Do lawyers ever get minor convictions against them?

Factual Questions
21

[QUOTE=NicePete]
Parking/speeding tickets are not considered at all.
[/QUOTE]

Washington state asked me to list every parking ticket I had ever received on my bar application. Apparently they don’t understand the concept out here that parking tickets are just a routine monthly expense in Massachusetts. (I ended up listing the dates that I had routinely lived and parked in particular jurisdictions, with some notation like “multiple parking tickets, all paid in full,” and no one ever brought it up as far as I know.)

22

Bricker: Shouldn’t that have been a charge of theft of services, instead of being one for shoplifting?

23

[QUOTE=Walloon]
Wisconsin may be the only state in which being a convicted felon does not disqualify an attorney from being a member of the state bar.
[/QUOTE]

Am I misremembering, or haven’t their been cases in the U.S. of lomg-time prisoners earning their J.D.'s behind bars? And then passing the bar … or no?

24

[QUOTE=Monty]
Bricker: Shouldn’t that have been a charge of theft of services, instead of being one for shoplifting?
[/QUOTE]

Well, the officers ciited him for shoplifting, so that’s the charge he had to defend against. I’m not sure of the elements of a “theft of services” charge in New Jersey, or whether his conduct might have fallen under it – it seems much more likely than “shoplifting,” though, I grant.

25

[QUOTE=Bricker]
Well, the officers ciited him for shoplifting, so that’s the charge he had to defend against. I’m not sure of the elements of a “theft of services” charge in New Jersey, or whether his conduct might have fallen under it – it seems much more likely than “shoplifting,” though, I grant.
[/QUOTE]

Possible, although Bricker rightly points out that he wasn’t charged with it.

http://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=121445&Depth=2&depth=2&expandheadings=on&headingswithhits=on&hitsperheading=on&infobase=statutes.nfo&record={1718}&softpage=Doc_Frame_PG42

Sounds like either:

  1. The prosecution screwed up and mis-charged him; or
  2. It’s not a crime in New Jersey to avoid a lien by walking off with the property. What would happen, for instance, if you showed up at a car repair shop after they’d completed a repair and, using a spare key, drove off with your car? Is that not a crime? Cf, 2C:21-12. http://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=121445&Depth=2&depth=2&expandheadings=on&headingswithhits=on&hitsperheading=on&infobase=statutes.nfo&record={178F}&softpage=Doc_Frame_PG42 ; or
  3. Both.
26

[QUOTE=bordelond]
Am I misremembering, or haven’t their been cases in the U.S. of lomg-time prisoners earning their J.D.'s behind bars? And then passing the bar … or no?
[/QUOTE]

I doubt that there are any cases of prisoners earning their J.D. while still imprisoned, but a law school classmate of mine had been convicted of a felony and served time as a young man. While in prison, he got his GED and took some college courses (I don’t recall whether he completed college while imprisoned), and also worked as a paralegal in the prison library. After getting out, he eventually went to law school, where he was on law review, and after graduation he clerked for a federal judge. After some searching review by the character and fitness committe, he was admitted to the New York bar. I understand, however, that this is somewhat unusual.

A buddy of mine from my first law firm had a DUI on his record from college. He was required to submit complete documentation of the offense/conviction, and the character committee gave him a bit of a hard time, but it wasn’t a huge problem for him.