Two stories from the ABA this week. The first about a lawyer who was suspended for 2 years due to drunk driving offenses and had sex with some former clients (though many years ago). Now we all know that conduct is frowned upon, but there was no clear indication that 1) he took advantage or disadvantaged any client; and 2) that those relationships were going on during his representation. This suspension is a bit much considering the lack of any dishonest conduct, but is surely more understandable than the second story where a lawyer is facing a grievance for yelling at a protester and using the “C-word.” Our mothers may have a legitimate beef with the use of offensive or ribald language, but a lawyer’s choice of prose while acting in his private, not professional capacity, must be protected speech and if he faces any sanctions for such private speech, we should all be worried.
Legal Ethics – Lawyer Suspended Over DUI Arrests and Secret Sex Tapes
An Illinois attorney has had his law license suspended for two years over a combination of admitted misconduct, including two drunken-driving arrests and videotaping five women in sexual activities at his home without their consent, according to the State Journal-Register.
Nick Burgrabe, 52, formerly worked as a Lincoln city attorney and a Logan County public defender, as well as in private practice. The videos came to light as he and his wife were divorcing.
He refused to identify the five women, but said three were former clients and one was a former secretary in his Lincoln law office, according to a Jan. 5, 2010 report and recommendation by the Review Board of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. It can be found by searching the IARDC website.
The last videotape was made more than a decade ago, the report says.
Burgrabe was also accused of asking a client for a date in 2005 while representing her. However, he denied this and a hearing board found that the allegation was not proven by clear and convincing evidence, the report notes.
Disciplinary authorities considered what would, in effect, have been a shorter suspension, but decided that two years and reinstatement only by order of the court was merited because Burgrabe had not actively sought treatment for his problems.
Lawyer’s C-Word Invective Spurs Criminal, Ethics Charges by Animal Rights Group
A township lawyer in New Jersey is facing the wrath of an animal rights group after he used the C-word to describe one of its demonstrators.
Lawyer Richard Shackleton now faces an ethics grievance and a privately filed criminal complaint as a result of the Feb. 20 dustup outside the Philadelphia Gun Club where the group was protesting, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. Shackleton had taken part in a live pigeon shoot, and as he left, he yelled at a protester, who also happened to be a lawyer. “Go f— yourself, you rotten c—,” he screamed.
Shackleton’s invective was caught on videotape, as was his later refusal to apologize when confronted during the public comment period of a township meeting, the story says. “I meant every word of it,” Shackleton said.
An employee of the group, Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (shortened to SHARK) filed the ethics grievance, while the Pennsylvania lawyer he addressed, Marianne Bessey, filed the private criminal complaint after police did not file charges.
Shackleton’s lawyer is Jeffrey Pollock at Fox Rothschild. He promised a vigorous defense. “If swearing in public in a private capacity is a sanctionable offense, you’re going to lose half the lawyers in New Jersey,” he told the New Jersey Law Journal.
Shackleton told the publication that “representatives of SHARK have been harassing the devil out of us” and they even posted an online video of his 11-year-old granddaughter shooting a gun. He is weighing a lawsuit, though no decision has been made. One possible claim, he said, is malicious interference with contract for attempts to get him fired from his job as Long Beach Township attorney.
