Conduct Unbecoming

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has disbarred an attorney

The disciplinary charges stem from the Attorney Grievance Committee’s (AGC) sua sponte investigation of respondent after he filed three complaints with the AGC and the Human Rights Council in 2021, each containing racist and anti-Semitic language. In response to the AGC’s email asking that he respond to the allegations of misconduct, respondent replied again using racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The AGC then reviewed court filings of Respondent and instituted charges as a result

This charge arose out of legal documents that respondent prepared and filed in state and federal courts attacking members of the judiciary, using “foul and vile language” to challenge their integrity, specifically:
• a federal civil rights action (later dismissed as frivolous) that respondent filed in the District of Connecticut against, among others, New York, and Connecticut judges (stemming from a custody dispute in which respondent was engaged with his ex-wife), in which he accused the defendants of engaging in criminal and sexually abusive behavior;
• a federal civil rights action that respondent filed in the Southern District of New York against federal immigration officials, during which respondent leveled racist and anti-Semitic attacks against the presiding judge and others); an action that respondent filed in Supreme Court, New York County, in which he launched ad hominem attacks against the New York City Human Resources Administration;
• an action filed against respondent in Supreme Court, New York County (stemming from a harassment campaign that respondent allegedly waged), in which the plaintiff was awarded costs on a discovery motion against respondent; respondent made anti-Semitic attacks in his motion in this Court for a stay, then tried to remove the action to the Southern District of New York, where (and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on appeal) he again leveled anti-Semitic attacks; and,
• a federal action that respondent filed in the Southern District of New York against a federal bankruptcy judge (also in the Southern District of New York), in which respondent again leveled anti-Semitic attacks.

Other charges

the AGC alleged that respondent violated RPC rule 1.6(a) (“A lawyer shall not knowingly reveal confidential information .. . or use such information to the disadvantage of a client or for the advantage of the lawyer or a third person . . .”), by knowingly revealing confidential information about his clients in response to negative Google reviews, and RPC rule 8.4 (h) (a lawyer shall not “engage in any other conduct that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness as a lawyer”) by using offensive language in those responses.

The court detailed the " long and tortured" history of the proceeding.

The referee report

we find that the Referee’s liability findings sustaining the charges are fully supported by the record. As to charges one and two, the AGC established, by a fair preponderance of the evidence, that respondent has, for years, filed both documents containing unacceptably bigoted language in state and federal courts as well as complaints with a panoply of state, federal, and international agencies, thereby establishing respondent’s violation of RPC rules 8.4 (d) and (h), namely, that he engaged in conduct that, respectively, was “prejudicial to the administration of justice” and “adversely reflect[ed] on . . . [his] fitness as a lawyer.” Further, the Referee’s finding that respondent testified incredibly when he denied having authored the relevant documents is well supported by the record.

As to charges three and four, the AGC also established, by a fair preponderance of the evidence, that respondent both used intolerably vile and foul language and divulged privileged information when responding to clients’ complaints about him online, thereby establishing his violation of RPC rule 1.6, forbidding lawyers from “knowingly reveal[ing] confidential information . . . or us[ing] such information to the disadvantage of a client or for the advantage of the lawyer,” as well as RPC rule 8.4(h). The Referee’s rejection, as unbelievable, of respondent’s claims not to have authored those responses or to have obtained approval for the language that he used in those responses is amply supported by the record.

As to charge five, the AGC also established, by a fair preponderance of the evidence, that respondent used racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynistic statements while holding himself out as a well-trained and extremely experienced lawyer in 20 years in Manhattan, New York City, thereby violating RPC rule 8.4(h). Again, the Referee properly rejected respondent’s disingenuous, nonsensical claims that he did not know the statements to be objectionable until the liability hearing.

Finally, as to charges seven and eight, the AGC also established, by a fair preponderance of the evidence, that respondent repeatedly made meritless, frivolous, and vexatious arguments well beyond the point at which he should have known better, thereby establishing his violation of RPC rule 3.1 (a) (“A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous”) and rule 8.4 (d). Respondent’s targets for such filings have grown to include this very disciplinary proceeding and collateral attacks that he has launched on it in state and federal courts. He has shown no intention of stopping or slowing down such filings, even in the face of disbarment by this Court or sanctions in the Second Circuit.

Sanction

As to the sanction, the Referee’s disbarment recommendation is amply supported by the record. Respondent’s misconduct is unbecoming of an attorney and counselor-at-law in this State. There does not appear to be any reported case in which the attorney’s misconduct similarly rose to the virulence that respondent has demonstrated well before and all throughout this disciplinary proceeding. Words fail to capture the severity and extent of his bigotry. The conduct here is simply shocking and outrageous.

(Mike Frisch)