Saturday, May 23, 2015

An Illinois attorney has filed a motion for disbarment by consent on the following admitted facts

In 2011, Respondent represented Staples the Office Superstore East (a subsidiary of Staples, Inc.; hereafter, "Staples"), the defendant in a personal injury action filed in Indiana state court by Max Jackson ("Jackson"). In the course of discovery, Jackson filed a motion for sanctions alleging that Respondent’s client, Staples, had failed to fully respond to a request for production of documents and interrogatories. Respondent filed a response in which he claimed, in part, that his mother had been "killed in a violent car accident in the state of Colorado," that she perished from "the fire and smoke inhalation from the resulting conflagration," and that Respondent "was left scrambling between Indiana, Colorado and Idaho for weeks trying to get his mother buried, her estate resolved and her pets adopted." Respondent’s statements were false, and he knew they were false, since his mother had neither died nor been involved in a car accident, and Respondent had not been "left scrambling between Indiana, Colorado and Idaho" to resolve his mother’s affairs.

And

In 2011, Respondent represented Reed & Company, P.C. ("Reed"), the defendant in a civil lawsuit filed in Indiana state court by Wabash Center, Inc. ("Wabash"). After Wabash filed a motion for partial summary judgment, the court set the matter for hearing on that motion. On the date of the scheduled hearing, Respondent filed an emergency motion requesting that the hearing be continued, based on his representation that the day before, he had been diagnosed with "double pneumonia" and sent to the emergency room. Respondent’s statements were false, and Respondent knew they were false, as Respondent had not been sent to the emergency room with pneumonia, and in fact, he had billed his client Reed for time spent preparing a summary judgment motion on Reed’s behalf during the time period that he purportedly was incapacitated.

The motion admits a host of ethics violations. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2015/05/an-illinois-attorney-has-filed-a-motion-for-disbarment-by-consent-on-the-following-admitted-facts.html