ALL BANNER ART & PHOTOS CREATED BY CARRIE . ALL BANNER ART & PHOTOS CREATED BY CARRIE . ALL BANNER ART & PHOTOS CREATED BY CARRIE
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Distinguished Toastmaster
BUSINESS & BRANDING COACH . LIFE & LEADERSHIP STRATEGIST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER SERVING ENTREPRENEURS & MAIN STREET |
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LAWYERS WHO USE LAW AS A CUDGEL (c) Carrie Devorah:
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Ethics.
Some lawyers have them.
Too many lawyers don’t.
The loser is the client who finds out too late that anyone can hang a shingle on their wall, worldwide, stating Lawyer, Solicitor, Esquire or such. That hooding does not mean the lawyer is honest or ethical or never complained just that they passed tests, took C.L.E’s and knew how to work the system by using Law as a cudgel against Complaints.
Hence I am penning on Lawyers, Ethics and the intent of Ethics Rules often miss the abuse by those hooded to uphold the Laws of the Land. Yes, there is a list of Do Nots and Cautions when adressing Ethics. Then there is Reality.
Lawyers hold something that harmed clients must be warned to think about before whistleblowing against a lawyer or dues paying member of any S.R.O. Lawyers have a legal cudgel they wield when caught breaching their Ethics.
Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations who reports a lawyer for Ethics violations must be warned that lawyer will use their privilege of knowledge of the law back at the person who made the report. Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations reporting a lawyer to a Bar Association must be warned to lower the expectation of what Bar Associations will do to that reported person which will be little if anything at all. Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations must be warned their identity will be exposed as will be the exact correspondences reported to the Bar.
Bar Ethics committees call staff investigators. They are staff performing their understanding of complaint review. They are not trained investigators. Those staff lack the training and ethics of trained investigators who know to protect, dedact, ask general open ended questions and/or of windows of time, pull corroborating documents but most important of all, protect the complainant.
Bottom line fact, a complainant is a whistleblower.
The law provides for Whistleblower protection. S.R.O.’s, non government agencies do not treat complainants as whistleblowers. What happens in the real world is the cowboy and Indians theme of wagons circling the wagons the complained about party. Then the “Get Smart” dome of silence descends. The complainant is not shown the responses the “investigator” gets from the complained about party, for confirmation or contradiction of the statements made by the complained about party. The complainant is told not to expect to hear anything further.
Ethics Rules are written because lawyers can do bad things.
One lawyer lied in Court papers to a District Judge certifying the lawyer served opposing party by UPS when, in fact, UPS documents showed nothing of the sort was done.
One lawyer pulled copyrighted images off the Internet to use in a case against a complainant in a matter where the copyrighted images had no relationship to the case. The lawyer was told the images were copyrighted. The infringing lawyer wrote the IP owner the lawyer will sue for defamation if the infringed IP owner took the matter further. As much as the IP owner wants to take the matter further, the infringed Complainant will not.
They learned about lawyers using law as their cudgel.
One lawyer deposited an arbitration refund check of a settled arbitration then deposited that check in to his accounts. Three years later when the client discovered a refund had been due them, the lawyer was confronted. The lawyer said a ‘mistake’ was made. The local Bar said there is no time limit on reporting the attorney. The client is struggling. They learned about lawyers using law as a cudgel to threaten complainants.
One lawyer hid their clients misdeeds in a financial DRS forum only for brokers and brokerages. That attorney’s client was an IA, Investment Advisor. That attorney when offered by the Arbitration panel chair to expunge the Complaint said the Complaint was never reported, a violation of Rule 4530(a). The Arbitration panel, three lawyers, did not bat an eyelash.
One lawyer’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Arbitration resume says the lawyer’s license is active. The local bar Association shows that this lawyer, an Arbitration panel chair’s license was inactive.
One lawyer worked in DC as in-house counsel for a DC firm. That lawyer was not licensed in DC.
One lawyer participated by mail and email in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority DRS forum in DC. That lawyer was not licensed in DC. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority website states lawyers must be licensed in states the DRS are held in. There is a culture of attorneys representing clients in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority DRS forums in which that lawyer is not licensed.
The problem is not just the system but the lawyers within the system.
No one confirms if lawyers, arbitrators, mediators, even Judges are licensed. No one, no law, no association forces lawyers to state their Bar number… anywhere. Lawyers are not required to identify their Bar numbers on their business cards, on their resumes, in email signatures, correspondences, no where.
JAMS, ABA, DC Bar, NY Bar, FedArb and other DRS forums were random polled on Lawyers giving Bar numbers as listed above. The provided answer was the same, “we presume they are legally licensed.” Others answered, ‘we never thought to check.’ Never thinking to check harms the general public. If all lawyers were honest there would be no need for Local Rules, State Rules and Federal laws.
Justice is selectively blind.
Facts are the legal system is broke. Complainants, whistleblowers are not protected.
People that bring complaints about lawyers to Bar Association Ethic Committee attention are Whistleblowers. They are not given Whistleblower protection. Anyone who reports a professional to that professionals S.R.O., Self Regulatory Organization, are Whistleblowers who should be given Whistleblower status and protections.
One lawyer practicing law without a license further beat down the plaintiff that sued his client. When reported for practicing law without a license, the local bar answers ‘we can’t do anything to them because they are not our member, nor will be refer the complaint to their home state. That is up to the harmed person to do, file the complaint with that lawyer’s home bar.’
Complaints and attached correspondence are sent undedacted to the complained about party, disclosing the complainant’s identity opening them up for retaliatory actions. Immediate response is ‘report them.’ The answer back is “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” reminding of Aesop’s Fable telling of the Scorpion and The Fox. The Fox knew what a scorpion is.
The problem is client’s of lawyers do not know until it is too late they have entered the Scorpion’s Lair as one Whistleblower discovered the hard way.
Told by their local Bar they had to file their Whistleblowing against the attorney in that attorney’s foreign state, they did, learning that state did not protect their identity. The complained of attorney engaged a 3rd party to contact a member of the complaining party’s family conveying a ‘message’ detailing the harm that would befall the complainant’s family. The complainant withdrew the complaint, withdrew all actions pending against the attorney’s client and signed an agreement detailing a multi thousand dollar fine complainant would pay if the matter was publicly discussed again. The dictated Withdrawal Of Complaint letter was sent to the attorney’s foreign state Bar. There was no paper trail of the threats just a paper trail of emails to ‘settle’ the matter ASAP, the phone call ‘between friends.’ There was that matter payment of thousands to the attorney for their fees from representing their client in a state that lawyer was not licensed to practice law in. Case made. Loser, the Whistleblower harmed twice by Ethics and legal cudgels.
Presuming all lawyers are good, makes for a world of Pollyana. Not all lawyers are good lawyers. There is no honor amongst thieves. There would be no need for a Code of Ethics if all lawyers followed the rules.
The local Bar Ethics Committee Chair said lawyers are bound to the same laws that people are bound to, even moreso since lawyers are bound to their ethics even when not acting in their legal role.
There are Ethics committees for every industry under the sun. Ethics committees are non government. Ethics committees are S.R.O., self regulatory associations that must be anyone can set up if the right papers are filed with the I.R.S. A body of peers decide if their fellow dues paying member has done wrong.
S.R.O.’s and Peer Review must remember they are bound by the Laws of the Land. The S.R.O. has no law enforcement authority to determine if crimes are committed. An S.R.O. that fails to report potentiality of crimes that a Whistleblower brought to them, to local and state and federal law enforcement, is an accessory to the crime.
Some lawyers have them.
Too many lawyers don’t.
The loser is the client who finds out too late that anyone can hang a shingle on their wall, worldwide, stating Lawyer, Solicitor, Esquire or such. That hooding does not mean the lawyer is honest or ethical or never complained just that they passed tests, took C.L.E’s and knew how to work the system by using Law as a cudgel against Complaints.
Hence I am penning on Lawyers, Ethics and the intent of Ethics Rules often miss the abuse by those hooded to uphold the Laws of the Land. Yes, there is a list of Do Nots and Cautions when adressing Ethics. Then there is Reality.
Lawyers hold something that harmed clients must be warned to think about before whistleblowing against a lawyer or dues paying member of any S.R.O. Lawyers have a legal cudgel they wield when caught breaching their Ethics.
Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations who reports a lawyer for Ethics violations must be warned that lawyer will use their privilege of knowledge of the law back at the person who made the report. Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations reporting a lawyer to a Bar Association must be warned to lower the expectation of what Bar Associations will do to that reported person which will be little if anything at all. Anyone, not a lawyer, a former client or someone witnessing violations must be warned their identity will be exposed as will be the exact correspondences reported to the Bar.
Bar Ethics committees call staff investigators. They are staff performing their understanding of complaint review. They are not trained investigators. Those staff lack the training and ethics of trained investigators who know to protect, dedact, ask general open ended questions and/or of windows of time, pull corroborating documents but most important of all, protect the complainant.
Bottom line fact, a complainant is a whistleblower.
The law provides for Whistleblower protection. S.R.O.’s, non government agencies do not treat complainants as whistleblowers. What happens in the real world is the cowboy and Indians theme of wagons circling the wagons the complained about party. Then the “Get Smart” dome of silence descends. The complainant is not shown the responses the “investigator” gets from the complained about party, for confirmation or contradiction of the statements made by the complained about party. The complainant is told not to expect to hear anything further.
Ethics Rules are written because lawyers can do bad things.
One lawyer lied in Court papers to a District Judge certifying the lawyer served opposing party by UPS when, in fact, UPS documents showed nothing of the sort was done.
One lawyer pulled copyrighted images off the Internet to use in a case against a complainant in a matter where the copyrighted images had no relationship to the case. The lawyer was told the images were copyrighted. The infringing lawyer wrote the IP owner the lawyer will sue for defamation if the infringed IP owner took the matter further. As much as the IP owner wants to take the matter further, the infringed Complainant will not.
They learned about lawyers using law as their cudgel.
One lawyer deposited an arbitration refund check of a settled arbitration then deposited that check in to his accounts. Three years later when the client discovered a refund had been due them, the lawyer was confronted. The lawyer said a ‘mistake’ was made. The local Bar said there is no time limit on reporting the attorney. The client is struggling. They learned about lawyers using law as a cudgel to threaten complainants.
One lawyer hid their clients misdeeds in a financial DRS forum only for brokers and brokerages. That attorney’s client was an IA, Investment Advisor. That attorney when offered by the Arbitration panel chair to expunge the Complaint said the Complaint was never reported, a violation of Rule 4530(a). The Arbitration panel, three lawyers, did not bat an eyelash.
One lawyer’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Arbitration resume says the lawyer’s license is active. The local bar Association shows that this lawyer, an Arbitration panel chair’s license was inactive.
One lawyer worked in DC as in-house counsel for a DC firm. That lawyer was not licensed in DC.
One lawyer participated by mail and email in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority DRS forum in DC. That lawyer was not licensed in DC. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority website states lawyers must be licensed in states the DRS are held in. There is a culture of attorneys representing clients in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority DRS forums in which that lawyer is not licensed.
The problem is not just the system but the lawyers within the system.
No one confirms if lawyers, arbitrators, mediators, even Judges are licensed. No one, no law, no association forces lawyers to state their Bar number… anywhere. Lawyers are not required to identify their Bar numbers on their business cards, on their resumes, in email signatures, correspondences, no where.
JAMS, ABA, DC Bar, NY Bar, FedArb and other DRS forums were random polled on Lawyers giving Bar numbers as listed above. The provided answer was the same, “we presume they are legally licensed.” Others answered, ‘we never thought to check.’ Never thinking to check harms the general public. If all lawyers were honest there would be no need for Local Rules, State Rules and Federal laws.
Justice is selectively blind.
Facts are the legal system is broke. Complainants, whistleblowers are not protected.
People that bring complaints about lawyers to Bar Association Ethic Committee attention are Whistleblowers. They are not given Whistleblower protection. Anyone who reports a professional to that professionals S.R.O., Self Regulatory Organization, are Whistleblowers who should be given Whistleblower status and protections.
One lawyer practicing law without a license further beat down the plaintiff that sued his client. When reported for practicing law without a license, the local bar answers ‘we can’t do anything to them because they are not our member, nor will be refer the complaint to their home state. That is up to the harmed person to do, file the complaint with that lawyer’s home bar.’
Complaints and attached correspondence are sent undedacted to the complained about party, disclosing the complainant’s identity opening them up for retaliatory actions. Immediate response is ‘report them.’ The answer back is “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” reminding of Aesop’s Fable telling of the Scorpion and The Fox. The Fox knew what a scorpion is.
The problem is client’s of lawyers do not know until it is too late they have entered the Scorpion’s Lair as one Whistleblower discovered the hard way.
Told by their local Bar they had to file their Whistleblowing against the attorney in that attorney’s foreign state, they did, learning that state did not protect their identity. The complained of attorney engaged a 3rd party to contact a member of the complaining party’s family conveying a ‘message’ detailing the harm that would befall the complainant’s family. The complainant withdrew the complaint, withdrew all actions pending against the attorney’s client and signed an agreement detailing a multi thousand dollar fine complainant would pay if the matter was publicly discussed again. The dictated Withdrawal Of Complaint letter was sent to the attorney’s foreign state Bar. There was no paper trail of the threats just a paper trail of emails to ‘settle’ the matter ASAP, the phone call ‘between friends.’ There was that matter payment of thousands to the attorney for their fees from representing their client in a state that lawyer was not licensed to practice law in. Case made. Loser, the Whistleblower harmed twice by Ethics and legal cudgels.
Presuming all lawyers are good, makes for a world of Pollyana. Not all lawyers are good lawyers. There is no honor amongst thieves. There would be no need for a Code of Ethics if all lawyers followed the rules.
The local Bar Ethics Committee Chair said lawyers are bound to the same laws that people are bound to, even moreso since lawyers are bound to their ethics even when not acting in their legal role.
There are Ethics committees for every industry under the sun. Ethics committees are non government. Ethics committees are S.R.O., self regulatory associations that must be anyone can set up if the right papers are filed with the I.R.S. A body of peers decide if their fellow dues paying member has done wrong.
S.R.O.’s and Peer Review must remember they are bound by the Laws of the Land. The S.R.O. has no law enforcement authority to determine if crimes are committed. An S.R.O. that fails to report potentiality of crimes that a Whistleblower brought to them, to local and state and federal law enforcement, is an accessory to the crime.