In re Lee

67 A.3d 543, 2013 WL 2436224
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 6, 2013
DocketNo. 12-BG-1428
StatusPublished

This text of 67 A.3d 543 (In re Lee) 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 Lee, 67 A.3d 543, 2013 WL 2436224 (D.C. 2013).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

The Louisiana Supreme Court in April 2012 suspended respondent Kimuel Lee from practicing law in that state for two [544]*544years. In re Lee, 85 So.3d 74 (La.2012). The court determined that Mr. Lee committed misconduct in two unrelated matters: (1) failing to provide competent representation in a succession matter, charging and collecting an excessive fee, and failing to promptly remit funds to the heirs; and (2) notarizing his wife’s forged signature on the.bill of sale in a transaction Mr. Lee himself negotiated. See id. at 82. We now impose the same sanction.

After receiving notice of the Louisiana suspension, this court initiated reciprocal disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Lee, a member of the District of Columbia Bar since 1990. We temporarily suspended Mr. Lee from practicing law in this jurisdiction pending the outcome of the reciprocal proceeding and ordered him to show cause why we should not impose identical reciprocal discipline here. See D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11(d). We also ordered Bar Counsel to file a reply to Mr. Lee’s response and, if it found identical discipline was not warranted, to either “recommend appropriate non-identical discipline” or “request that the matter be referred to the Board [on Professional Responsibility] for its recommendation as to discipline.” See D.C. Bar R. XI, §§ 11(d) & (e).

Mr. Lee here opposes reciprocal discipline and claims his case falls under each of the exceptions to D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11(c), favoring identical reciprocal discipline. Bar Counsel meanwhile argues that none of the exceptions applies and thus this court should impose the same sanction the Louisiana court imposed.

This court, in In re Sibley, 990 A.2d 483 (D.C.2010), explained the principles governing our review of reciprocal discipline matters:

With- regard to attorney-discipline cases that come to us as reciprocal matters, D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11(c) establishes a rebuttable presumption in favor of this court’s imposition of discipline identical to that imposed by the original disciplining jurisdiction. See In re Zilberberg, 612 A.2d 832, 834 (D.C.1992); see also In re Hallal, 944 A.2d 1085, 1087 (D.C.2008). The presumption applies unless the party opposing discipline (or urging non-identical discipline) shows, by clear and convincing evidence, that an exception should be made on the basis of one or more of the grounds set out in Rule XI, § ll(c)(l)-(5). In re Zdravkovich, 831 A.2d 964, 969-70 (D.C.2003). Rule XI, § 11(c) imposes a “rigid standard,” as to which exceptions “should be rare.” Id. at 968, 969. “[Reciprocal discipline proceedings are not a forum to reargue the foreign discipline.” Id: at 969.

990 A.2d at 487-88 (footnote omitted).

Rule XI, § 11(c) provides that “[rjecip-rocal discipline shall be imposed unless the attorney demonstrates to the Court, by clear and convincing evidence,” that:

(1) The procedure elsewhere was so lacking in notice or opportunity to be heard as to constitute a deprivation of due process; or
(2) There was such infirmity of proof establishing the misconduct as to give rise to the clear conviction that the Court could not, consistently with its duty, accept as final the conclusion on that subject; or
(3) The imposition of the same discipline by the Court would result in grave injustice; or
(4) The misconduct established warrants substantially different discipline in the District of Columbia; or
(5) The misconduct elsewhere does not constitute misconduct in the District of Columbia.

D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11(c).

Mr. Lee’s claims with respect to exceptions (1), (2), (3), and (5) are plainly [545]*545without merit. To begin with, Mr. Lee was not denied due process. The Louisiana disciplinary proceedings, similar to the process in D.C., consisted of a committee hearing in which Mr. Lee was able to present evidence and fully air any objections he had, followed by further consideration of his case by the state disciplinary board and finally the Louisiana Supreme Court. Lee, 85 So.3d at 78-81. He participated in each step of the proceedings, objecting to, among other things, a nearly ten-year delay in bringing charges in the succession matter. While his arguments did not prevail, the disciplinary board found the delay was a mitigating factor in his case. Id. at 81.

There was, moreover, no infirmity of proof in the Louisiana proceedings. Mr. Lee objects to a supposed lack of “chain of custody” for the document entered against him to prove he forged his wife’s signature, and he also cites a lack of “fraudulent intent” and the fact that “no one was ever misled by anything.” As to the succession matter, Mr. Lee claims mainly that the long delay in bringing charges rendered the evidence on those charges unreliable. At each of the three stages in the disciplinary process, however, the reviewing body found misconduct by clear and convincing evidence — the same burden of proof for lawyer misconduct in the District of Columbia — and we see nothing in the record or Mr. Lee’s pleadings that would lead us to a “clear conviction” that we should not accept those findings. D.C. Bar R. XI, § 11(c)(2). The Louisiana Supreme Court, moreover, considered this delay argument and adopted the state disciplinary board’s finding of delay as a mitigating factor. See In re Ponds, 888 A.2d 234, 240-44 (D.C.2005) (“[A]n undue delay in prosecution is not in itself a proper ground for dismissal of charges of attorney misconduct.”); In re Miller, 553 A.2d 201, 206 (D.C.1989) (six-year delay between conduct and conclusion of disciplinary proceedings was relevant for mitigation of sentence but not for dismissal of misconduct charge).

Mr. Lee also makes a due process argument he apparently has not raised before, as it was unaddressed in any of the Louisiana proceedings and Mr. Lee does not point us to any prior consideration of it. He claims the chairman of the hearing committee — the member who “authored the findings of fact in this matter” — was biased against him because of an “undisclosed relationship” with Mr. Lee’s wife. The chairman, he says, “was making a play on Respondent’s wife at the time the charges were filed,” though apparently these “advances” were “unrequited” by his wife. These allegations, as Bar Counsel argues, “would have been much easier to resolve in the original disciplinary proceedings,” and we conclude that Mr. Lee has waived this claim. See In re Steele, 914 A.2d 679, 681 (D.C.2007) (rejecting as waived respondent’s previously unraised claims, including an alleged conflict precluding his attendance at a disciplinary proceeding).

We also are not convinced by Mr. Lee’s further claims that his case would result in a grave injustice and that his charges for excessive fees (La. R. Prof. Conduct 1.5(a)) and dishonesty (La. R. Prof.

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Related

In Re Garner
576 A.2d 1356 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1990)
In Re Mintz
626 A.2d 926 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1993)
In Re Sibley
990 A.2d 483 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2010)
In Re Kennedy
542 A.2d 1225 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1988)
In Re Hallal
944 A.2d 1085 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2008)
Matter of Miller
553 A.2d 201 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1989)
In Re Zilberberg
612 A.2d 832 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1992)
In Re Matchett
996 A.2d 804 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2010)
In Re Ponds
888 A.2d 234 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2005)
In Re Zdravkovich
831 A.2d 964 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2003)
In Re Steele
914 A.2d 679 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2007)
In Re Danny L. Guidry.
71 So. 3d 256 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2011)
In Re Lee
85 So. 3d 74 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2012)
In Re Arbour
915 So. 2d 345 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 A.3d 543, 2013 WL 2436224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-lee-dc-2013.