Unilaterally rejecting settlement offers in a client’s case, acting with borderline malice toward opposing counsel, and demonstrating “pervasive incivility” cost one Washington, D.C.-area attorney his law license.

According to the recently released FY22 sanctions list from the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, Montgomery County attorney Ernest Francis ran seriously afoul of ethics rules in representing a man in a Virginia-based debt collection case in which a federal magistrate judge reported him.