The D.C. Court of Appeals handed down eight disciplinary opinions today, including one that clarifies the standard used by the court when an attorney is found to have intentionally misappropriated client funds. While most of today’s opinions were reciprocal matters, in one case a three-judge panel determined for the first time since 1990 that an attorney’s intentional misappropriations of client funds did not require disbarment.
The court’s 21-page opinion in In re Willie N. Hewett determined that Hewett’s conduct met the standard laid out in the court’s 1990 en banc decision in In re Addams for an “extraordinary circumstances” exception to the presumptive discipline of disbarment for intentional misappropriation.
