In re Nadeau

2017 ME 191, 170 A.3d 255
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedSeptember 7, 2017
DocketDocket: Jud-16-1; Jud-17-1
StatusPublished

This text of 2017 ME 191 (In re Nadeau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Nadeau, 2017 ME 191, 170 A.3d 255 (Me. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM

[¶ 1] Robert M.A. Nadeau has filed a motion for reconsideration of our June 20, 2017, decision in this judicial disciplinary matter, In re Nadeau, 2017 ME 121, 168 A.3d 746. To allow consideration of his motion, we deferred the effective date of his two-year suspension from the practice of law from August 1, 2017, to September 15, 2017; invited a response to his motion from the Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability; and allowed Nadeau time to respond to any filing by the Committee.

[¶ 2] In his motion, supplemented by his response to the Committee’s filing, Nadeau makes two arguments.

[¶ 3] First, he contends that the two-year suspension from the practice of law and $5,000 forfeiture that we ordered as sanctions for his numerous violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct violated his rights to equal protection and due process of law because, he argues, the sanctions were more severe than the sanctions recommended by the Committee — a $10,000 fine and a two-year suspension from the practice of law, with the suspension from practice to take effect only if Nadeau again sought election as a probate judge.

[¶ 4] Second, Nadeau contends that the sanctions imposed on him may violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause because, Nadeau alleges, many clients desirous of his services will be deprived of his services if the two-year suspension from the practice of law remains in effect. Nadeau further asserts that “[tjhere has been no finding that [he] has engaged in any harm to any private client in his 36 years as an attorney, and no evidence that he would ever commit such harm in the future.”

I. REVIEW OF ISSUES

A. Due Process and Equal Protection

[¶ 5] Nadeau argues, in essence, that the two-year suspension from the practice of law violates his rights to equal protection and due process of law because (1) the Committee’s recommendation of a conditional suspension failed to notify him that he faced an actual suspension; (2) by analogy to plea agreements in criminal cases, the Court is barred from imposing a more severe sanction than recommended by the Committee; and (3) the two-year suspension from practice and the $5,000 forfeiture are more severe sanctions than sanctions that have been imposed on other judges, similarly situated, after findings of violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct.

[¶6] Nadeau’s claim that he was not on notice about the possibility that his license to practice law would be suspended is undermined by our opinion in In re Cox, 658 A.2d 1056 (Me. 1995)—a case specifically addressed during the February oral argument. Cox, like Nadeau, was no longer a judge when we heard his judicial disci[257]*257pline action. Id. at 1057. Cox, like Nadeau, argued that the action was moot because no sanctions could be imposed for violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct on a person who was no longer a judge. Id. As we pointed out to Nadeau at oral argument, we rejected Cox’s mootness argument, and, noting that Cox had “returned to the private practice of law,” id.,, we .ordered that Cox be disbarred from the practice of law as the sanction for his violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct, id. at 1058. Our decision in Vox placed Nadeau on notice that his license to practice law could be suspended, and that exposure was made even more clear by the colloquy at oral argument.1

[¶ 7] Further, despite his assertion that he was not provided with adequate notice, Nadeau does not suggest anything that he would have or could have done differently, or anything additional that he might have offered in the proceeding before us, had he been concerned that his capacity to practice law could be suspended. In the arguments that he presented to the single justice (Clifford, J.) and to us, Nadeau asserted that he had not committed any violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. He aiso asserted to us that, because he was defeated for reelection and his term as a probate judge had expired, this action was moot and no sanctions of any kind could be imposed.

[¶ 8] Nadeau’s analogy to criminal proceedings,, where a State’s sentencing recommendation is sometimes a cap, is inapt because of the different nature of this proceeding.2 It must also be noted that the Committee’s sanction recommendation was made as part of its prosecution of its 2016 filing, Jud-16-1, before presentation of its additional report of improper personal solicitation of campaign contributions asserted in Jud-17-1 and addressed in our opinion. See In re Nadeau, 2017 ME 121, ¶¶ 53-56, 168 A.3d 746.

[¶ 9] Nadeau’s contention of disparate treatment is also unpersuasive. The separate filings here in Jud-16-1 and Jud-17-1 represent the fourth and fifth times that actions asserting professional misconduct by Nadeau, as an attorney or a judge, have come to this Court for decision. See In re Nadeau, 2016 ME 116, 144 A.3d 1161; In re Nadeau, 2007 ME 21, 914 A.2d 714;3 Bd. of Overseers of the Bar v. Nadeau, BAR-05-03 (Mar. 2, 2006) (Single Justice Order). Our professional regulatory structures for attorneys and judges became. fully operational in or near their present form by 1980. Records of referrals to this Court of claims of professional misconduct by attorneys or judges since 1980 show that no individual has been subject to as many referrals for professional discipline as Robert M.A. Nadeau.

[258]*258B. Misconduct as an Attorney

[¶ 10] Nadeau next asserts that a sanction affecting his licerisé to practice law is misplaced because the bases for the judicial discipline we have imposed did not expose his private clients to harm. This argument must be examined ,in light of Nadeau’s disciplinary history,

[¶ 11] The 2006 bar disciplinary action against him, alleging professional misconduct as an attorney, involved three separate Grievance Commission • complaints: one arising from a sexual relationship with a client; one arising from directly contacting his former law partners, who were represented by counsel, during the contentious breakup of their law firm; and one arising from Nadeau’s unprofessional criticism of a judge for declining to bar public access to the file of the action involving the bréakup of his law firm. That action was resolved by agreement between Nadeau and the Board of Overseers of the Bar,

[¶ 12] In the single justice decision in Nadeau’s bar disciplinary matter, Bd. of Overseers of the Bar v. Nadeau, BAR-05-03 at 2 (Mar. 2, 2006), Nadeau agreed to the following facts: “On June 20, 2003, Attorney Nadeau commenced a consensual sexual relationship with a divorce client. Attorney Nadeau’s conduct when he terminated the attorney-client relationship and withdrew .from representation of that client fell short.of the standards established in the Code of Professional Responsibility.”

[¶ 13] The agreed to facts also indicate that the “divorce client” had complained to the Board, resulting in a Grievance Commission proceeding and a recommendation of discipline to the Court (GCF # 03-255). Id. However, before the Court proceeding, Nadeau and the former client “reunited-in their romantic relationship,” and the former client then denied that Nadeau “acted unprofessionally.” Id.

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Related

Matter of Cox
658 A.2d 1056 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1995)
Robert M.A. Nadeau v. Lynnann Frydrych
2014 ME 154 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2014)
In the Matter of Robert M.A. Nadeau
2016 ME 116 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2016)
In the Matter of Robert M.A. Nadeau
2017 ME 121 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2017)
In re Nadeau
2007 ME 21 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2007)
In re Nadeau
2007 ME 35 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
2017 ME 191, 170 A.3d 255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-nadeau-me-2017.