Sweating the Details, part 3
Friday Oct 16, 2009
Here is yet another example of sloppy lawyering, resulting in a $100 fine for an inaccurate citation that sent the court on a wild goose chase.
It's important that we take the time necessary to do our jobs properly and professionally. Proofreading (more than once if necessary), cite checking, and following local rules (including attaching a copy of an unpublished case, if required) all would have helped avoid this mistake. Sloppy lawyering is unprofessional and makes us all look bad. Take the time to care and to look good.
BTW, when I studied for the MPRE they told us that new lawyers are generally very careful in their practice and with ethics, and generally don't get disciplined very often. In addition, junior attorneys are generally more closely supervised, so it's harder for them to go astray. The lawyers who make sloppy mistakes and ethical compromises, and who end up getting disciplined by the State Bar, are usually those who have been in practice for a while.
If you want to conduct an informal survey of your own, take a look at the California Bar Journal, which comes out monthly. There's a section in each issue on Attorney Discipline, which gives the most recent disbarments, suspensions/probations, public reprovals, and other disciplinary actions against California attorneys, complete with the attorney names, bar numbers, ages, and a fairly detailed description of each attorney's misconduct. It's a great lesson in what NOT to do.
I looked at the June 2009 issue of the Journal (which seemed to be a good representative sample) and here's what I found. The date after each attorney's name shows when they were admitted to the CA bar. This information is not included in the Journal, but you can look it up here using the attorney's bar number that is included in the Journal.
Bennie C. Ferma, 1989 (misappropriation of funds from client)
Dawna S. Andersen, 1996 (forgery)
Marc B. Levine, 1990 (grand theft)
Duane R. Folke, 1988 (abandonment of clients, failure to return unearned fees)
Craig M. Silman Jr., 2002 (failure to competently perform legal services)
Matthew T. Newman, 1992 (failure to properly maintain client trust account)
Robert F. Graham, 1997 (failure to perform legal services competently)
Richard Hamm, 1974 (DUI, failure to perform legal services competently)
Tarik A. Kanwar, 2003 (failure to perform legal services competently)
Darla R. Anderson, 1982 (acts of moral turpitude; Anderson was subsequently disbarred)
Patrick G. Christoff, 1991 (practicing law while suspended for non-payment of dues)
Mark S. Williams, 1995 (fitness to practice)
Craig E. Munson, 1989 (commingling of personal and business funds in client trust account)
Victoria M. Walter, 1997 (failure to comply with conditions of prior public reproval)
Geoffrey W. Newman, 1996 (conspiracy, soliciting a crime, and capping)
Warren J. Small Jr., 1979 (failure to perform legal services competently, failure to return unearned fees)
Donald P. Balzano, 1976 (DUI, driving with a suspended license)
Michael L. DeFrank, 1997 (DUI)
Gerald R. Barrick, 1960 (no info. available)
So, the most junior lawyer who was disciplined was admitted to the bar in 2003, and had been practicing for 6 years. The average, though, of all the attorneys disciplined is 20 years of practice. This doesn't mean junior lawyers don't have to worry about discipline. It does mean that sweating the details and paying attention to ethics and the rules of our profession *always* matters, even after you get more comfortable with your job.
|
|
|
|
