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Judge Scolds Levi Aron’s Lawyers for Inexperience, Facebook Posts and Misspelled Word
Posted Aug 24, 2011 8:06 AM CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A Brooklyn judge presiding over the murder prosecution of Levi Aron showed impatience with the defense lawyers on Tuesday.
Judge Neil Firetog grilled the lawyers “about their legal chops” and expressed concern that they don’t have the experience to try such a complex case, the New York Daily News reports. If public defenders were representing Aron, Firetog said, he would have assigned ones with more experience.
Aron is represented by Pierre Bazile, who once assisted as a lawyer in a murder trial, and Jennifer McCann, who has tried six cases, none of them homicides. McCann specializes in insanity defense pleas, the New York Times reports.
Firetog scolded the lawyers for complaining about press coverage of the case after giving media interviews and posting comments on Facebook. He even chastised the lawyers for misspelling “canon” in a reference to ethics, the Times says. “Two N’s means a cannon that shoots at something,” he said.
Aron is accused of kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, who got lost as he walked home from camp. A former defense lawyer quit the case, saying his emotional reaction to the crime made it too difficult to represent the defendant.

Panel Seeks Disbarment of Harvard Law Grad and Ex-BigLaw Partner Who Lied on Child’s School Aid App
Posted Aug 23, 2011 7:11 PM CDT
By Martha Neil

Things went from bad to worse for a Harvard Law School graduate who lost his job at a BigLaw firm in 1991 and subsequently lied about family income on a Chicago private school application so that his daughter would get financial aid there.
Somehow, Illinois attorney discipline authorities got wind of the income misrepresentations, which were deemed to have been admitted because of Bruce Paul Golden's conduct concerning the ethics matter.
Then, after he reportedly dodged service of the ethics complaint, filed frivolous pleadings, unleashed his anger on opposing counsel and others during a hearing and "continually blamed others for everything wrong in his life," a hearing board of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission recommended in a report (PDF) today that Golden be disbarred.
Golden, who may be in the midst of a divorce, according to the report, displayed "behavior and demeanor in person at the hearing [that] convinces us he is unable to represent another person and should not be permitted to practice law," the board writes. "Based on our observations of respondent, we are convinced our duty to protect the public requires us to recommend disbarment."
Saying that Golden, who testified that he is a 1969 graduate of Harvard Law School and worked for over 20 years at McDermott Will & Emery, should be well aware of how to practice law, the panel concluded that he is unable or unwilling to do so. "From the earliest stages of this case, respondent behaved in a manner which is totally unacceptable for a practicing attorney," the board states in the report.
Efforts by the ABA Journal to reach Golden at several Chicago numbers listed for a Bruce P. Golden were unsuccessful.

Associate Who ‘Closed’ Files of Law Firm Clients He Wanted for His Future Solo Practice is Disbarred
Posted Aug 19, 2011 11:43 AM CDT
By Martha Neil

In a 4-3 decision, a divided Maryland appeals court today ordered the disbarment of a young personal injury attorney who admittedly altered client records in the computer system of the law firm for which he then worked as an associate, in order to facilitate his plan to take the clients with him when he opened his own solo practice.
Gregory Raymond Keiner argued that his alcohol dependence and depression, as well as an otherwise clean disciplinary history and his efforts to resolve his personal problems and rectify the situation, called for a lesser penalty. But the Maryland Court of Appeals held (PDF) that disbarment was appropriate where "respondent's conduct was dishonest, it was intentional, and it was solely motivated by the desire for personal gain."
Planning to open his own solo practice, in order to increase his earnings from the $268,700 he made at Law Offices of Evan K. Thalenberg as of 2008, the 2002 bar admittee came up with a scheme to take some matters with him secretly, according to the opinion.
Keiner, whose practice focused on lead paint cases, altered some blood test results in the Thalenberg firm's records, to make it appear that clients didn't have strong cases, and put letters in the firm's computer system "closing" the files. Meanwhile, he planned to file complaints on the clients' behalf himself, once he opened his own law office, a Howard County Circuit Court judge assigned to make factual and legal conclusions determined.
While there was nothing wrong with Keiner's ambition to be more successful, his alteration of the firm's electronic records was criminal under Maryland law, Circuit Judge Timothy McCrone found. He also said Keiner had misappropriated Thalenberg firm resources while working to establish his own practice.
Thus, "given respondent’s intentional dishonest misconduct, motivated exclusively by his desire for personal gain, the totality of the mitigation respondent has proven does not constitute the 'compelling extenuating circumstances' necessary to permit a sanction less than disbarment," the appeals court majority held.
A brief dissent says suspending Keiner's license for an indefinite period of time would be more consistent with prior attorney discipline cases in the state.