, an even more difficult question. Each case must be assessed on its own facts, considering the purposes of an attorney disciplinary proceeding. In re Kraemer, 361 N.W.2d 402, 404-05 (Minn.1985). The purpose of a sanction is not to punish the respondent, but to protect the public and deter future misconduct. Id.; In re Carey, 380 N.W.2d 806, 809 (Minn.1986). Peters is no longer serving as a law school dean, and he suffered adverse publicity in connection with a previously settled civil suit brought by the women. A public reprimand will serve as additional punishment, and the published opinion will follow Peters for the rest of his life. Particularly since we are carving out new grounds for lawyer discipline, a private reprimand might be a more appropriate sanction in this case.
However, I also recognize the need to set a standard for future deterrence. In fashioning a sanction against Judge Alberto Miera, we clearly announced that we “will not tolerate improper sexual advances by judges.” Miera, at 859. We must similarly reprove sexual harassment by a law school dean. A public reprimand serves this function without being unduly onerous in these circumstances. To that end, I concur in the majority’s disposition of the case.
FALLON KELLY, Justice (Retired) (concurring).
I join in the special concurring opinion of Justice POPOVICH.