In re Bar Applicant ADM-2004-176

880 A.2d 439, 152 N.H. 523, 2005 N.H. LEXIS 135
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedAugust 18, 2005
DocketNo. ADM-2004-176
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 880 A.2d 439 (In re Bar Applicant ADM-2004-176) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Bar Applicant ADM-2004-176, 880 A.2d 439, 152 N.H. 523, 2005 N.H. LEXIS 135 (N.H. 2005).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

The applicant seeks admission to the New Hampshire Bar. The standing committee on character and fitness of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (committee) filed two adverse reports recommending that the applicant be denied admission. We issued an order instructing the applicant to show cause why his application should not be denied. See Sup. Ct. R. 42(5)(k). Thereafter, both parties were allowed to file briefs or memoranda, and oral argument was held. We now deny the application.

Supreme Court Rule 42(5)(a) states: “All persons who desire to be admitted to practice law shall be required to establish their moral character and fitness to the satisfaction of the Standing Committee on [524]*524Character and Fitness of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in advance of such admission.” Sup. Ct. R. 42(5)(a). The burden of establishing fitness to practice law rests upon the applicant. Application of Appell, 116 N.H. 400, 401 (1976). The applicant must prove good moral character and fitness by clear and convincing evidence. Application of T.J.S., 141 N.H. 697, 699 (1997); In re Mustafa, 631 A.2d 45, 47 (D.C. 1993). Any doubt concerning character and fitness should be resolved in favor of protecting the public by denying admission to the applicant. T.J.S., 141 N.H. at 702-03.

As a general rule, we accord deference to a fact finder’s determination of witness credibility and resolution of disputed questions of fact. Nevertheless, the committee’s recommendation is advisory only and neither binds this court nor limits our authority to take action. Id. at 699.

The applicant is married and has two children from his current marriage. He also has two children from a former marriage. The applicant has a master’s degree in education and a law degree. He has owned and operated his own business for the past twenty years.

The applicant submitted his petition and questionnaire for admission to the bar of New Hampshire on May 1, 2003. He submitted letters of recommendation from many sources, including • law school professors, friends, physicians and even a former wife, to the committee over the course of the proceedings. The committee interviewed the applicant on July 1, 2003. After the interview and a follow-up investigation, the committee issued a negative report.

The report highlighted several areas of concern, including: (1) a past due financial obligation; (2) twelve civil matters to which the applicant has been a party, including three divorces; (3) two monetary judgments entered against him; (4) a judgment for past due child support; (5) eighteen motor vehicle violations, of which fourteen had been incurred since 1991; and (6) that he had been fired from one of his jobs. The committee also discussed an order finding the applicant in contempt of the Windham Family Court in Vermont.

The areas of greatest concern to the committee were the applicant’s unsubstantiated reports of his effort to fight drug addiction in Montreal and his “apparent disdain for authority... that is reflected in the course of his on-going litigation in Windham Family Court.”

The applicant requested a hearing before the committee to explain the issues contained in the report, see Sup. Ct. R. 42(5)(j), at which he was represented by counsel. Following the hearing, the committee voted to submit a second negative report. It found that the applicant had not met his burden of demonstrating the character and fitness required for admission to the bar. The grounds for the committee’s finding included: (1) [525]*525the applicant’s “willful, deliberate and contumacious” conduct before the Windham Family Court in Vermont; (2) the applicant’s abuse of the judicial process, including the filing of eighteen motions in a ten-month period; and (3) the applicant’s lack of “sufficient positive characteristics of character and fitness to practice law.”

The applicant contends that both negative reports of the committee “contain numerous errors, misapprehensions and misquotations. The conclusions of those reports are generally unsupported by substantial evidence.”

The applicant further objects to the committee’s use of proposed character and fitness standards that have not yet been adopted. The applicant suggests use of the Code of Recommended Standards for Bar Examiners promulgated by the American Bar Association (ABA Standards). American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and National Conference of Bar Examiners, Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements 1997-98 (1997). The committee has been making determinations of character and fitness without the assistance of formal standards since its inception. Although we have referred to the ABA Standards for guidance in the past, see T.J.S., 141 N.H. at 701, “the fact is that in reviewing an application for admission to the bar, the decision as to an applicant’s good moral character must be made on an ad hoc basis.” Appeal of Lane, 544 N.W.2d 367, 375 (Neb. 1996) (quotation and brackets omitted). We shall rely upon case law and the standards governing practicing attorneys. See id. (“What cannot be permitted in attorneys cannot be tolerated in those applying for admission as attorneys.”).

The applicant argues that he has demonstrated a commitment to good works. This commitment includes claims that he, among other activities, worked as an inner city school teacher, helped organize taxi drivers in Philadelphia to resist the Teamsters’ Union, secretly transported banned books out of communist Czechoslovakia, forced the cleanup of an “asbestos-contaminated area” in Brattleboro, exposed a “longstanding pattern of abuses and gender discrimination” at the Office of Child Support and the Windham Family Court in Vermont, and worked extensively to combat drug addiction in Montreal.

The applicant began his frequent trips to Montreal while in law school. On these trips, according to his testimony, he counseled young drug addicts, passed out anti-drug literature and provided information to law enforcement authorities. The applicant received at least three speeding tickets during trips to and from Montreal while driving under conditions of extreme fatigue and one ticket for a traffic violation in Montreal while trying to locate people he suspected of being drug dealers. He presented [526]*526numerous e-mails he has written to police officers in Montreal, containing detailed information about people he suspected of being drug dealers, including license plate and phone numbers associated with persons he suspected of being drug dealers. He sent multiple reports to the Solicitor General of Canada on his view of the drug trafficking situation in general in Montreal, and one report containing allegations that members of the Montreal police force were engaged in trafficking. He also submitted two responsive e-mails from law enforcement officials, one indicating when a particular officer would return from vacation and one providing a contact name for future correspondence.

The applicant’s attorney represented to the committee that he had spoken over the phone with two law enforcement officers in Montreal. One officer confirmed to the attorney that the applicant had sent him e-mails. The other officer simply stated that it was his office’s policy not to disclose whether someone was working as an informant.

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880 A.2d 439, 152 N.H. 523, 2005 N.H. LEXIS 135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-bar-applicant-adm-2004-176-nh-2005.