Kentucky

From the Courier Journal:

Note that this is only a recommendation, but I would suggest that the attorneys in charge who have already been disbarred for life (eg., Mills, Gallion and Cunningham) plus the major damage done to Judge Bamberger and the pending investigation on attorney Stan Chesley might be enough meat to satisfy the ethics gristmill rather than go after a new attorney relying upon others to steer him in the right direction.  Unlike the others, Helmers did come clean and a five year suspension is a professional death sentence.  I hope the Supremes consider something less rather than a life time of professional ruination.  Maybe, just maybe, a one-year suspension would be enough to satiate the blood lust and move on?

Five-year suspension recommended for Fen-phen lawyer

Kentucky?s fen-phen scandal may bring down another lawyer.

A trial commissioner has recommended that David Helmers, who worked for one of the two attorneys convicted of fraud and sent to prison in the fen-phen settlement case, should be suspended from practicing law for five years.

Helmer?s lawyer, Peter Ostermiller of Louisville, said that penalty, if imposed by the Kentucky Supreme Court, would be a ?death sentence? for Helmers, 42, because it could take seven years or longer for him to reapply and regain his license, if it is restored.

The commissioner?s report also publicly discloses for the first time that the Kentucky Bar Association is pursuing a disciplinary charge against Stan Chesley, the renowned Cincinnati class-action lawyer who helped negotiate the $200 million settlement of the diet-drug case in 2001.

Roderick Messer, a retired judge, found that Helmers was guilty of violating six ethics rules in the fen-phen case, in which now disbarred lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. were convicted of fraud for taking more than half of the settlement. A third lawyer, Melbourne Mills Jr., was acquitted on criminal charges but also disbarred.

Helmers claimed that as a young, inexperienced lawyer, he acted under the direction of Gallion and other experienced lawyers.

But in a 20-page report released Tuesday by the Kentucky Bar Association, Messer said Helmers violated the duties he owed to his clients, the legal system and to the profession.

?The respondent?s conduct contributed to the great harm his clients suffered,? the report said. ?The respondent?s conduct was dishonest and he repeated his actions many times. To date, the respondent has not acknowledged the wrongfulness of his conduct.?

Ostermiller said Helmers, who practices in Lexington, was extremely disappointed in the proposed sanction, which Ostermiller described as ?very tough.?

?David is a genuine nice guy and didn?t deserve what he received,? Ostermiller said.