Matter of Keene

2025 NY Slip Op 04069

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: July 3, 2025
• Docket: PM-146-25
• Status: Published

Opinion

Matter of Keene (2025 NY Slip Op 04069)

Matter of Keene

2025 NY Slip Op 04069

Decided on July 3, 2025

Appellate Division, Third Department

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided and Entered:July 3, 2025

PM-146-25

[*1]In the Matter of Melanie Carrie Keene, an Attorney. (Attorney Registration No. 4528899.)

Calendar Date:June 30, 2025
Before:Garry, P.J., Clark, Lynch, Reynolds Fitzgerald and McShan, JJ.

Melanie Carrie Keene, Prairie Village, Kansas, pro se.

Monica A. Duffy, Attorney Grievance Committee for the Third Judicial Department, Albany (Alison M. Coan of counsel), for Attorney Grievance Committee for the Third Judicial Department.

Per Curiam.

Melanie Carrie Keene was admitted to practice by this Court in 2007 and lists a business address in Prairie Village, Kansas with the Office of Court Administration. Keene has applied to this Court, by affidavit sworn to April 18, 2025, for leave to resign from the New York bar for nondisciplinary reasons (see Rules for Atty Disciplinary Matters [22 NYCRR] § 1240.22 [a]). The Attorney Grievance Committee for the Third Judicial Department (hereinafter AGC) opposes the application, contending that Keene is ineligible for nondisciplinary resignation because she has failed to fulfill her attorney registration requirements for the 2025-2026 biennial period (see Judiciary Law § 468-a; Matter of Lee, 148 AD3d 1350, 1350 [3d Dept 2017]; Matter of Bomba, 146 AD3d 1226, 1226-1227 [3d Dept 2017]; Rules of Chief Admr of Cts [22 NYCRR] § 118.1).

In reply to AGC's opposition, however, Keene has submitted a supplemental affidavit, sworn to June 18, 2025, in which she attests that she is now current in her New York attorney registration requirements. Furthermore, Office of Court Administration records likewise establish that Keene has duly registered and cured any preexisting registration delinquency. Accordingly, with AGC voicing no other substantive objection to her application, and having determined that Keene is now eligible to resign for nondisciplinary reasons (compare Matter of Tierney, 148 AD3d 1457, 1458 [3d Dept 2017]; Matter of Bomba, 146 AD3d at 1227), we grant the application and accept her resignation.

Garry, P.J., Clark, Lynch, Reynolds Fitzgerald and McShan, JJ., concur.

ORDERED that Melanie Carrie Keene's application for permission to resign is granted and her nondisciplinary resignation is accepted; and it is further

ORDERED that Melanie Carrie Keene's name is hereby stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law of the State of New York, effective immediately, and until further order of this Court (see generally Rules for Atty Disciplinary Matters [22 NYCRR] § 1240.22 [b]); and it is further

ORDERED that Melanie Carrie Keene is commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form in the State of New York, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another; and Keene is hereby forbidden to appear as an attorney or counselor-at-law before any court, judge, justice, board, commission or other public authority, or to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice in relation thereto, or to hold herself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law in this State; and it is further

ORDERED that Melanie Carrie Keene shall, within 30 days of the date of this decision, surrender to the Office of Court Administration any Attorney Secure Pass issued to her.