Litigation Support

Here's how you get yourself suspended as a lawyer: Visit your client in prison, hug her at the end of the meeting, and then pull her hand into your crotch while asking her, "Wouldn't you like to say goodbye to your little friend?"

This earned 72 year old Virginia lawyer Robert Armstrong a 30 day suspension of his law license, which was negotiated to prevent further action by the state bar. State police, after being alerted to the client's charges of ongoing sexual molestation, had videotaped the meeting.

Mr. Armstrong had previously been convicted on a misdemeanor sexual assault charge stemming from accusations by the same client. He pled no contest, was given a 30-day jail sentence and ordered into counseling. The client has since filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong maintains that any sexual contact was consensual.

Human peccadillos aside, it is astonishing that, in such a highly electronic era, a lawyer might think himself safe from observation in a prison.

Presumably, the "little friend" was doing the thinking that day . . .

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