Courts

Lawyer Pulls A Bartleby On Disciplinary Committee

I wonder if he's as nonchalant about collecting his paycheck.

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lawyer shruggingThe bell curve of lawyers’ commitment to their work is a wild thing. On one hand, you have firms complaining about attorneys not working during their time off. On the other, you’ve got lawyers straight-up abandoning their clients. But once you reach that point, it is hard to get counsel to face the consequences — especially when they think they have better things to do. From the ABA Journal:

An Iowa City, Iowa, lawyer has been publicly reprimanded for skipping several parole revocation hearings for appointed clients and causing a client to miss two court dates because of mistakes.

Tomas Rodriguez thought it was a good idea to miss parole revocation hearings and ignore phone calls and emails from parole officers. His triaging forced several of his clients to decide if they wanted to stay in jail or go pro se — I’m not sure which is worse.

When asked to give an account of himself, Rodriguez responded that he had “other stuff to worry about besides the hearings.” Way to “I would prefer not to” yourself out of representing people in their time of need!

Besides not showing up, Rodriguez also actively made it harder for one of his clients:

The disciplinary board also found that a criminal defendant charged with stalking, harassment and burglary missed two hearings because of mistakes by Rodriguez. In one instance, Rodriguez told the defendant the wrong date for a January 2022 hearing. In the second, Rodriguez filed a not-guilty plea but not an appearance, causing him to miss electronic-filing notices and a February 2022 hearing.

The disciplinary board found that Rodriguez violated a handful of ethics rules. I assume that they then emailed or tried to call him to let him know, but he probably has other stuff to worry about. If anyone reading this knows him, maybe tap him on his shoulder and remind him that he has to do his job.

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Lawyer Who Failed To Show Up For Hearings Said He Had ‘Other Stuff To Worry About,’ Reprimand Order Says [ABA Journal]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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