Bar admission denied for law grad who used letter of recommendation he won in legal settlement
The top court in Massachusetts has denied bar admission for a would-be lawyer who supported his application with a lawyer’s letter of recommendation written as a result of a legal settlement.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied admission to Randy Britton in an April 30 opinion (PDF), the Legal Profession Blog reports.
The lawyer who wrote the required recommendation had obtained a criminal complaint against Britton, and Britton had sued the lawyer, according to the supreme judicial court’s decision. The criminal complaint was dismissed with an order that Britton pay restitution, while the civil matter was resolved under terms that required the lawyer to write a positive letter of recommendation for Britton.
In his application, Britton said the lawyer wrote the letter to help “minimize the damage he has done.” The Board of Bar Examiners had found Britton misled it about the nature of the recommendation.
Britton also failed to accurately disclose two past criminal charges, though neither resulted in a conviction, according to findings by the Board of Bar Examiners. He also failed to disclose a civil complaint he filed challenging denial of a license to own assault weapons, bar examiners found.
The bar examiners also found Britton “has a substantial history of initiating pro se legal actions, the majority of which have been unsuccessful, and some of which have resulted in sanctions or an order to pay restitution,” the opinion said.
