L. R., In re

• Decision Date: 25 June 1951
• Docket Number: No. D--12,D--12
• Citation: 7 N.J. 390,81 A.2d 725
• Parties: In re L.R.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 390

7 N.J. 390

81 A.2d 725

In re L.R.

No. D--12 Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued June 11, 1951.

Decided June 25, 1951.

Milton T. Lasher, Hackensack, by designation of the Ethics and Grievance Committee of Bergen County, for the rule.

Walter H. Jones, Hackensack, for respondent attorney.

PER CURIAM.

The Ethics and Grievance Committee of Bergen County, following the filing of a complaint against the attorney and the taking of testimony on notice to him and in the presence of him and of his attorney, filed its presentment charging him with various breaches of professional ethics. Among these were that the attorney paid for complimentary press notices, that he engaged with a real estate corporation which he owned or controlled in such a way that the corporation held itself out to prospective customers as maintaining 'a 1-package system which includes servicing a transaction from its inception to its closing' and as having its own legal department which processed and expedited every mortgage applied for through the office, and that he publicized that character of service.

The realty corporation is known by the attorney's family name, and its stock is held by the attorney, his wife and his mother-in-law.

Agents of the real estate corporation were instructed by respondent to announce to customers that the corporation would secure the necessary mortgage, make the search, do everything about the transaction, prepare the deed and turn it over to the customer complete, and that respondent was a lawyer himself so it wasn't necessary for the customer to engage his own lawyer, but if the customer insisted on having his own lawyer then the agents were to tell him that by all means he might have his own lawyer.

On at least one occasion the Bergen Evening Record contained a half-column of matter, purporting to be a news article, carrying the information that the attorney was vice president at that time of the corporation and was celebrating his 31st birthday, that his accomplishments 'made him seem a lot older', that he had been instrumental in building one of the largest real estate and insurance offices in the state, that the business covered the northern counties and was doing, according to the attorney's statement, one of the largest volumes of residential and commercial sales in the area, that the staff had grown from one man to fifteen persons, including outside field men, that 'the firm has a 1-package system which includes servicing a transaction from its inception to its closing. The corporation has its own legal department which processes and expedites every mortgage applied for through the office'. In the midst of the article was printed the attorney's photograph. The attorney was questioned on the witness stand about...