The Appellate Division, First Department, on Thursday disbarred Manhattan attorney Nikia Way for failing to respond to a disciplinary investigation into allegations that she neglected client matters. The Departmental Disciplinary Committee began investigating Way after receiving a letter in October 2011 from Southern District Judge Denise Cote (See Profile), who said Way had failed to respond to her chambers' repeated efforts to contact her in a Social Security matter and had failed to appear for a mediation session and a pretrial conference.
In November 2011, the committee received letters from two of Way's clients, who said she stopped responding to them and appeared to have abandoned their cases. Way initially failed to respond to numerous attempts by the committee to contact her about the probe. She finally responded in early 2012, saying there had been a "misunderstanding" with another lawyer whom she said had agreed to take over all three cases at issue. However, she subsequently said she could not produce the case files in response to a subpoena because her apartment had been burglarized, and failed to appear for a deposition. Way did not respond to further attempts to contact her, and the First Department suspended her for failing to cooperate in October.
