2013 investigative summary 8

Investigation of Alleged Failure to Maintain Active Bar Membership;
Lack of Candor to OPR

A DOJ attorney reported to OPR that she had been suspended from her state bar for failure to pay her annual bar dues. The DOJ attorney suggested that she recently learned that she was suspended for failing to pay her current state bar dues and stated that the problem arose because of a faulty address in the state bar’s records. Upon receiving this information, OPR contacted the bar and learned that the DOJ attorney had not maintained an active bar membership for an extended period of time. 

OPR conducted an investigation and concluded that the DOJ attorney committed intentional professional misconduct when she knowingly failed to maintain an active bar membership in at last one state bar, in violation of her statutory and Department obligations; knowingly certified that she was an active member of her state bar when she was not, in violation of the Department’s bar certification requirement; and knowingly engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. OPR also concluded that the DOJ attorney committed intentional professional misconduct when she purposefully misrepresented to OPR, her DOJ component, and the Professional Responsibility Advisory Office that her state bar membership had been suspended for a brief period of time, when in fact she had been suspended for a far longer period of time.

OPR recommended that the DOJ attorney be terminated from her employment with the Department, and she retired during the disciplinary process. OPR notified the appropriate state bar authorities of its findings of professional misconduct.