Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association v. Paris

2016 Ohio 5581, 68 N.E.3d 775, 148 Ohio St. 3d 55
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 31, 2016
Docket2015-2009
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2016 Ohio 5581 (Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association v. Paris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association v. Paris, 2016 Ohio 5581, 68 N.E.3d 775, 148 Ohio St. 3d 55 (Ohio 2016).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} Respondent, Tasso Paris of Cleveland, Ohio, Attorney Registration No. 0038609, was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1987.

{¶ 2} In a January 2015 complaint, relator, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, alleged that Paris violated multiple Rules of Professional Conduct by making unwelcome sexual advances toward a female client and failing to appear at her criminal-sentencing hearing.

{¶ 3} The parties entered into stipulations of fact, misconduct, and aggravating and mitigating factors and jointly recommended that Paris be suspended from the practice of law for six months, all stayed on the condition that he engage in no further misconduct. A panel of the Board of Professional Conduct conducted a hearing at which it admitted stipulations submitted by the parties and heard testimony from Paris and the affected client. The panel largely adopted the stipulations but, noting that Paris’s testimony contradicted some of those stipulations, also found that he failed to understand and acknowledge the wrongful nature of his conduct. The panel therefore rejected the sanction suggested by the parties and recommended that Paris serve a six-month actual suspension from the practice of law in Ohio. The board adopted the panel’s report in its entirety.

{¶ 4} Paris objects to the board’s finding of an additional aggravating factor to which the parties had not stipulated. He also argues that given the parties’ comprehensive stipulations and the limited nature of the testimony before the panel, this court should reject the sanction recommended by the panel and adopt the stipulated sanction of the parties. We adopt the board’s findings of fact and misconduct but sustain Paris’s objections and suspend him from the practice of law in Ohio for six months, all stayed on conditions.

[56]*56Misconduct

{¶ 5} Following an automobile accident that occurred on March 17, 2013, a woman hired Paris to defend her in the Cleveland Municipal Court against charges of driving under the influence and driving under suspension, and her flaneé paid him $1,000. Paris stipulated that he referred to her as his “beautiful Irish girl” but testified that he had referred to her as “a red haired Irish girl, coming out of an Irish bar, in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 17th” only in the context of explaining that no one was going to believe her claim that she had had only one drink before her St. Patrick’s Day automobile accident. Paris also stipulated that during the course of his representation, he asked his client to go out with him several times and invited her to his house to join him in his hot tub on more than one occasion. Although he never denied the truth of that stipulation, he also testified that the client’s flaneé was present at all but one of their meetings.

{¶ 6} Paris stipulated that his client was afraid to do anything about his conduct out of fear that it would affect his representation. The client testified that his conduct made her uncomfortable but that she never told him that she would not go out with him. Instead, she attempted to avoid the issue by saying, “[WJe’ll see” or “We will talk about it.” The client and her flaneé discussed her concerns on several occasions and agreed that she would just go out with Paris so that he would do a better job representing her, but she could not bring herself to go through with it. She testified that as the case dragged on, however, she would have done “whatever he want[ed]” to get it resolved.

{¶ 7} On August 6, 2013, the client pleaded guilty to driving while under suspension and failure to maintain reasonable control of her vehicle and was ordered to appear at a later date for sentencing. Paris stipulated that he not only failed to attend the sentencing hearing but that he also failed to notify the client of his absence and to request that another attorney attend the hearing on his behalf. At the panel hearing, Paris acknowledged that stipulation and confirmed its truth. He testified, however, that he had asked his father to attend the client’s sentencing hearing and that upon returning to the office after the hearing, his father reported that the case had been “sent to another judge.” Paris’s father was not called as a witness, but he represented Paris before the panel. During his closing argument, he stated that he attended the sentencing hearing at Paris’s request. But the parties had stipulated — and the client’s testimony confirmed — that when the judge asked her whether she was represented by counsel, she responded that Paris had failed to appear and that she did not expect him to because “[hje’s be[en] doing nothing but trying to get in my pants.”

{¶ 8} Based on the client’s statement, the judge vacated the client’s plea and recused herself from the case. The case was reassigned, and a public defender was appointed to represent the client. The client ultimately pleaded guilty to [57]*57operating an unsafe vehicle and was fined $200. She later filed a grievance against Paris.

{¶ 9} The board adopted the parties’ stipulations and agreed that Paris’s conduct violated Prof.Cond.R. 1.3 (requiring a lawyer to act with reasonable diligence in representing a client) and 1.8(j) (prohibiting a lawyer from soliciting or engaging in sexual activity with a client unless a consensual sexual relationship existed prior to the lawyer-client relationship).1

Recommended Sanction

{¶ 10} When imposing sanctions for attorney misconduct, we consider several relevant factors, including the ethical duties that the lawyer violated, relevant aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and the sanctions imposed in similar cases. See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(A).

{¶ 11} The board adopted the parties’ stipulation that Paris has no prior disciplinary record and cooperated with relator’s investigation. See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(C)(1) and (4). It also noted that Paris did not present evidence of any other mitigating factors.

{¶ 12} In addition to adopting the parties’ stipulated aggravating factors' — that Paris acted with a selfish motive and engaged in multiple offenses — the board found that Paris’s conduct harmed a vulnerable client. See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(B)(2), (4), and (8). The board also found that Paris did not understand or accept the wrongful nature of his conduct based on testimony in which he (1) asked why the client referred a female friend to him after terminating his representation if he was “hitting on” her, (2) stated that the client’s fiance was present during all but one of their meetings, (3) claimed that he merely referred to the client as a “red haired Irish girl”' — and only when explaining that no one was going to believe her claim that she had had only one drink before her St. Patrick’s Day automobile accident, and (4) claimed that his father had attended the client’s sentencing hearing. See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(B)(7). While noting that relator offered no evidence that Paris engaged in a pattern of misconduct, the board also commented that “there is likewise no evidence to assure the panel that it was an isolated event that is unlikely to reoccur.” See Gov.Bar R. V(13)(B)(3) (providing that a pattern of misconduct is an aggravating factor that may be considered in favor of recommending a more severe sanction).

{¶ 13} The parties jointly recommend that Paris be suspended for six months but that the suspension be stayed in its entirety on the condition that he engage in no further misconduct. In support of that sanction, the parties cited Disci

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Bluebook (online)
2016 Ohio 5581, 68 N.E.3d 775, 148 Ohio St. 3d 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-metropolitan-bar-association-v-paris-ohio-2016.