Biglaw

Former Biglaw Partner Fails To Understand Seriousness Of His Misconduct

Professional Responsibility committee recommends against his reinstatement to practice law.

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Dictionary Series – EthicsWell, here’s a turn I sure didn’t expect when I last wrote about former Biglaw partner Robert M. Schulman.  The former intellectual property litigation partner at Hunton & Williams and Arent Fox was convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud in 2017 — sentenced to three years probation, fined $50,000 and ordered to forfeit about $15,500, and required to serve 2,000 hours of community service.

See, way back in 2010, Schulman allegedly got drunk before sharing inside information about a planned M&A deal with a friend and investment adviser, Tibor Klein. He hinted that his client King Pharmaceuticals was going to merge with Pfizer, saying, “It would be nice to be King for a day.” A statement he allegedly repeated before saying it wasn’t something he could trade on himself. Klein then bought King Pharmaceuticals stock for 48 clients, including for Schulman (their agreement didn’t require Klein to get specific approval for a trade from Schulman).

Last year, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ad hoc committee on professional responsibility and Schulman entered into a negotiated discipline, and Schulman agreed to a three-year suspension, retroactive to June 28, 2018. At that point, I pretty much thought this story was over. But the reinstatement was conditioned on fitness, and well, apparently Schulman didn’t clear that hurdle.

A report and recommendation by an ad hoc hearing committee of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals’ Board on Professional Responsibility reflects concern that Schulman “continues to implausibly downplay the extent of his disclosure to Klein,” and his “story does not add up.”

Unspoken in that testimony is the belief reflected in the rest of the testimony, that in other senses he very much was the victim. Indeed, Schulman does not appear to have engaged in much introspection during his suspension about what led him to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct. To the contrary, the tenor of his testimony was that while he technically violated the rules, he does not believe he truly did anything wrong. Even when testifying about what he says is “the lesson I think I’ve learned the most,” Schulman described his own actions as “a fleeting, passing comment made under what you consider the safest of circumstances, which I did meeting with a close colleague in a family situation.” Tr. 129-130. While he says he now understands that there can be “zero tolerance” for disclosing client information in that situation, Schulman’s testimony reveals that he still believes it should have been “safe[]” to do so. Id.

And even though there are some factors in favor of reinstatement — Schulman disgorged his profit, paid his court-ordered fine, served more than 2,000 hours of community service, finished a master’s degree, started a community garden, tutored ESL students, and kept abreast of in developments in the law — it’s not enough:

We find those factors are outweighed by Petitioner’s failure to demonstrate that he appreciates the seriousness of his misconduct or that his present character favors reinstatement. We have given the greatest weight to the factors that bear on the reasons for Petitioner’s suspension, which in this case are the circumstances that caused his misconduct to be particularly serious. Petitioner fails to acknowledge or take responsibility for those circumstances, which were largely of his own creation or within his control. In sum, we find Petitioner has failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence the fitness qualifications required for readmission

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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