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Cleveland Attorney Suspended for Two Years
2006-0784. Cuyahoga Cty. Bar Assn. v. Paulson, 2006-Ohio-5859.
On Certified Report by the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline, No. 05-051. Steven Lewis Paulson, Attorney Registration No. 0030044, is suspended from the practice of law in Ohio for two years.
Resnick, Pfeifer, Lundberg Stratton, O'Donnell and Lanzinger, JJ., concur.
Moyer, C.J., and O'Connor, J., dissent.
Opinion: http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov/rod/newpdf/0/2006/2006-Ohio-5859.pdf
(Nov. 29, 2006) The Supreme Court of Ohio has suspended the law license of Cleveland attorney Steven Lewis Paulson for two years for professional misconduct arising from his representation of a client in a federal civil rights case.
The Court adopted findings by the Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline that Paulson improperly entered into a settlement agreement dismissing all of client Judy Bobonik's claims against her former employer when he was not authorized to do so, then failed to provide a copy of the court order dismissing her claims and other materials to another attorney despite Bobonik's request that he do so. The board also found that Paulson filed an appeal on behalf of Bobonik with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, but failed to file a brief in support of that appeal within the mandatory deadline.
Bobonik subsequently terminated her professional relationship with Paulson and requested that he forward her case file to a successor attorney, but he failed to do so and then did not reply to her repeated attempts to contact him by phone and email. Paulson also failed to respond to attempts to contact him by a Cuyahoga County Bar Association investigator, and did not file an answer when he was served with a formal disciplinary complaint by the board of commissioners.
In light of his failure to respond, the board initiated default proceedings against Paulson and concluded that his conduct was in violation of the state attorney discipline rules that prohibit neglect of an entrusted legal matter; conduct involving fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation; conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and handling a legal matter without adequate preparation. The board also found a violation of the state bar governance rule that requires attorneys to cooperate with and assist in a disciplinary investigation.
In today's 5-2 per curiam decision, the Court adopted all of the board's findings and conclusions, and agreed that the appropriate sanction for Paulson's misconduct was a two-year license suspension. The majority opinion was joined by Justices Alice Robie Resnick, Paul E. Pfeifer, Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Terrence O'Donnell and Judith Ann Lanzinger.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer entered a dissent, joined by Justice Maureen O'Connor, stating that he would impose an indefinite suspension based on past holdings by the Court that this more severe sanction is “especially fitting … where neglect of a legal matter is coupled with a failure to cooperate in the ensuing disciplinary investigation.”
Contacts
David Paris, 216.621.2300, for the
Cuyahoga County Bar Association.
Steven L. Paulson, 216.431.5297.
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