2017 Investigative Summary 8

Investigation of Alleged Failure to Maintain Active Bar Membership

OPR learned that a DOJ attorney had failed to maintain an active bar membership with her state bar. The DOJ attorney had been administratively suspended because she failed to timely pay her annual bar dues. OPR initiated an inquiry into the DOJ attorney’s failure to maintain an active bar membership while she was a Department employee. In addition, OPR examined a prior inquiry that it had conducted regarding the fact that the DOJ attorney had been previously transferred to inactive status by her state bar because she failed to timely pay her annual bar dues. OPR converted the current inquiry into an investigation.

During OPR’s investigation, the DOJ attorney retired from the Department. OPR concluded by a preponderance of the evidence that the DOJ attorney engaged in professional misconduct by acting in reckless disregard of her statutory and Department obligations to maintain an active membership in at least one state bar when she failed to timely pay her annual bar dues. OPR also concluded by a preponderance of the evidence that the DOJ attorney engaged in professional misconduct by acting in reckless disregard of  the rules prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law when she practiced law during the time that she was not an active member of the bar.

OPR further concluded by a preponderance of the evidence that the DOJ attorney committed intentional professional misconduct when she knowingly failed to advise her supervisors that her bar membership had been administratively suspended. 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 a bar certification during the time that 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.