In re Wike

• Docket Number: 22-BG-0629
• Decision Date: 16 March 2023
• Parties: IN RE Terry Lee WIKE, Esquire, A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Bar Registration No. 1003642
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

290 A.3d 936

IN RE Terry Lee WIKE, Esquire,

A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Bar Registration No. 1003642

No. 22-BG-0629

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

FILED—March 16, 2023

ORDER

PER CURIAM

On consideration of the certified order from the state of Nevada suspending respondent for six months and one day for misappropriating and commingling client funds; this court's August 23, 2022, order suspending respondent pending final disposition of this proceeding and directing him to show cause why reciprocal discipline should not be imposed; respondent's response agreeing to reciprocal discipline and requesting immediate reinstatement; the statement of Disciplinary Counsel requesting the imposition of substantially different discipline in the form of disbarment; respondent's lodged late reply opposing substantially different discipline and reiterating his request for immediate reinstatement; and respondent's D.C. Bar XI, § 14(g) affidavit filed on September 27, 2022, it is

ORDERED that respondent's lodged late reply is filed. It is

FURTHER ORDERED that Terry Lee Wike is hereby disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia, nunc pro tunc to September 27, 2022. "Disbarment is the presumptive sanction for intentional misappropriation of client funds," In re O'Neill , 276 A.3d 492, 503 (D.C. 2022), and a lesser sanction than disbarment in cases of misappropriation is appropriate only in extraordinary circumstances. See In re Addams , 579 A.2d 190, 191 (D.C. 1990) (en banc); see also In re Sibley , 990 A.2d 483, 487-88 (D.C. 2010) (explaining that there is a rebuttable presumption in favor of imposition of identical discipline and exceptions to this presumption should be rare); In re Jacoby , 945 A.2d 1193, 1199-1200 (D.C. 2008) (describing the two-step inquiry for concluding whether the "substantially different discipline" exception applies as determining whether the misconduct would have resulted in the same punishment and if the discipline would be different, whether the difference is "substantial"). Although respondent asserts that he was not found to have intentionally misappropriated client funds, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the disciplinary panel's findings that he "knowingly converted client funds to benefit himself." The court's determination that respondent had that state of mind precludes a determination that disbarment is unwarranted because the misappropriation "was inadvertent or the result of...