For Petitions the Clients Had Not Seen or Signed, Lawyer Recommended for Disbarment

A solo bankruptcy practitioner in Florida was suspended from practice for two years and referred to the state and federal grievance committees with a recommendation that she be disbarred, for filing schedules and statements in dozens of cases where the debtors had neither seen, signed nor verified the papers under oath. In his 37-page opinion on June 25, Bankruptcy Judge John K. Olson of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. called the lawyer “grossly incompetent” to practice in the bankruptcy court or anywhere else. Given that her actions had “serious criminal implications,” Judge Olson declined to invoke the “empty head but pure heart” defense. After reading Judge Olson’s opinion, Prof. Nancy Rapoport told ABI, “In addition to being educated about a phrase I’ve misused all of my life (“Pandora’s Jar,” not “Pandora’s Box”) and loving the way Judge Olson writes, I think the main take-away is that those of us responsible for keeping the system of justice honest (in other words, all lawyers) must be vigilant in terms of reporting abuse, once we discover it, and I’m especially grateful to the lawyer who took the case pro bono.” Prof. Rapoport is the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the Univ. of Nevada at Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law, where she is an expert on legal ethics and fee allowances in bankruptcy cases.

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