The demonization of attorneys continues unabated. Recently, the New York Post reported on Matter of Wiesner,1 about an individual who, 22 years after imprisonment for serious crimes, 17 years after passing the New York State bar exam and numerous failed applications, was finally admitted to legal practice. The headline read, “Crook Demoted to Lawyer: Ex-con makes NY Bar.”2
The article detailed the applicant’s criminality—attempted murder, burglary, unlawful imprisonment, weapons charges and illegal drug distribution and drew its bleakly comical conclusion. He broke the law in serious fashion; he served time in prison; he is now admitted to practice the very law he so egregiously broke. Crook and counselor, brother ducks, joined in the pond of the disreputable.
