Miscellaneous

Don't IX

By Walter Olson, Ted Frank, and David Nieporent

Another bunch of things not to do if you're a member of the legal profession.

• Don't get caught pursuing forged fen-phen claims. (Robert Arledge, Vicksburg, Mississippi, sentenced to 6.5 years, the only lawyer to date to be sentenced in a much larger fen-phen scandal.) [ABA Journal]
• Don't try to dissuade a witness from testifying at a deposition. (Cleary Gottlieb, which said it would appeal the judge's order of sanctions.) [WSJ Law Blog]
• Don't inflate your GPA and include fake awards on your resume. (Gregory Haun, DC, recommended for suspension, resigned his six-digit BigLaw associate job.) [Legal Times]
• Don't end your jury service by casting a vote to break a deadlock and then sign a statement drafted by the plaintiffs' attorney asking for a new trial saying that you did so so you can return to work. (California bar has recommended disbarment for Francis Fahy.) [ABA Journal; Recorder ($); Law.com ($)]
• Don't steal money from your clients by forging their signatures on insurance company releases to get their settlement money. (Richard Boder, New York, caught as part of a larger scandal involving the illegal use of paid runners to bribe hospital employees about auto accident injuries, sentenced to a year in prison.) [NY Law Journal]
• Don't read Maxim in the courtroom. (Todd Paris, held in contempt by North Carolina judge.) [WSJ Law Blog]
• Don't have an affair with a judge you're practicing in front of, or vice versa. (Federal Way, WA, Municipal Court judge Colleen Hartl resigned after bragging about an affair with public defender Sean Cecil, who still has 5 Avvo stars for professional conduct, but has been the subject of a formal complaint to the bar.) [AP/Post-Intelligencer; Federal Way News; Lat]

Full post as published by Overlawyered on February 24, 2008 (boomark / email).