In re Leslie Arnold Thompson , 195 A.3d 64 ( 2018 )

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
No. 18-BG-508
IN RE LESLIE ARNOLD THOMPSON, RESPONDENT.
A Suspended Member of the Bar
of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
(Bar Registration No. 473388)
On Report and Recommendation
of the Board on Professional Responsibility
(BDN 201-15)
(Decided October 18, 2018)
Before FISHER and THOMPSON, Associate Judges, and NEBEKER, Senior
Judge.
PER CURIAM: The Board on Professional Responsibility concurred with the
Ad Hoc Hearing Committee’s findings that respondent Leslie Arnold Thompson
had violated Rule 8.4 (d) of the District of Columbia Rules of Professional
Conduct and D.C. Bar R. XI, § 2 (b)(3) because he “delayed in responding to
Disciplinary Counsel’s inquiry letter regarding a disciplinary complaint, failed to
respond to a subpoena duces tecum for his client file and his financial records, and
failed to comply with a [c]ourt order compelling him to respond to Disciplinary
Counsel’s subpoena.” The Board also agreed that respondent should be suspended
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for thirty days. However, unlike the Committee, the Board recommended that
respondent be required to show fitness as a condition for reinstatement to the
practice of law.
A key reason the Hearing Committee did not recommend a fitness
requirement was that respondent’s misconduct occurred in a single matter.
However, on December 21, 2017, respondent was temporarily suspended pursuant
to D.C. Bar R. XI, § 3 (c) after he failed to respond to Disciplinary Counsel’s
requests for information in a separate disciplinary investigation. The Board noted
that this suspension was not known when the Committee issued its report and that
“[t]he premise on which the Hearing Committee based its analysis has been
overcome by events.” The Board found that it could consider this new fact and
that the repetitive nature of respondent’s misconduct provided clear and
convincing evidence that cast a serious doubt upon respondent’s continuing fitness
to practice law. See, e.g., In re Guberman, 978 A.2d 200 (D.C. 2009); In re Cater,
887 A.2d 1 (D.C. 2005).
Under D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9 (h)(2), “if no exceptions are filed to the Board’s
report, the [c]ourt will enter an order imposing the discipline recommended by the
Board upon the expiration of the time permitted for filing exceptions.” See also
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In re Viehe, 762 A.2d 542, 543 (D.C. 2000) (“When . . . there are no exceptions to
the Board’s report and recommendation, our deferential standard of review
becomes even more deferential.”). Mr. Thompson has not participated in any
phase of this disciplinary action, and he has failed to file either a response to the
court’s order to show cause or exceptions to the Board’s Report and
Recommendation. We therefore consider the underlying factual findings to be
uncontested. The record supports the findings of misconduct accepted by the
Board, and we discern no reason to depart from the Board’s recommendation to
impose a thirty-day suspension with a fitness requirement.
Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that Leslie Arnold Thompson is hereby suspended from the
practice of law in the District of Columbia for thirty days and his reinstatement is
conditioned on a showing of fitness. For purposes of reinstatement the period of
respondent’s suspension will not begin to run until such time as he files an
affidavit that complies with D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (g).
So ordered.