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Lawyer is accused of leaving court during recess, telling client she couldn't deal with the matter

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Updated: An ethics complaint accuses a Texas lawyer of telling an immigration client during a hearing recess that she couldn’t deal with the matter and then leaving the courthouse.

Irving, Texas, attorney Sherin Thawer is accused in an original petition filed in Texas district court on Dec. 2, the Texas Lawyer (sub. req.) reports.

The petition, summarized by Texas Lawyer, alleges Thawer appeared with an immigration client for a deportation hearing in June 2013. Thawer asked an attorney representing the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to administratively close the case, but the lawyer refused to do so, the petition says.

At that point, the petition alleges, Thawer asked for a five-minute recess and told her client outside the courtroom that “she could not deal with the matter right now,” according to the Texas Lawyer account. She advised her client to leave the courthouse and Thawer also left, the petition says.

A judge ruled against the client in absentia, but the client succeeded in getting the case reopened after alleging ineffective assistance of counsel.

Thawer tells the ABA Journal that the ethics allegations have not been proven. “There are always two sides of a story,” she said. “Those are allegations that are filed and they’re not proof.”

Thawer says she had worked out a deal for her client with an ICE lawyer, but that deal was not communicated to the ICE lawyer who appeared in court. “When I got there it was ‘no, no, no, no’ from the ICE attorney,” Thawer said. The ICE lawyer in court refused to continue the case, to call or email the attorney who agreed to the deal, or to allow the judge to call, Thawer said.

“I was pretty shaken up with that situation,” Thawer told the ABA Journal. “And I thought the hearing was done. I didn’t think there was anything to discuss. They had said no to every option I suggested. … It was pretty much leave the country, good-bye, in disregard of the deal we had made. I thought it was extremely unfair to the client.”

Thawer said she “really worked a miracle” for the client by negotiating the deal, and she was upset when it was not honored. “Where is the justice in that?” she said.

Updated at 2:30 p.m. to include comments from Thawer.