Attorney Misconduct is an actual thing – and a large problem in the United States. This type of a misconduct deals with a higher authority figure, like a lawyer, doing seedy things like accepting bribes, coercing testimonies, even offering sexual advances to help someone with a case or win a case. It’s a sad world that we live in, when we have to deal with something as bad as Attorney Misconduct because a lawyer is essentially someone we are supposed to trust; someone that is supposed to look out for us and help us in a situation that we may be in. If you’ve ever wondered about what Attorney Misconduct means exactly or you wanted some real life news stories, this is the article for you! Below, we will be discussing news stories from the past few months that have been going on that revolve around misconduct and attorneys.
Attorney Charged With Misconduct in Alleged Bribery
In this specific case, a lawyer named Gerald Smith is guilty of several accounts of alleged bribery. One specific example is when Gerald Smith was handling a case, and got hired on by a client. He told the client that he not only needed his usual fee, but an extra fee in which he would donate to former Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge Edward Zaleski and former Amherst Police Chief Lonnie Dillon. Smith actually did not donate anything to anyone and instead kept this fee for himself. Robert Gonzalez, who hired Smith to be his lawyer, was told by Smith that the fee would go up to $50,000 and that the reason behind this is because it was an embarrassment to the Amherst Police Station and it was essentially a high profile case. Gerald Smith told Gonzalez that part of the $50,000 would go to Judge Zaleski and the other half would go to Dillon – neither however received the money and neither were involved in this scam. When Gonzalez asked Smith if this was considered bribery, Smith said no; that is often done in big cases such as this one.
Lawyer Banned From Representing Women
Oh boy, this is a pretty crazy news story. This one has to do with a lawyer named Ira Mayo. Ira was caught making sexual advances and bribery via sexual misconduct to female clients. When he was caught he was given a lifetime ban on representing ANY and ALL female clients. This story, of course goes much deeper, but long story short Ira Mayo made sexual advances to several different women he was representing. Essentially it came down to this; get disbarred for five years OR a lifetime ban on representing all women. He of course did not follow through with the plea and is now in deeper water because he kept on representing women anyway, even though he was told not to. Something tells me this guy is going to end up being disbarred for life if he keeps this up!
Lawyer Accused of Hypnotizing Clients into Sex Acts
Hypnosis is one of those things that is supposed to be beneficial. It can help people to stop smoking, sleep better, remember things that happened from their childhood that they blocked out, etc. But, one lawyer may have used hypnosis for something much more demoralizing – sex acts. Michael Fine was said to be allegedly hypnotizing his clients into sex acts. Various women came forward claiming that they either had disheveled clothes while the meeting was over – and not remembering what happened, or the entire conversation in itself was a blank. Wow, way to go guy! Not only is this a bad attorney and a great example of attorney misconduct, but this guy definitely dehumanized his clients. Definitely not something you want to hear about any lawyer doing. Thankfully the Supreme Court doesn’t fall for swinging pocket watches – they suspended Michael Fine immediately and he may never be able practice law again – unless he gets some serious help!
