A lawyer who shielded a client’s assets from the other spouse in a divorce proceeding and then used them himself should be suspended for three years but not disbarred, the Disciplinary Review Board recommended on Oct. 25.

The 5-3 majority of the divided board saw Neil Malvone’s relationship with the client as an illegitimate enterprise, not a lawyer-client bond, and as such “the lawyer would be guilty of theft from the true owner, but not of knowing misappropriation.”