Civil Rights
Block on Trump's Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court
Oral Advocacy Rule No. 1: "If you are winning an argument, it's time to stop talking."
That's one of those unwritten laws that lawyers often forget, so there it is. It applies in hearings in general, but in ethics proceedings in particular.
David Evan Schorr apparently didn't get that memo. Disciplinary authorities were going to censure him privately, but then he opened his mouth.
Schorr, a New York City attorney, refused to accept a private reprimand for secretly recording a court hearing. Instead, he decided to sue the attorney grievance committee.
As a result, the New York Law Journal reported, Schorr got himself censured publicly. And this time, he agreed to the discipline.
In a stipulated decision, Schorr admitted that he surreptitiously recorded a divorce proceeding in violation of local rules. The grievance committee had admonished him privately for the misdeed.
But then he sued the committee, which turned his private censure into a public one. It revealed a pattern of misconduct in the underlying divorce case -- his own.
In that case, Schoor made another common mistake: he represented himself. Aggravating factors included:
In mitigation, Schorr had no prior record of discipline and had limited court experience at the time. The discipline committee concurred that public censure would deter future misconduct yet permit him to "continuing serving clients in a responsible and constructive fashion."
That would include knowing when to shut up.
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