IN RE DANA JOHNSON

District of Columbia Court of Appeals·Decided July 28, 2016·No. 15-BG-1218·Published

Opinion

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the Atlantic and Maryland Reporters. Users are requested to notify the Clerk of the Court of any formal errors so that corrections may be made before the bound volumes go to press.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS No. 15-BG-1218 7/28/16 IN RE DANA JOHNSON, PETITIONER.

On Report and Recommendation of the Board on Professional Responsibility (BDN-39-15)

(Argued April 14, 2016 Decided July 28, 2016)

Dana W. Johnson, pro se.

Julia L. Porter, Senior Assistant Disciplinary Counsel, with whom Wallace E. Shipp, Jr., Disciplinary Counsel, and Jennifer P. Lyman, Senior Assistant Disciplinary Counsel, were on the brief, for the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

Before BLACKBURNE-RIGSBY and MCLEESE, Associate Judges, and REID, Senior Judge.

PER CURIAM: Pro se petitioner Dana W. Johnson was disbarred in 2002, In re Johnson (Johnson I), 810 A.2d 917 (D.C. 2002) (per curiam), and this court denied his first petition for reinstatement in 2014, In re Johnson (Johnson II), 103 A.3d 194 (D.C. 2014). Mr. Johnson brought this second petition for reinstatement before the Board on Professional Responsibility (―the Board‖) after multiple failed attempts to file a compliant affidavit with the Board pursuant to D.C. Bar R. XI,

§ 14 (g).1 Mr. Johnson asserted that his last two affidavits filed in March 2015 and August 2015 were ―collectively compliant‖ and requested that his affidavits receive nunc pro tunc treatment dating back to May 2001 when he filed his first affidavit, which would allow his requisite five year period of disbarment2 to run from that date. The Board found that the last two affidavits were still not compliant, refused to entertain any further affidavits submitted for the purpose of receiving nunc pro tunc treatment, and submitted its recommendation to this court to dismiss Mr. Johnson‘s second petition for reinstatement. We adopt the recommendation of the Board.

1 D.C. Bar Rule XI, § 14 (g) states in pertinent part:

Within ten days after the effective date of an order of disbarment or suspension, the disbarred or suspended attorney shall file with the Court and the Board an affidavit:

(1) Demonstrating with particularity, and with supporting proof, that the attorney has fully complied with the provisions of the order and with this rule;

(2) Listing all other state and federal jurisdictions and administrative agencies to which the attorney is admitted to practice; and

(3) Certifying that a copy of the affidavit has been served on Disciplinary Counsel.

2 D.C. Bar R. XI, § 16 (c) states that ―a disbarred attorney shall not be eligible for reinstatement until five years shall have elapsed following the attorney‘s compliance with section 14.‖

I. Factual Background

This is Mr. Johnson‘s second petition for reinstatement. In brief, the Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred Mr. Johnson in April 2001,3 and this court imposed reciprocal discipline and disbarred him in the District of Columbia in November 2002.4 Johnson I, supra, 810 A.2d at 917. Over the course of approximately fifteen years, Mr. Johnson made eight attempts to comply with D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (g), which requires an attorney, within ten days after the date of disbarment, to file an affidavit that, inter alia, demonstrates that he has fully complied with the ―core requirements‖5 of D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (a)-(d). Specifically relevant to this case, the core requirement found in 14 (a) mandates

3 Mr. Johnson was disbarred for operating a law office in Maryland without a Maryland license, falsely claiming to represent two clients who did not retain him, subsequently forging those clients‘ signatures to a bankruptcy petition, and filing it without their knowledge, all in violation of the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct 1.7 (b), 3.3 (a)(1), 5.5 (a), 7.1, 7.5 (a) and (b), and 8.4 (a), (c), and (d). See Attorney Grievance Comm’n of Md. v. Johnson, 770 A.2d 130, 150 (Md. 2001).

4 The underlying facts are discussed in greater detail in Attorney Grievance Comm’n of Md., supra note 3, 770 A.2d at 134-37, and Johnson II, supra, 103 A.3d at 195-97.

5 See In re Weekes, 990 A.2d 470, 474 (D.C. 2010).

that an attorney who is disbarred notify all clients in any pending matters of his disbarment and advise such clients to seek legal advice elsewhere. In addition to verifying compliance with the ―core requirements‖ of 14 (a) through (d), a disbarred attorney must list in the 14 (g) affidavit all other state and federal jurisdictions to which the attorney is admitted to practice. See D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (g)(2).

In November 2014, this court dismissed Mr. Johnson‘s first petition for reinstatement because his first five 14 (g) affidavits were noncompliant for failing to demonstrate that he fully satisfied the 14 (a) core requirement to notify clients of his disbarment. See Johnson II, supra, 103 A.3d at 199. Specifically, he did not provide proof that he gave notice to an individual whom he represented in a 2001 arbitration proceeding, claiming that he did not have records of the representation and could not recall the individual‘s name from memory. Id. at 195-97. On January 29, 2015, Mr. Johnson filed a second petition for reinstatement with the Board, along with a sixth 14 (g) affidavit. The sixth affidavit failed to correct the deficiencies of the previous five affidavits. Mr. Johnson then filed a seventh 14 (g) affidavit on March 4, 2015, in which he claimed that he was still unable to recall the individual‘s name from the 2001 arbitration. But, he asserted that the

individual was aware of his disbarment and still opted to have Mr. Johnson represent him in the arbitration in a non-legal capacity.

On August 5, 2015, the Board issued an order dismissing Mr. Johnson‘s second petition. The Board concluded that Mr. Johnson satisfied the notice requirement in 14 (a) ―to the extent he [was] able to do so‖ because he was unable to name the individual from the 2001 arbitration, and that was ―unlikely to change.‖ To demonstrate full compliance with 14 (g), however, the Board required Mr. Johnson to correct a false statement in his March 2015 affidavit. Specifically, in response to 14 (g)(2), which requires a disbarred attorney to list ―all other state and federal jurisdictions to which [he] is admitted to practice,‖ Mr. Johnson included the following statement:

At the time of entry of the order of suspension, the complete list of the state and federal jurisdictions and administrative agencies to which I was admitted to is:

1) the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Eastern District of Virginia. I am still admitted to those jurisdictions. 2) I was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Virginia but my license to practice there was revoked in approximately 2002 and is still revoked.

This statement was false. Mr. Johnson was not admitted to practice in the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia because he was disbarred by that federal court in August 2002. Mr. Johnson argued to the Board that he

never received the order of disbarment because he was forced to foreclose his home and had no fixed address following his disbarment. However, Mr. Johnson should have known, pursuant to the Local Civil Rules of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, that he would be automatically suspended and ordinarily disbarred by that federal court upon being disbarred by this court in 2002. See D.D.C. Local Rule 83.16 (c)(1), (4).

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