What You Do, On Your Way Out of the Door--Karma Ghosts

This video has played a major symbolic role in my understanding of my current situation and it has helped me organize my thinking about justice.  The reporting about a disciplinary case, and the story I published yesterday, about the lawyer caught stealing from the blind vendor brought the clip to mind, once again.  If you have never seen it, it takes about 6 minutes, but it will stick with you.

The Legal Profession blawg (as I've said on many occasions, an invaluable resource) had this link to a disciplinary case opinion from the Commonwealth of Virginia relating to a public reprimand issued vis-a-vis the outgoing Attorney for Floyd County, Va.  Former County Attorney Gordon Hannett, Jr. trashed several computer hard drives belonging presumably to the citizens of Floyd County on his way out of office. 

Obviously, most attorneys who've practiced for anytime know of situations where attorneys engage in the most juvenile behavior, generally, as I've demonstrated with extreme clarity over the last year; but, especially so, (for some) when departing from former practices.  This usually is manifest in extremely ill-advised litigation versus former partners, associates, law firms, and employers; but this vandalizing of property is so unbelievably childish that it's refreshing to see someone get whacked by the disciplinary authorities. 

In OurCounty the number of lawsuits among former law partners could fill a volume or two "reporters," although I haven't seen a hard copy "reporter" in quite a while come to think of it.  Father against son, son against father, cousins suing cousins, Big Law suing departing practice groups, associates suing former firms on various aspirational theories.  The BSL (my wife, the Blond Super Lawyer) and I were sued for fraud, etceterra, following the break up of the BSL's law practice by a former associate employee and the BSL's former law partner.  That law suit settled last week for nickels after two and half years of pre-trial hearings. 

The problem with the post-law firm break up litigation is that it accomplishes, nothing;  the litigation distracts from everything, especially representing clients and making a living;  and, when the fact of the litigation becomes well-known within the practice-area of any given region, the folks initiating the lawsuit are forever after mistrusted, unless there was some really compelling justification.  And even then who wants to work with someone who is going to sue you afterwards?  Just because you can wreck havoc, don't wreck havoc--no one will trust you; no one wants to do future business with you; no one will sympathize with you.  I realize I am repeating myself, but these are hard life lessons learned--learn these lessons at my expense. 

Now having spent years being sued into a turnip I genuinely have no animosity.

Did I call my wife's former coleagues names?  Not going to happen.  In fact, from the bottom of my heart I wish them peace, prosperity and joy. 

These lawyers initiated the reporting of my tax offenses to the IRS, as well as my escrow account practices to the OurState disciplinary counsel.  While I am going to go to prison for several months, and I have temporarily (?) lost my license to practice law, these lawyers saved my sanity and possibly my life.  I am sober.  My head is held high.  I've spent the last year and a half helping myself and others and conducting a pretty thorough inventory of character defects which if you have followed the Bad Lawyer blawg--you can read for yourself.  My wife's former colleagues did not cause my fall, they did not commit my ethical lapses or my tax offenses.  I did.  In fact, these former associates did have an obligation under the rules of professional responsibility to report what they perceived to be my offenses.  At great personal karmic cost to their reputations among the lawyers we intimately practiced together with for nearly 3 decades, these former colleagues, blew the whistle. 

Someday I will have completely paid the price for what I did.  Someday the BSL may re-emerge from our crushing debt.  But these guys who went out the door, my sense is that they are haunted by karma ghosts.

Seminole Fla.- Area Attorney Caught On Tape Vandalizing Client's Home

This story from the Orlando Sentinel is pretty obnoxious placing me in mind of the story form last year of the baseball bat-wielding maniac lawyer from Charleston, W. Va. that we featured on Bad Lawyer last year.   This narcissitic creep is caught on video tape vandalizing a client's home apparently over a fee dispute and bar complaint--that the angry lawyer prevailed over!  Here's the reporter Jeff Weiner' Sentinel story (where you can also watch the amazing video):

"A Longwood (Seminole County, Fla) lawyer arrested on charges of burglarizing the home of a former client taunted his victim with several text messages threatening 'all out war,' according to a Lake Mary police report released Friday.

Albert E. Ford II, 43, who specializes in environmental and land-use issues, and Kasee Singh, who has owned realty, development and title companies, were locked in a dispute over fees, documents show. Singh filed a complaint in April with The Florida Bar. The group on July 13 informed Singh that his complaint was being dismissed because Ford's fees were not excessive or fraudulent. The Bar told Singh he was free to sue Ford if he wanted to pursue the matter. Messages left for Singh were not returned. Ford's attorney could not be immediately reached.

Among the Bar documents released Friday was a Feb. 25 e-mail to Ford from Singh demanding payment and stating that his 'former friend' owed more than $20,000.

'Well, you, sir, have proven to be a no good liar and I will be compensated for my work one way or another,' Ford wrote, adding he would win a lawsuit against Singh so 'the entire community knows what a sleazy, no good, deceitful jerk that you are.'

Ford remained in the Seminole County Jail late Friday on charges of armed burglary to a dwelling, grand theft, burglary to an occupied dwelling and damaging property-criminal mischief.  Police say Ford is the man shown on security video burglarizing Singh's Lake Mary house Wednesday. He was arrested Thursday at his home, also in Lake Mary.

The armed burglary charge apparently was lodged after Singh told police that he found ammunition and gun parts near his garage. They were taken into evidence. Singh told officers he arrived home from work to find damage to his house and pool. He also showed police several messages in which Ford offered a 'last warning' and referred to Singh as a 'weak puppy,' the police report shows.

'I declare all out war against you,' wrote Ford in the first message, received by Singh at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to the report. 'I warned you against trying to go after my livelihood. This is your last warning.' In two other messages in the report received minutes after the incident, Ford asks Singh, 'Why are you so weak' and taunts, 'What's up weak puppy.'

Video and still photos released by police show a man driving up to Singh's house in a black pickup at 5:19 p.m. Wednesday, going to the front door, then walking around back and entering a pool enclosure.

Police say Ford broke the front doorbell, kicked a concrete bench into the pool and removed a pool tank and filter and canister on the side of the house near the pool. The filter and canister were found nearby.

In the video, the man, who was accompanied by a black dog — possibly a Labrador retriever — jiggles a large American flag in front of the house till it dislodges from its holder. He tosses the flag into the bed of his truck along with the tank and filter, then drives off with the dog in the pickup bed, too. Singh showed police three .380-caliber rounds and pieces of a gun he said he found near his garage along with broken glass from a shattered light, the report says. Before he was arrested, the report states, assistants at Ford's law firm told authorities that Ford often carried a gun.

Ford graduated from Tulane University Law School in 1995 and was admitted to The Florida Bar the same year. The Bar website has no record of discipline against him during the past 10 years."

W-A-S-H M-E

Charles Vranich pled guilty to scrawling "dirty words" on a Pennsylvania State Fish and Boat Control vehicle that had stopped for gas.  The Sharon, Pa. Herald reports as follows:

A South Pymatuning Township man has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for writing an obscenity in the dirty cap of a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission vehicle.  Charles J. Vranich, 33, of 4080 Wynwood Drive, was fined $50 and costs by District Judge Ronald E. Antos, Farrell.  Two commission officers said they were getting gasoline at 12:25 p.m. Sept. 11 at Sheetz, 2381 S. Hermitage Road, when they discovered the writing, which they said “defaced” the vehicle and resulted in a .physically offensive condition.' 

A more serious charge of vandalism was dropped in  exchange for this plea.