Courts

Federal Judge Wants To Hear Why Bigtime Attorney Said He'd Never Been Sanctioned... When He Was TOTALLY Just Sanctioned

Hm... this sanction must have slipped his mind.

By  
on

Standby for a benchslap!

The National Rifle Association has fallen on hard times. They’re telling courts that they may have to go out of business and they’re locked in a pair of lawsuits over their capacity to sell insurance coverage to people who might “accidentally go on a killing spree.” That’s when they brought in famed attorney Bill Brewer of Brewer Attorneys and Counselors to help them out.

But Brewer’s not admitted in the Eastern District of Virginia, so he had to get a pro hac vice motion filed. Those motions are simple enough, all he had to do is certify that he’s a member in good standing of some other bar and that he’s never “been reprimanded in any court, nor has there been any action in any court pertaining to [his] conduct or fitness as a member of the bar.”

Unfortunately for Brewer, Above the Law exists and there’s a readily searchable record right there on the Google machine that Brewer was benchslapped into oblivion just two years ago, with a Texas state judge describing his conduct as “unprofessional” and “unethical.” In that matter, Brewer was tagged with using a “push poll” to call up witnesses and potential jurors to advance the chosen defense strategy.

Brewer appealed that finding, and the appeals court upheld the sanction… just  4 months ago! They say a good litigator has to have a short memory when it comes to setbacks, but this isn’t what they mean.

It turns out that United States District Court Judge Liam O’Grady is tech savvy enough to do a little digging and discovered this gem and… he’s not pleased. Judge O’Grady has scheduled a hearing for September 14 for Brewer to come in and explain why he thought he could sign his pro hac vice application in light of the push polling debacle.

Tipsters tell us that they already suspect Brewer will throw some other attorney under the bus and claim he was unaware of this representation, but that’s going to be a hard one for Judge O’Grady to swallow. It’s not like this question doesn’t come up often on these forms and Brewer’s engaged in enough far-flung litigation across the country to know his way around a pro hac vice motion. Even if he never looked at the form someone else prepared on his behalf — which raises its own problems — this is an issue he should have known to flag for whoever was doing the work.

Sponsored

Federal judges come in all shapes and sizes, and I don’t know much about Judge O’Grady’s temperament, but if there’s one thing that unifies judges across the country, it’s that they don’t like being misled.

UPDATE: The firm sent us this statement:

“Please be assured that there is nothing our firm takes more seriously than its ethical obligations,” says Michael J. Collins, partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors. “We believe that Mr. Brewer and our firm acted appropriately at all times. Given the nature of our firm’s national practice, our firm makes all appropriate disclosures to practice in various courts, as required. The sanctions award, which is under review by the Supreme Court of Texas, is a matter of public record. It is appropriately disclosed as required by certain courts, and recently posed no issue with respect to Mr. Brewer being admitted to a court in another jurisdiction.”

SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Emerita Linda S. Eads, an ethics expert and appellate counsel for Mr. Brewer in this matter, notes that different courts have different disclosure requirements and, in this instance, “no additional disclosures were required by Mr. Brewer, given the order in question remains suspended on appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas. I believe Mr. Brewer was truthful in his application and the application contains no misrepresentations.”

Interesting take. Not sure many judges will accept the “it’s not a sanction until I’ve exhausted every appeal” tack, but maybe Judge O’Grady will show some leniency.

(Check out the order on the next page…)

Sponsored

Lawyer for NRA Did Not Disclose ‘Serious’ Ethics Sanction to Court [The Trace]

Earlier: Lawyer Slapped With Big Sanctions For ‘Push Polling’ Potential Jurors

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

1 2Next »

Topics

, , , ,