In re Schwarz

195 A.D. 194, 186 N.Y.S. 535, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4720
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 11, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 195 A.D. 194 (In re Schwarz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Schwarz, 195 A.D. 194, 186 N.Y.S. 535, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4720 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

Clarke, P. J.:

The respondent was admitted to the bar in October, 1905, at a term of the Appellate Division, Second Department, and was practicing in the First Judicial District at the time he committed the acts complained of.

The petition alleges that the respondent heretofore in 1916 was proceeded against in a proceeding in the Appellate Division in the First Department in which he was charged with misconduct by reason of the methods employed by him in soliciting business and sending out letters, circulars and advertisements claimed to be improper; that the court in its decision expressed its emphatic disapproval of the respondent’s methods and censured him severely therefor. The court also stated that upon respondent’s refraining from further use of such methods no further action would be taken against him and warned the bar that such conduct would not be tolerated and a repetition thereof would lead to disbarment; that the respondent has failed to obey the directions of the court and has continued [195]*195to solicit business by means of circular letters sent out in large quantities. The following is a copy of one of these circular letters:

“Adolph M. Schwarz,
“Attorney and Counselor at Law.
“299 Broadway, New York.
Chicago
First Nat’l Bank Bldg.
“ Boston “ Kimball Building
“ Philadelphia “ Land Title Building
Pittsburg “ Frick Building
“ Private Office “New York City.
Cleveland Leader Building Detroit Dime Bank Building December Twenty-Second Nineteen Nineteen
“ Gentlemen.— My records disclose that I have not received any items of business from you for some time. I want to ask you — why? Is there a reason? Please be frank with me and tell me. I want to correct any misunderstanding that may have arisen between your good office and mine.
“ The Collection Department, City and Out-of-town, is now in charge of one of the best collection men in the country, an attorney and former credit-man, thorough and painstaking in the minutest detail, with ability to get results, no matter how small or large the account or where the debtor may be located.
“ In all offices I maintain a staff of experienced and able attorneys. In my New York office alone I have my own permanent corps of lawyers, able practitioners, members of the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Illinois Bars, whose knowledge and experience in the Laws and Practice of these States should be of material benefit to you. Their professional services are always available.
“ In this period of readjustment coupled with its abnormal conditions eating into the vitals of our energies and profits, now is the most propitious time to clean up your books. If you have any bad or doubtful accounts, you should know it before your Income Tax return is due, so as to avoid paying taxes on merely book profits which in reality may prove only losses. Go over' your books; get up a list of delinquent accounts; send them in; or if you prefer, telephone 3466 [196]*196Worth and ask for extension 2, Mr. Pugh; or for extension 4, Mr. Thomas, and either will call on you in connection with them.
“ Owing to our heretofore existing mutually profitable and what I always considered pleasant relations, it is no presumption for me to expect to receive from you the courtesy of an early, specific and favorable reply with some items enclosed or advices when I may expect to receive them, and with best wishes for Nineteen Twenty, I remain
“ Sincerely yours,
“AMS-2 (signed) A. M. SCHWARZ.”
Charge 2. The respondent during the past two or three years has used and is now using printed or engraved letterheads, cards and other stationery of which the following is a copy:
“Adolph M. Schwarz, “Attorney and Counselor at Law. “ 299 Broadway, New York.
Chicago
“ Boston
“ Kimball Building “ Philadelphia “ Land Title Building “ Pittsburg “ Frick Building
“ Private Office.”
First Nat’l Bank Bldg. Cleveland Leader Building Detroit
Dime Bank Building

That the respondent, some time prior to July, 1917, applied for admission to the bar of the State of Michigan and the State Board of Law Examiners of that State refused to recommend him to the Supreme Court for admission and he has never been admitted and is not now admitted to the bar or entitled to practice as an attorney and counselor at law in that State; that the respondent has never been admitted to the Bar of the State of Pennsylvania and is not now and never was admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor at law in that State; that the respondent by the use of these letterheads, cards and stationery has falsely represented to numerous persons and corporations that he is an attorney and counselor at law, entitled to practice as such in the States of Michigan [197]*197and Pennsylvania and has law offices in the cities of Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburg in said states.

It appears from the record before us, and the respondent admits, that he sent out some 4,500 copies of the letter set forth in the petition. He claims that said letters were sent only to former clients of his and that he is in no way censurable for so doing. In the first place the letter plainly in its heading holds out to its recipients that the respondent is an attorney and counselor at law and practicing as such in the State of Pennsylvania, where he has offices in Philadelphia and Pitts-burg, and in the State of Michigan, where he has an office in Detroit. He is not a member of the bar of either of those States and the heading contains a palpable suggestio falsi. It should be noted further that there is nothing in the heading that suggests a business occupation or a collection agency, but it plainly sets forth that it is issued from the private office of an attorney and counselor at law. ” The letter speaks for itself. It is obviously a self-laudatory solicitation for employment for professional services. It can only be properly characterized as a wholesale circularization for the purpose, of obtaining business. When this respondent and his 'self-advertising methods were before this court before, we said (in 175 App. Div. 335) of the letters, circulars and advertisements then submitted for our inspection: “ They are typical of modern advertising business methods and would be appropriate to the Exploitation of patent medicines or other proprietary articles, but are utterly abhorrent to professional notions or standards.

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Related

In Re Rothman
97 A.2d 621 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1953)
In Re Ades
6 F. Supp. 467 (D. Maryland, 1934)
In Re Disbarment of William Fitz Gibbons
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Matter of Schwarz
132 N.E. 921 (New York Court of Appeals, 1921)

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Bluebook (online)
195 A.D. 194, 186 N.Y.S. 535, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-schwarz-nyappdiv-1921.