Attorney Grievance Comm'n of Md. v. Dore

• Decision Date: 20 August 2013
• Docket Number: Misc. Docket AG No. 35,Sept. Term, 2012.
• Citation: 73 A.3d 161,433 Md. 685
• Parties: ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. Thomas Patrick DORE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

433 Md. 685

73 A.3d 161

ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND

v.Thomas Patrick DORE.

Misc. Docket AG No. 35, Sept. Term, 2012.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 20, 2013.

James P. Botluk, Assistant Bar Counsel (Glenn M. Grossman, Bar Counsel, AttorneyGrievance Commission of Maryland), for Petitioner.

Alvin I. Frederick, Esquire (of Eccleston & Wolf, Hanover, MD), for Respondent.

Argued before BARBERA, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ADKINS, McDONALD and BELL,^* JJ.

ADKINS, J.

This case involves a variation on the notorious practice of “ robo-signing,” which flourished during the recent foreclosure boom. See Alan M. White, Losing the Paper—Mortgage Assignments, Note Transfers and Consumer Protection, 24 Loy. Consumer L.Rev. 468, 469–70 (2012). “Robo-signing” is a term that “most often refers to the process of mass-producing affidavits for foreclosures without having knowledge of or verifying the facts.” Anita Lynn Lapidus, What Really Happened: Ibanez and the Case for Using the Actual Transfer Documents, 41 Stetson L.Rev. 817, 818 (2012).

In the present case, a Maryland lawyer, Thomas Patrick Dore, authorized his employees to sign his name on affidavits filed in foreclosure actions. The employees did not only sign the affidavits as Dore; they also notarized the bogus signatures. This practice came to the attention of a circuit court judge, who gave Dore “a private admonition” pursuant to Canon 3F of the former Maryland Code of Judicial Conduct.¹ The judge warned Dore that “if this practice ... of using false notaries” continues, he “will initiate a formal report of the matter to the Attorney Grievance Commission.” Dore heeded this warning: he stopped the practice, hired ethics counsel, and approximately a month later reported his conduct to the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland (“AGC”).

AGC filed a Petition for Disciplinary or Remedial Action, charging Dore with violating four provisions of the Maryland Lawyers' Rules of Professional Conduct: Rule 3.3 (candor toward the tribunal); Rule 5.3 (responsibilities regarding nonlawyer assistants); Rule 8.4(c) (dishonesty, fraud, misrepresentation); and Rule 8.4(d) (misconduct prejudicial to the administration of justice). The hearing judge found that Dore violated Rules 3.3(a)(1), 5.3(a)(1) and 8.4(d), but not Rule 8.4(c).

THE HEARING JUDGE'S CONCLUSIONS

The disciplinary hearing was held before a judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. The parties stipulated to the admission of all the documentary evidence offered, as well as the facts. Dore was the sole witness at the hearing. The hearing judge adopted the parties' stipulated facts, making the following findings of fact by clear and convincing evidence:

I. Respondent's Background

Mr. Dore was admitted to the Bar of the Court of Appeals on June 14, 1988.... With the exception of approximately nine months, [he] has spent his entire legal career at [the law firm now known as Covahey, Boozer, Devan & Dore, P.A.], where he is now one of two majority stockholders.... Since approximately 2001, the Respondent's practice has concentrated in the representation of lenders in actions to foreclose mortgages and/or deeds of trust. Foreclosures constitute approximately 70% of his practice. As of May 2010, the Respondent was counsel of record in 1,225 foreclosure cases pending throughout the State of Maryland.

... Covahey & Boozer had a foreclosure practice since the firm's inception in the early 1970s. The Respondent received his training in the areas of foreclosure law from his experience at the firm and the firm's foreclosure practices remained essentially unchanged until 2008, when a change in the law governing foreclosures in the State of Maryland was enacted.

II. The 2008 Economic Crisis

* * *

There was a marked increase in the volume of foreclosure files received by Respondent's firm as a result of the January 2008 severe global economic downturn. For example, the Respondent testified that, in the fall of 2008, the firm's monthly volume of foreclosure files increased from 100 to 500–600 per month. At its peak, the monthly volume of foreclosure files received was 1,000–1,200 per month, representing a 1,100% increase from 2007.

Faced with this exponential increase in foreclosure files, the firm increased its staff of lawyers and non-lawyers. By the fall of 2008, the firm employed approximately 100 non-lawyer employees and 6 or 7 lawyers whose practice was devoted primarily to foreclosure actions....

III. Significant Changes in Maryland Foreclosure Law

Mr. Dore testified that at the same time that the monthly volume of foreclosure files was increasing exponentially, the laws and procedural rules governing foreclosure law in the State of Maryland changed.... Significantly, the changes in 2008 and almost every year thereafter required more affidavits to be filed in the foreclosure action. There are now approximately sixteen (16) affidavits which must be filed in every foreclosure action. A notary attestation was and is not required on any of the affidavits.

Several of these affidavits required the same information in the same format as had been required under pre-existing Maryland law for approximately twenty (20) years. Accordingly, the firm still used the same forms, which essentially remained unchanged since the firm's inception.

Around the time of the economic downturn, the Respondent began to modify the forms and was overseeing the firm's switch to a new case management system to streamline the drafting and preparation of the documents. The Respondent testified that he became distracted by the increase in volume and ensuring that the review process was conducted properly for the large influx in files and did not follow up on the updating of the forms filed with the courts.

IV. Mr. Dore's Delegation of Signatures

The Respondent directed that his name appear on all documents filed in foreclosure cases, despite the fact that the volume was increasing exponentially and it would have been impossible for him to review and sign every document. The Respondent authorized others to sign his name because he believed that, as the principal responsible for the foreclosure department in his firm, it was appropriate for the form to be in his name only. The Respondent testified that foreclosure can be a very stressful experience and that, on occasion, defaulting borrowers named his employees in frivolouslaw suits or even threatened their physical safety. He caused his name to be on all documents so that he would be the one targeted instead of his employees.

The Respondent described in his testimony an episode in which one of his employees received threatening phone calls from a retired police officer whose home was in foreclosure. During the call, the borrower indicated that he knew where the employee lived, her home phone number, and her daughter's address and telephone number. The borrower threatened to kill Mr. Dore's employee, her daughter, and her co-workers.

* * *

Recognizing that it was impossible for him to sign every document, but mindful of the fact that he did not want his employees' names to go on the papers for their own protection, the Respondent researched the legality of authorizing another person to sign one's name. [H]e reached the conclusion that he could do so. Specifically, the Respondent read the case of Fisher v. McGuire, 282 Md. 507 (1978), and relied upon that case for the proposition that an individual can adopt the signature of that person's name when signed by another person. The Respondent now recognizes that his research did not relate to the issue of signatures before notaries.

Additionally, the Deed of Substitution of Trustees for the Deed of Trust states that any one of the substituted trustees can act for the other. Mr. Dore interpreted this to mean that the other Substitute Trustees can sign the name of another Substitute Trustee. However, the Respondent acknowledged that he authorized two non-lawyer employees, who were not substituted trustees, to sign his name to the affidavits.

Despite the fact that non-lawyers signed Mr. Dore's name to these documents, the review process conducted by Respondent's law firm of these documents was stringent.... Although some documents were signed by non-lawyers, Respondent testified that an attorney always reviewed all of the documents prior to submission to the Court. No inaccuracies had been cited or found in any of the Affidavits filed in the foreclosure actions by the Respondent's firm. [Footnotes omitted.]

V. Judge Caroom's April 8, 2010 Letter

On April 12, 2010, Respondent received a letter ... from the Hon. Philip T. Caroom of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County privately admonishing him for what appeared to Judge Caroom to be blatant irregularities in his signature on documents filed in foreclosure actions.... Upon receipt of Judge Caroom's letter, the Respondent immediately ceased the practice of allowing others to sign his name to Affidavits or any other document and conducted a review of all affected files. The Respondent directed that no one was authorized to sign any name but their own. The first time it ever occurred to Mr. Dore that the Affidavits were being notarized was when he received and reviewed Judge Caroom's letter.

In addition to stopping the practice, the Respondent immediately met with his partners to discuss the matter, contacted ethics counsel that same day, met with counsel within the week, and notified his clients of the problem and the need to take action to correct the problem. After meeting with counsel, the Respondent determined the inappropriateness of the method he had permitted to be used for the filing of foreclosures and self-reported the conduct to Bar Counsel on May 3, 2010, less than one month after receiving Judge Caroom's letter....

VI. Corrective Action by Respondent

The Respondent devoted the entire month of May 2010 to trying to correct the problem. He reviewed the files likely to...