No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: How to (Almost) Get Disbarred

First and foremost, let me make it abundantly clear to whoever forwards this to whatever grievance committee they want, I assure you, dear grievance committee member, I take full responsibility for my actions, and I should have (1) tracked the mail, (2) reconfirmed in writing and via telephone that the mail was received, and (3) then reconfirmed a third and (4) final time at character and fitness with some sort of third party between me and the interviewer. In no way am I attempting or wanting to disparage or damage the reputation of the New York Bar, Courts, Justices, or Opposing Counsel in this matter. I'm here to explain what happened, and if you'd like to bring me up on new charges for that, then you know damn well I'll fight fairly to the end, and even though I may not win, I'll now sleep soundly knowing I did the right thing. Because the hard thing is usually the right thing.

In November 2010, I was a Criminal Law LL.M. student at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School when I found out I passed the New York Bar on my first shot after the results were leaked online, and I received a text message from a law school classmate about the win. Later that month, I submitted my bar application on November 23, 2010, and on December 10, 2010, after my criminal law exam (because the Universe likes jokes), I was arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Leaving the Scene of an Accident.

Now, while this is embarrassing to tell, it's not because I was intoxicated when I drove (at this point in my life, I was a bartender for nearly 4 years and worked for a criminal defense firm in North Carolina; I know the costs of being intoxicated while driving), it's because I was a bad driver on ice and snow. I had at that point in my life driven in snow and ice approximately three times since I'm from South Carolina, where we shut everything down but the Waffle House if there's a rumor of an icicle. Now, all that being said, I took a turn too fast, popped a curb because I hit the gas instead of tapping the brake, and slid into a tree. No one was harmed, including myself, and my vehicle was far enough off the road that it wasn't in traffic or impeding anything. But sadly, it was disabled because of the way I slid into the tree when I turned the wheel to avoid said tree. I checked my phone, and it was dead, and having broken down before, I knew that it would take hours for someone to find me, and since I had literally been up for hours studying for my criminal law final that day (yes, the universe has a sense of humor, and I'm writing a book about it), I decided that this was a problem I would deal with tomorrow.

I walked less than a mile to my place on campus when two hours later, UB police bust in and wake me up, arrest me, try to make me perform a field sobriety test in flip flops in the snow and ice, then say I fail and take me to jail. Fast forward to some excellent research by yours truly, I find case law from that very small Amherst town court that says exigent circumstances do not exist unless the cops can prove blood or injury and that a wreck alone is insufficient by itself. I also find case law from that court that states a couple of other helpful points, but needless to say, we had this won. (Sidebar, you should have seen the judge's face when I said in open court, he didn't respectfully have the authority to seize my license because I was still a South Carolina resident at my arraignment. Priceless.)

I informed the bar on February 4th after submitting my application in November after finding out I passed via a data breach. I sent this email to myself to print off at the UB law library because I didn't have a printer, and I literally have thousands of emails as examples of this. On February 15, eleven days later, and having not heard from the bar since being told I passed after the data breach, I receive a letter that says my application is complete and it will be discussed at character and fitness.

My public defender, as I was an exceptionally broke law student during what would become the starting point of the Great Recession, was able to prove that this case was bullshit once we got the complaint, and it did not mention how they got ahold of my person. So, the literal district attorney of Erie County gave us an offer that, looking back, I shouldn't have taken, but in order to get this over with and move on, I did, because technically I did leave the scene of a one-car accident. (The tree was and is still fine). So, with a DUI dismissed by the Erie County elected District Attorney, I went to character and fitness on April 13, 2011, on the seven-year anniversary of my amazing grandmother's passing, thinking it was some sort of destiny. I remember the interview being short and sweet as I had never been arrested up until that point, and I had nothing else on my record. I vaguely remember the interviewer stating that he bets I wouldn't call anyone an asshole again, referencing my disclosure that I was suspended in high school for calling a vice principal an asshole to a teacher (I stand by that statement; he was an asshole), and that I would never drink and drive again. I remember that last part because it was like, dude, I wasn't drunk, but I wasn't going to argue with the guy who literally had my fate in his hands, so I just said "yessir" and was sworn in with countless other attorneys that day in a mass swearing-in ceremony.

Fast forward to 2016, my fiancé at the time was accepted to the University of Charleston's Physician Assistant program in Charleston, West Virginia (aka Mountain Momma). This meant for my little law firm, we had to pack up shop and move down there because (1) you support those that you love, and (2) the harder thing is normally the right thing to do. Well, needless to say, I was concerned about being able to find federal securities and corporate clients in the hills of West by God Virginia and continue to grow my roughly two-year-old law practice, so like any good investor, I hedged my bets and applied to be a public defender at the Kanawha County Public Defender's Office (you're from or lived in WV if you can say the name correctly). I interviewed and got the job all within three days of moving to Charleston, thinking things were looking very good because they said I could even keep my current clients so long as I didn't interfere with my work. And then I requested my NY bar application to aid in filling out my WV bar admission under Rule 9 (Rule 9 allows for temporary admission for public service since I technically did not have the 5 out of 7 years of practice at this point; I was roughly six months short thanks to the Great Recession), and everything went downhill faster than sliding down the hills of West Virginia on ice. Pun intended.

I received an email with a copy of the application, and it's missing my addendum for when I was arrested by the UB corrupt police department. That's not good, I think, and request it again. They must be missing some stuff because I know it's not the entire file. The second request turns up one more page, but they claim there is nothing left. Weird, I think, so I call. The law clerk or whatever intern they have doing this shit needs to get it together. Well, it wasn't a law clerk, and they tell me there is nothing in the file relating to the arrest. Fuck, I think and consult with close friends and colleagues about what I should do. Most of which tell me to shut the fuck up and withdraw from the job. But as I stated before, the harder thing is normally the right thing, and I knew this was both the hard and right thing to do, so I self-reported that somehow this addendum was missing. I truly thought there would be an investigation into the processing of the mail, and they would find it in someone else's file but know that it was mentioned in character and fitness. Well, after submitting all I had to the investigation team for the course of a year and a half, I received a notice on October 15, 2018, that the investigation was complete, and they were submitting it to the grievance committee. Cool, I think. Can you send me a copy via email? I really don't want to drive to Albany for an hour from Charleston, West-by God-Virginia. A 10-hour and half-hour drive each way from our apartment to their office. Their response: No. Come or don't, but you have until X date to come.

Awesome, well, I know I did everything I could to turn this addendum over. I remember mailing the damn thing because I almost slipped while walking there and thought my mother would have killed me if I died because I slipped while chewing a blue pen since I normally don't carry anything to write with since I take notes on a laptop. I tell them I'm fine. I've done everything I can and the right thing, so go ahead, I don't need to see what their "findings" are.

A mind-numbing 1,285 days on April 22, 2022, I get a call while I'm literally volunteering for Habitat for Humanity of Buffalo (pic for proof). I can't answer it because I'm literally moving a massive piece of wood. I return the call, and it's the grievance committee. Cool, I think, again. Someone wants to complain about something, presumably crypto-related.

Nope.

They are moving forward with a petition, the attorney says. I ask for what matter? She says the one I self-reported about. It's the same complaint I made against myself in January of 2017 and supposedly submitted to the committee in 2018.

I literally was like, that's still going on? I had moved several times since then and just assumed I didn't get the mailed update that the case was closed since until Covid, most of New York government didn't email back then. I couldn't submit my bar complaint via email.

Nope, that wasn't the case; it was, for reasons unknown to me, kept until April 2022.

When I say the following period from April 2022 to April 2023 was crazy, I literally mean that. Between deaths and disasters, to the highest of highs and major wins, it was a mixed bag of insanity. And it all started when we had our evidentiary hearing and, to avoid catching another case, let's just say it didn't go well. I had a fool for a lawyer (me) but an honest one.

I was told by the evidentiary judge, when I was appalled to learn that the State of New York does not conduct even a basic criminal background search on candidates, that I should work on the legislature (transcript cite).

Now let me preface this statement by saying that during my time at the ACLU of PA, I had the honor and privilege of teaching over a hundred law school students about the ins and outs of probable cause and reasonable suspicion, so I know that our justice system is laughably broken. (Don't come at me; numbers don't lie) Plus, I hold a Master of Laws in Criminal Law with honors, so I know arrests don't mean a damn thing.

However, the fact that I have performed technical support for the New York Bar Exam for years in Buffalo, I have first-hand knowledge of the number of passports and licenses I see from around the country and world. And not to disparage any of my colleagues, because I was a "foreign applicant" too when crushing the bar after spending my entire third year studying abroad in London and Tokyo, but it's the 21st century, and seeing how much damage licensed attorneys have caused in various scandals in the '20s alone should make you in support of background checks. Hell, California has and the results aren't good.

That's why when I learned that there were no background checks that could have caught this clerical error (my position in this; e.g., if a background search was conducted for all applicants, it would be known to all that searches are conducted, and it would not rely on my disclosure for clerical accuracy) or it wasn't properly disclosed (their position; e.g., if it wasn't received by the bar, this would have been "caught" with a background search, and the process would have stopped at "Character and Fitness" in 2011).

Either way, I'm right. New York and all states should have criminal background checks, especially for new candidates. (I'm currently working on this if you want to join the fight)

But now onto the final decision. I had to drive four hours each way to Albany to argue for 15 minutes in front of five distinguished Justices of the Third Department, Appellate Division. Those who have had the honor of arguing before a large, active bench know that it was rapid-fire question after question after I barely got my name out. I think I handled my own, given it was my first five-person bench, but whether it was out of the kindness of their hearts or the factual evidence, they sought to give me a year off instead of disbarring me as the grievance committee wanted. 3-2 split with the two dissenting justices wanting a public censure and an outright dismissal. Three. Two. This nightmare was over, and I almost "won."

If you know me, you know I believe this life is rigged. It's rigged for those that chase dreams and do the right thing. It likes those that hustle hard and treat people with respect or the way they want to be treated. That's what I think this was meant to be - a sabbatical and allow me to focus on the really big world-changing products with The Blue Rock Organization, who will solve a lot of our globe's woes, and the sports token offerings I've been working on for years. And to put the cherry on top, I'm going to be writing a book about how all this put me on the path to actually go on the offense and attack the world's problems instead of defending them behind my desk. It's going to be full of great interviews from celebrities, YouTubers, business folks, and some other awesome humans. So, it's game on.

Please keep up at Dunsmoor.io or connect with me if you want to help make the world a bit better than we found it.

SOURCES:

(1) New York bar exam results released early after partial list leaked online, Nov. 08, 2010, 9:30 p.m. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2010/11/new_york_bar_exam_results_rele.html

(2) Thousands Of California Lawyers Yet To Be Re-Fingerprinted, Lyle Moran June 13, 2019, https://abovethelaw.com/2019/06/thousands-of-california-lawyers-yet-to-be-re-fingerprinted/

(3) Exhibit A Certified Disposition; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/svrk0zxjodhl1g28zfvy0/Exhibit-A-Certified-Disposition-scanned.pdf?rlkey=l79l8z8o1o7gg4uw4ocakkz64&dl=0

(4) Exhibit B Police report; notice there is no discussion on how they entered the premises; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tknt32r4hyl1liqw3xrc4/Exhibit-B-Police-Report.pdf?rlkey=j3mvpy4wv2exf3iqa9silwkkp&dl=0

(5) Exhibit C Email to Myself and Addendum; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n0cfhxszzeqttcx8hf8a0/Exhibit-C-Email-and-Addendum.pdf?rlkey=3zxynlkq5ecjnaet6oxencmsx&dl=0

(6) Exhibit D AD3 Correspondence Application Received; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/26scxfv1dceawemfs55zo/Exhibit-D-AD3-Correspondence-Application-Received.pdf?rlkey=sg26plg4gfcrkkuhmqp17asho&dl=0

(7) Exhibit E Self Report; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g3anlwip1i5qunyhwyjr9/Exhibit-E-Email-Self-Report.pdf?rlkey=u6hqi7ttp26git5ofc1c5b321&dl=0

(8) Exhibit F Notice of Disclosure; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iaui37h9yc94wkmmidfhd/Exhibit-F-Notice-of-Disclosure.pdf?rlkey=yla5vtn751l4jvs0vrpq83k5k&dl=0

(9) Exhibit G The Damn Petition; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/14e68mi7369tlfl0pj30z/Exhibit-G-The-Damn-Petition.pdf?rlkey=exdht63y428thoh168ukg2zx5&dl=0

(10) Exhibit H for Habitat for Humanity https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dbg06i7pl3qa5u41o33r8/Exhibit-H-for-Habitat-for-Humanity.jpg?rlkey=i01t5edhb8cz2bc117fxfcb6f&dl=0