In re Blair

665 A.2d 969, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 208, 1995 WL 599006
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 12, 1995
DocketNo. 91-BG-699
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 665 A.2d 969 (In re Blair) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Blair, 665 A.2d 969, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 208, 1995 WL 599006 (D.C. 1995).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In In re Blair, 614 A.2d 523 (D.C.1992) (Blair I), the court remanded this matter to the Committee on Admissions for more detailed findings of fact and recommendations as to specific issues bearing on Blair’s fitness for admission to the Bar. After conducting additional hearings, the Committee unanimously recommended against admission. While this court must ultimately determine for itself whether an applicant should be admitted, In re Baker, 579 A.2d 676, 680 (D.C.1990), “we nonetheless accord great deference to the Committee’s factual findings and in particular to those findings based upon an assessment of a witness’s credibility.” Blair I, 614 A.2d at 527 (citing [971]*971In re Manville, 494 A.2d 1289, 1292-93 (D.C.1985)). Assessment of Blair’s credibility was critical for the Committee, as it found repeated indication that he had not been candid with it in his testimony. See In re Demos, 579 A.2d 668, 672 (D.C.1990) (en banc) (refusing admittance, relying partly on fact that Mr. Demos “had not been honest and forthright in his testimony before the Committee” and on his “lack of candor before the New Mexico court”).

We reject Blair’s application for admission substantially for the reasons set forth by the Committee. Blair has not borne his burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence1 that he possesses the moral character and fitness to practice law in the District of Columbia required by D.C.App.R. 46(e) (1995). We deal here primarily with Blair’s multifarious procedural challenges to the fairness of the Committee’s findings and recommendation; though we do not discuss every one, we have considered and reject all of them.

Blair first argues that no quorum of the Committee participated in the original 1990 hearings and the 1993 post-remand hearings or in the 1994 findings and recommendation. There is no requirement that an identical quorum participate in all proceedings over a four-year period of time, nor would that ever be likely to happen.2 What matters is that a quorum of the Committee (Kelly, Fort,3 Nettler, and Moore) participated in the post-remand hearings and the 1994 findings and recommendation.

Second, Blair complains that the Committee failed to provide him with notice that his allegation of drug use by his brother-in-law, Mr. Martin, was to be an issue in the hearing. In the 1990 proceedings Martin had refused to endorse Blair’s admission. In an effort to discredit Martin, Blair noted in his 1991 opposition to an earlier report of certain Committee members that the witness “at the time was experiencing certain major medical difficulties related to chemical dependencies which may have clouded his judgment.” (This did not prevent Blair from relying on significant portions of his brother-in-law’s “incoherent” and “bizarre” testimony in his opposition.) The Committee viewed the Martin incident “as a continuation of Blair’s practice of asserting scandalous personalized allegations against those who do not support him.”

Blair’s present objection confuses “issues” with questions. The Committee was not required to give him notice of every question they might ask him. The underlying issue was Blair’s conduct and candor, and allegations such as he made against Martin, if unfounded, were relevant to that inquiry. The focus of the question about the Martin allegation was on whether Blair’s judgment in making unsubstantiated accusations had improved.4 Furthermore, after the September 14,1993 hearing, Blair was on notice that the allegation raised a question and could have prepared to address it at the September 20, 1993 hearing.

Third, Blair similarly submits that he received no notice that a letter he sent to Bar Counsel and the Committee through his attorney accusing Ms. Dowe, an attorney in the Office of the Corporation Counsel, of misuse of her government position and blackmail [972]*972would be a matter of inquiry, and further that there was no “evidence to support Mr. Reischel’s claim ... against Mr. Blair,”5 ie., that Blair’s allegation was bogus. Again, whether Blair made unsubstantiated allegations was relevant to Blair’s character and his candor with the Committee, a fact he certainly knew was at issue in the hearings. Blair was questioned about the Dowe letter for some eight transcript pages at the hearing and, while professing little memory of its contents, admitted “there must have been some discussion” about it with his counsel at the time it was sent. There is no support for his claim that the Chair, Judge Kelly, ruled the entire Dowe matter out of bounds at the hearing only to have it emerge as a “negative finding” in the Committee’s recommendation.6 The Committee found that the Dowe letter was a further instance of Blair’s making baseless personal accusations. The Committee had a sufficient basis on which to reach that conclusion.

Fourth, Blair disputes the Committee’s findings with respect to his motion to disqualify Member Speights and its refusal to allow Blair’s expert to testify regarding the motion’s merit. The Committee found this a telling instance of Blair’s “launching an all out personal attack” on his perceived opponents. Blair’s notice argument here is no stronger than his previous ones.7 And there is nothing to his claim that Committee member Reischel’s questioning “coerced” him into testifying after Blair insisted he had had nothing to do with the recusal pleading and that Reischel should have been questioning Blair’s counsel, who filed it. Blair asserts that he was being honest in testifying that he knew nothing about the pleading, hence that it sheds no light upon his credibility. But the Committee was in the best position to determine Blair’s credibility, and we will not disregard its reliance on the recusal motion, as it was not clearly erroneous.8

Fifth, Blair challenges as an abuse of discretion the Committee’s finding that he has a “history of eng[a]ging in witness tampering” and a “willingness to submit pleadings containing highly inappropriate personal attacks.” While the finding of a “history” of witness tampering, supported by only one proven incident — the Maryland case — may go too far, any exaggeration in this regard was harmless because past witness tampering played only a minor role in the Committee’s recommendation. It rested instead primarily upon his practice, past and present, of “asserting improper personal attack[s] and making inappropriate allegations against others,” and upon his lack of candor with the Committee.

Sixth, in keeping with his penchant for accusations against those who oppose him, Blair asserts that the Committee’s findings with respect to his character and conduct amount to “impermissible discrimination,” ie.,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
665 A.2d 969, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 208, 1995 WL 599006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-blair-dc-1995.