How To Lose Your Law License

MJ, a white person with brown curly hair, wears a grey shirt and olive green button-down shirt. MJ is holding a coffee cup in a brightly lit coffee shop and sitting with a window in the background.By MJ Segal 

You’re a freshly licensed North Carolina attorney. Finding your footing in the job market is hard, and there seems to be a lot of important information you didn’t learn in law school. Then you get your first copy of the ABA journal, and, wow, there’s a whole section on attorneys who have gotten disciplined for breaking various rules. But that won’t happen to you . . . right?

Let’s make sure.

1. Neglect Clients

It’s the shortest rule in the book: “A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.” (MRPC 1.3) But as you learned in law school, the shortest rules are often to blame for the lengthiest conflicts. In the last quarter, three North Carolina attorneys were suspended, and two of them because they neglected client matters. Two other attorneys were formally reprimanded for their neglect of client matters.

Best Practices: Create and stick to a standard operating procedure that ensures client matters are handled diligently and promptly. If you’re not following the procedure, then it needs to be adjusted so you actually complete it.

2. Mishandle Client Money

Obviously, mishandling client money is a surefire way to lose your license to practice law. But you’re quite literally a professional at arguing against rules. Your acumen at rationalizing behavior is a double-edged sword.

You may find yourself thinking:

“I’m just advancing myself money from the trust account. I’ll earn it in the next week, and I’m short on rent right now.”

OR

“The office manager doesn’t need my oversight to transfer funds from the trust account to the operating account, or to my personal accounts.”

OR

“I’ll catch up on my record keeping. I’m just really busy right now.”

To echo the go-to argument against any lax statutory construction – it’s a slippery slope.

Each of those are real examples taken from attorneys who were disciplined in the last two years.

Best Practices: Review the Rules of Professional Conduct at least once a year. Read the ethics opinions published by the state bar, and regularly audit your practices to ensure compliance.

3. Don’t Pay Your Taxes

Under Rule 8.4, and N.C. Gen. Stat. §84-28, you can be disbarred for not paying your taxes. In the last quarter, one attorney’s license was suspended for failure to timely file and pay income and employment taxes (he also did not respond to the Grievance Committee).

Taxes can be terrifying, but they’re not nearly as complex as what you got tested on taking the bar exam. You’ve got this.

Best Practices: Maintain your bookkeeping, set aside the right amount for taxes, and set up reminders ahead of key deadlines.

4. Share Private Information

I get it. Your friends and family are sharing stories about their jobs and clients. You know you’ve got hotter tea and crazier stories than any of them. What if you just share the story but not the client’s name, that might be okay, right?

Maybe you’re in a public setting and happen to see one of your clients. Can you wave and say hello?

Your mom calls to tell you she heard about so and so getting into trouble, and isn’t it terrible, and gosh, she should send them a fruit basket. But they’re actually your client’s co-conspirator and caused the trouble to begin with. Can you keep mom from sending a “sorry you got arrested” cantaloupe basket?

When it comes to client information, the less you say, the better. You don’t know who will be able to identify your client from just a story, or if the client wants to be acknowledged in public, nor do you have a way of preventing the fruit basket delivery without disclosing confidential information.

Best Practice: Embrace your secret agent vibe.

5. Ignore Chemical Dependency

No one starts using a substance with the intention of becoming addicted.

Individuals who are dependent on chemicals begin using in order to cope with what’s going on in their lives.

The NC State Bar Lawyers Assistance Program says that the percentage of legal professionals who have a chemical dependency may be as high as 20% of the legal professional population. Yet an Illinois survey found that 40-75% of all lawyer discipline cases involved a chemically dependent or mentally ill practitioner. Chemical dependency can lead to mistakes you would not otherwise make. If you may need support, the NC State Bar Lawyers Assistance Program provides confidential, non-disciplinary help.

More information and resources are available.

If you want to support attorneys suffering from chemical dependency, encourage your firm to adopt the LAP’s Model Law Firm Alcohol and Drug Policy.

Best Practices: Connect with your community, and seek help for chemical dependency.

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