A five-judge panel’s decision to indefinitely suspend Rudy Giuliani from the practice of law, which came one day short of the ex-New York City mayor’s 52nd anniversary as a lawyer, was as remarkable as it was anticipated.

But the 33-page opinion from the Appellate Division, First Department was only the beginning of a process for Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District, lawyers noted, even as the New York State Bar Association removed him from its roll of members.