In re Cooper

• Citation: 936 A.2d 832
• Decision Date: 21 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-BG-892.,06-BG-892.
• Parties: In re Samuel COOPER, III, Respondent. A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Bar Registration No. 175745).
• Court: Court of Appeals of Columbia District

936 A.2d 832

In re Samuel COOPER, III, Respondent A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Bar Registration No. 175745).

No. 06-BG-892.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued October 3, 2007.

Decided November 21, 2007.

Karl W. Carter, Jr., for respondent.

Wallace E. Shipp, Jr., Bar Counsel, with whom Judith Hetherton, Senior Assistant Bar Counsel, and William R. Ross, Staff Attorney, were on the brief, for the Office of Bar Counsel.

Elizabeth J. Branda, Executive Attorney, for the Board on Professional Responsibility.

Before RUIZ, Associate Judge, and KING and SCHWELB, Senior Judges.

PER CURIAM:

The Board on Professional Responsibility ("Board"), in accord with the Hearing Committee, has found that respondent, Samuel Cooper, III, violated D.C. Bar R. XI, § 2(b)(3) (failure to comply with court order) and District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct 8.1(b) (failure to respond to Bar Counsel's lawful demand for information) and 8.4(d) (conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice). The Board recommends that respondent be suspended for thirty days, with reinstatement conditioned both on proof of his fitness to resume the practice of law and on his full compliance with Bar Counsel's subpoena, entered on October 15, 2003. Bar Counsel noted a timely exception to a portion of the Board Report and respondent has not filed any exceptions.

Respondent's misconduct arose out of his failure to respond to Bar Counsel's inquires regarding asserted discrepancies in his Interest on Lawyers Trust Account ("IOLTA"). In October 2002, Riggs Bank advised Bar Counsel of overdrafts in respondent's IOLTA account. On December 11, 2002, Bar Counsel sent respondent a letter requesting a detailed explanation for the overdrafts and answers to a set of questions. Two weeks later, Bar Counsel received two additional overdraft notices from Riggs regarding respondent's same account. On January 10, 2002, Bar Counsel mailed respondent a second letter with additional questions regarding the overdrafts and noting that it had not received a reply to the first letter. In February 2003, respondent telephoned Bar Counsel stating that he had not received the two previous letters. Bar Counsel mailed a third letter to respondent on February 13, 2003. The following month, respondent telephoned Bar Counsel again and stated that he still had not received Bar Counsel's letters. The next day, March 13, 2003, Bar Counsel sent a third letter requesting a response within seven days and enclosing copies of the two previous letters. Respondent was personally served on March 17, 2003.

Three months later, in June 2003, respondent faxed and mailed to Bar Counsel two similar letters denying that any Rules of Professional Conduct had been broken and refusing to answer Bar Counsel's questions regarding the overdrafts "because of privacy issues." On July 25, 2003, Bar Counsel mailed to respondent a subpoena, which commanded him to appear at Bar Counsel's office within ten days and to bring specified documents related to the IOLTA account and client funds. On August 8, 2003, respondent faxed to Bar Counsel a letter that stated, "I have nothing to say. This is my reply." On October 15, 2003, this court issued an order directing respondent to comply with Bar Counsel's subpoena within ten days and mailed a copy to the respondent, who failed to produce the subpoenaed documents. On January 8, 2004, Bar Counsel wrote respondent requesting that he provide the addresses and telephone numbers for two individuals named in respondent's IOLTA account records within seven days. On January 20, 2004, respondent telephoned Bar Counsel and left a voice mail message in response to the letter.

On March 1, 2004, Bar Counsel filed the Specification of Charges and Petition Instituting Formal Disciplinary Proceedings against respondent. Personal service on respondent could not be accomplished, in part because he failed to provide an address at which papers could be delivered. The court entered an order allowing service by alternate means, and the notice of charges was published in the Daily Washington Law Reporter and Legal Times. On March 9, 2004, respondent telephoned the Board and Bar Counsel inquiring about the time and place for the prehearing conference scheduled the following day, which he did not attend. A hearing was held on May 11, 2005. Respondent advised the Board by telephone on May 10 and 11, 2005 that he would not be attending the hearing. In its report, the Hearing Committee sua sponte concluded that the substance of the underlying complaint should be treated as confidential under D.C. Bar R. XI, § 17(a).¹

Both respondent and Bar Counsel filed exceptions to the Hearing Committee Report. Although respondent's counsel filed a brief, neither respondent nor his counsel appeared for oral argument before the Board in April 2006.

On July 31, 2006, the Board issued its Report and Recommendation, which adopted the Hearing Committee's findings of fact, findings of violations, and recommended sanctions. While the Board concluded that the respondent waived any right to keep the underlying allegations confidential, it ordered that all references to the underlying disciplinary complaint be redacted from the public record and filed under seal. It recommended, however, that this court direct that all references to the underlying case be unsealed.

Briefs were filed in this court by Bar Counsel and the Board, but not by respondent. Bar Counsel agrees with the Board's factual findings and recommended sanction. This court will accept the Board's findings as long as they are supported by substantial evidence in the record. D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9(g)(1). Moreover, we will impose the sanction recommended by the Board "unless to do...