William met Betty (not her real name) in 2008. They began to express “romantic feelings” for one another. Both are consenting adults no problem, right? Wrong. William was Betty’s attorney when they started having ”romantic feelings”. Any guesses on what legal issue Betty was seeing William about? If you guessed divorce you are correct.
In May of 2008 William and Betty began to exchange sexual emails and telephone calls. At some point in time the two had a sexual encounter that took place in Betty’s car. Their sexual relationship ended in September of 2008. After the relationship ended, William continued to represent Betty until; she terminated his services in July of 2009.
William was admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1987 and I am pretty sure that the practice of having a sexual relationship with someone after they became a client was unethical back then as it is today. So how do you reprimand an attorney for having a consensual sexual relationship with another adult? Apparently that would depend on whether or not the attorney had been reprimanded before. William had not been reprimanded before so he was publicly reprimanded. Case Closed.
William should have remained professional. Yes, I do understand how feelings can develop however; the legal profession is held to a higher standard. He should have excused himself from the case. The fee he earned could not have been worth all this trouble.
ReplyDelete