Attorney Grievance Commission v. Harris

528 A.2d 895, 310 Md. 197, 1987 Md. LEXIS 260
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 30, 1987
DocketMisc. Docket (Subtitle BV) No. 51, September Term, 1985
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 528 A.2d 895 (Attorney Grievance Commission v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Attorney Grievance Commission v. Harris, 528 A.2d 895, 310 Md. 197, 1987 Md. LEXIS 260 (Md. 1987).

Opinion

COUCH, Judge.

The Attorney Grievance Commission (“Commission”), acting through Bar Counsel, filed a petition seeking disciplinary action against the respondent Alan Edgar Harris. The petition alleged that Harris violated certain disciplinary rules in his representation of three unrelated clients, Delores Green, Grady Jacks, Sr., and Anthony Jeter. Pursuant to Maryland Rule BY 9, we referred the matter to Judge Arrie W. Davis of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. In his memorandum of findings of fact and conclusions of law, Judge Davis rejected some of the Commission’s charges, but nevertheless concluded that Harris had violated the following rules of the Code of Professional Responsibility: DR 1-102(A)(1), DR 6-101(A)(8), DR 7-101(A)(1) in his representation of Delores Green; and DR *200 1-102(A)(1), DR 5-103(B), DR 9-102(B)(3) in his representation of Grady Jacks, Sr. 1 Harris has filed seventeen exceptions and Bar Counsel has filed one exception to Judge Davis’s memorandum. Exceptions 16 and 17 involve two motions to dismiss the disciplinary petition. We shall first address the motions to dismiss.

I

Harris’s Motions to Dismiss Exception 16

In the first motion, argued initially before Judge Davis and now before this Court, Harris attacks in several respects the proceedings of the Inquiry Panel and the Review Board. Like the trial court, we reject his arguments. 2

Harris argues initially that Bar Counsel improperly informed the Inquiry Panel of prior hearings and warnings issued to respondent in three other cases, and also advised the Panel that there was a “pattern of misconduct” involved. Bar Counsel’s action, however, is specifically sanctioned by the Attorney Grievance Commission’s Administrative and Procedural Guidelines (“Guidelines”). Section 4-203 states in part:

*201 “Transmittal of File by Bar Counsel Upon the appointment of a Panel, Bar Counsel shall promptly forward the file and record to the Panel Chairman and other Panel members. If Bar Counsel determines that the present complaint or complaints establish a pattern of misconduct similar to past misconduct for which sanctions or warnings have been issued to the Respondent, the file and record shall include a statement of prior sanctions imposed on the Respondent and also a statement of prior warnings issued to the Respondent. Prior sanctions include disbarments, suspensions, and public and private reprimands.”

We find this contention to be without merit. 3

We next consider Harris’s due process contentions, 4 which we summarize as follows: 1) respondent was denied the opportunity to participate in the selection of the Inquiry Panel hearing the complaints against him; 2) a single Inquiry Panel improperly considered four entirely unrelated complaints against respondent, depriving him of a “fair and impartial hearing before an unbiased body, unaffected by notice or knowledge of any complaint other than the one it initially was charged to hear ... ”; 3) respondent was precluded from taking part in Review Board proceedings, including the selection of participating members; and 4) the Attorney Grievance Commission improperly performed as an investigative agency, a prosecuting agency, and a “se *202 lecting agency with respect to the persons who [were] to constitute^ the Inquiry Panel and the Review Board____” 5

Harris’s arguments are clearly without merit. In Attorney Grievance Commission v. Stewart, 285 Md. 251, 259, 401 A.2d 1026, 1030, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 845, 100 S.Ct. 89, 62 L.Ed.2d 58 (1979), we said that proceedings conducted by the Inquiry Panel and the Review Board are similar to the proceedings conducted by a grand jury in criminal cases. They are investigatory in nature—designed to aid in determining whether disciplinary action is warranted—and informal to the extent that the rules of evidence need hot apply. Id., 401 A.2d at 1030. See Attorney Grievance Commission v. Brown, 308 Md. 219, 223, 517 A.2d 1111, 1113 (1986). Moreover, any irregularity in the proceedings before the Inquiry Panel and the Review Board ordinarily will not amount to a denial of due process, as long as the lawyer is given notice and an opportunity to defend in a full and fair hearing following the institution of disciplinary proceedings in this Court. Maryland State Bar Association v. Frank, 272 Md. 528, 538, 325 A.2d 718, 723-24 (1974); Bar Association of Baltimore v. Posner, 275 Md. 250, 255, 339 A.2d 657, 659-60, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1016, 96 S.Ct. 451, 46 L.Ed.2d 388 (1975). See Stewart, 285 Md. at 259, 401 A.2d at 1030; Brown, 308 Md. at 223, 517 A.2d at 1113.

In the instant case, Harris was afforded notice and an opportunity to defend in a full and fair hearing following the institution of disciplinary proceedings in this Court. Accordingly, his various contentions asserting a denial of due process in the Inquiry Panel and Review Board proceedings are without merit.

The reasoning of Stewart also disposes of Harris’s contention that he did not receive notice before a member of the Inquiry Panel recused himself. Likewise, we reject his *203 assertion that he should have been notified that a new Panel member would be replacing another member at the upcoming Inquiry Panel proceedings. If Harris believed any member serving on the Panel should have been disqualified because of conflicting interests, he could have given written notice to the Panel Chairman explaining the basis of the allegation, with copies to the Chairman of the Inquiry Committee and Bar Counsel. Guidelines, § 5-101(b). There is nothing in the record to indicate that he took that action. Moreover, the trial court concluded, and we agree, that Harris has failed to demonstrate a conflict of interest on the part of any Panel member, or any prejudice to himself as a result of the substitution.

Finally, Harris claims the disciplinary petition charged him “with violations as to which he was not charged before the Inquiry Panel and as to which that Panel made no findings____” We reject this contention. Formal charges of misconduct do not exist against an attorney until a petition is docketed in this Court. Attorney Grievance Commission v. Bailey, 285 Md. 631, 637, 403 A.2d 1261, 1265 (1979).

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Bluebook (online)
528 A.2d 895, 310 Md. 197, 1987 Md. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/attorney-grievance-commission-v-harris-md-1987.