Committee on Legal Ethics of West Virginia State Bar v. Blair
| Decision Date | 17 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 16368,16368 |
| Citation | 174 W.Va. 494,327 S.E.2d 671 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | COMMITTEE on LEGAL ETHICS OF the WEST VIRGINIA STATE BAR v. Walter Lloyd BLAIR. |
Syllabus by the Court
1. "In an attorney disciplinary proceeding based on a complaint charging professional misconduct and prosecuted by the Committee on Legal Ethics of the West Virginia State Bar for publicly reprimanding the attorney and for suspending the license of the attorney to practice law, the burden is on the committee to prove the charges contained in the complaint by full, clear and preponderating evidence." Syl.Pt. 2 of Committee on Legal Ethics v. Daniel, 160 W.Va. 388, 235 S.E.2d 369 (1977).
2. A West Virginia lawyer, admitted pro hac vice to the Bar of another state, remains subject to the West Virginia State Bar's jurisdiction.
3. This Court is the final arbiter of legal ethics problems and must make the ultimate decisions about public reprimands, suspensions or annulments of attorneys' licenses to practice law.
Robert H. Davis, Jr., and John A. Rogers, West Virginia State Bar, Charleston, for complainant.
Steven M. Askin, Askin, Pill, Scales & Burke, Martinsburg, for respondent.
The Committee on Legal Ethics of the West Virginia State Bar has petitioned this Court to suspend Walter Lloyd Blair from the practice of law for one year. Disciplinary action is sought on two counts. First, the Committee found that Mr. Blair attempted to obstruct justice by suggesting to a witness that she not appear at trial. Second, the Committee found that Mr. Blair failed to assist counsel who replaced Mr. Blair after Mr. Blair withdrew from a case.
This Court, upon review of the record, finds Mr. Blair guilty of obstructing justice in violation of DR 1-102(A)(3)-(6) and DR 7-109(A) and (B) of the Code of Professional Responsibility of the West Virginia State Bar. However, we find that the Committee has not met the burden of proof concerning the charge of failure to assist successor counsel. For reasons that we will set forth below, we have decided to reduce the time of Mr. Blair's suspension from the recommended year to a period of six months, but in addition to that suspension, we order that Mr. Blair be confined to the practice of law in the State of West Virginia under the supervision of a lawyer acceptable to the West Virginia State Bar for a period of three years after his reinstatement.
Walter Lloyd Blair is a West Virginia lawyer whose office is in Charles Town, West Virginia, but who lives in Montgomery County, Maryland. Although Mr. Blair is not a member of the Maryland Bar, on numerous occasions he has appeared in Maryland courts pro hac vice. Indeed the difficulties into which Mr. Blair has so tragically cast himself derive from his representations to his Maryland neighbors that he is "their neighborhood attorney" or, on at least one occasion, a partner in a Baltimore law firm!
One of Mr. Blair's Montgomery County neighbors, Mrs. Mary Chambers, the complainant, retained Mr. Blair in July of 1980 to represent her daughter, Kimberly, in a juvenile matter. Cumulatively, Mrs. Chambers paid Mr. Blair $800 in connection with the representation of her daughter. Mr. Blair withdrew as Kimberly's counsel eight months later, a few days before Kimberly's trial.
In December 1980, Mrs. Chambers was subpoenaed to testify about a child abuse incident involving a family named Chung who lived opposite her. The hearing was scheduled for 9 February 1981 and Mrs. Chambers was a witness for the prosecution. As it turned out, Mr. Blair was counsel for Mr. Chung, the defendant.
On 6 February 1981, the weekend before the child abuse hearing, Mrs. Chambers called Mr. Blair from her Washington, D.C. office. Mrs. Chambers did not telephone Mr. Blair for any reason connected with the Chung prosecution, but rather because she had been informed that Mr. Blair had made indiscreet inquiries of their mutual neighbors concerning her daughter, Kimberly's, chastity. In the course of this conversation, made in the presence of two of her fellow employees, Mrs. Chambers learned that Mr. Blair was representing Mr. Chung. She was then advised by Mr. Blair to feign illness and absent herself from court on the day of the abuse hearing. This, Mr. Blair assured her, would assuage her conscience because otherwise she would blame herself later if neighbor Chung were imprisoned, leaving his family fatherless. Mr. Blair stated, however, that he couldn't tell her what to do since as a lawyer it was incumbent on him to be "cautious." Two witnesses testified to this conversation and one of them corroborated Mrs. Chambers' final response: "Blair, I'll be there, I won't be sick on Monday."
Infuriated and somewhat shaken by her attorney's suggestions, Mrs. Chambers telephoned the victim witness coordinator for the state's attorney in Montgomery County, Maryland, who relayed the tone and substance of her call to the assistant state's attorney for Montgomery County, Ms. Janet Webb. Ms. Webb contacted Mrs. Chambers and convinced her to testify against Mr. Chung. Mrs. Chambers was the State's only witness.
On 17 February 1980, respondent Blair petitioned to withdraw as counsel for Kimberly Chambers, stating that Mrs. Chambers had wrongfully accused him of attempting to obstruct justice. The motion was granted and Mrs. Chambers obtained the services of Mr. Vincent Butler to represent her daughter in the pending juvenile case--now only eight days from trial. Mrs. Chambers contacted Mr. Blair, at Mr. Butler's request, to obtain her daughter's file. Although Mr. Blair agreed to relinquish Kimberly's file, no material was ever received by Mr. Butler. The juvenile court found Kimberly guilty of the charges and put her on probation in her mother's custody.
In March 1981, Mrs. Chambers lodged her complaints (obstruction of justice and failure to assist successor counsel) against Mr. Blair with both the Maryland and West Virginia State Bars. Mr. Blair argues at great length in his brief that Mrs. Chambers' allegations are entirely untrue and he insists that the only basis for these complaints is that Mrs. Chambers was displeased with him. Mr. Blair defends affirmatively by denying that the West Virginia State Bar has jurisdiction over this case. In addition, he insists that the lengthy disposition of these complaints has prejudiced his defense of the charges.
The Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission did not act on Mrs. Chambers' complaint. However, contrary to Mr. Blair's assertion, the Grievance Commission's failure to act was not a rejection of the complaint on its merits. In answer to Mr. Blair's query about his case, the Assistant Bar Counsel of the Maryland Commission stated:
No complaint file was opened in this office, nor will one be open since you have advised me that you are a member of the West Virginia Bar and not a member of the Maryland Bar. This office only has jurisdiction over complaints involving Maryland attorneys. Therefore, we will take no further action in this matter. Respondent's Exhibit No. 3.
We assume that the Attorney Grievance Commission in Maryland expected, as it had every right to expect, that the West Virginia State Bar would investigate and dispose of this case. 1
Maryland's summary rejection of the complaint does not constitute, as Mr. Blair argues, an adjudication of the matter that would, in any way, deprive the West Virginia State Bar of its jurisdiction over him. All lawyers who practice under a West Virginia license are subject to the jurisdiction of the West Virginia State Bar--whether they practice within or without our State.
Although the complaints against the respondent were filed in March 1981, no hearing was held until February 1984. Mr. Blair maintains that he has suffered serious harm by the delay in disposing of this case. He says he "could not even remember crucial activities to defend his case" and that he was unable to locate witnesses who could offer evidence on his behalf. This Court has no comment on Mr. Blair's loss of memory, but notes the dearth of any evidence indicating Mr. Blair's case would be improved by the testimony of any absent witnesses....
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