2017 Investigative Summary 7

Investigation of Alleged Failure to Maintain Active Bar Membership

A DOJ component reported to OPR that a DOJ attorney had failed to maintain an active bar membership in good standing with her state bar. At that time, the DOJ attorney was on detail outside of the United States. During the DOJ attorney’s detail, she failed to provide her component with an annual bar certification, and the DOJ component later learned that she had failed to maintain an active bar membership in good standing with the state bar. Thereafter, prior to the completion of her detail, the DOJ attorney resigned from the Department.

OPR initiated an inquiry into the matter that it later converted into an investigation. The DOJ attorney did not respond to OPR’s requests for information regarding the bar lapse allegations. As part of OPR’s investigation, it contacted the state bar and obtained copies of the DOJ attorney’s membership records. According to the bar’s records, the DOJ attorney had been suspended numerous times for her failure to pay her annual bar dues or comply with the bar’s mandatory continuing legal education requirements. 

OPR concluded that the DOJ attorney committed intentional professional misconduct when she knowingly failed to timely pay her bar dues or complete her mandatory continuing legal education requirements on numerous occasions, because she engaged in conduct knowing its natural or probable consequence, and that consequence was a result that violated her statutory and Department obligations to maintain an active membership in good standing in at least one state bar. OPR also concluded that the DOJ attorney committed intentional professional misconduct when she practiced law knowing that she was not an active member in good standing with the bar of at least one state, because she engaged in conduct knowing its natural or probable consequence, and that consequence was a result that violated the rules prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law. Finally, OPR concluded that the DOJ attorney did not falsely certify that she was an active member of the bar, because she did not sign any bar certifications at a time when she was suspended by the bar.

OPR referred its findings to the PMRU. The PMRU found that OPR’s findings of professional misconduct were supported by the evidence, and directed OPR to refer its findings of professional misconduct to the appropriate state bar disciplinary authority.