La. Lawyer Rapped for Filing Libel Suit Over Ethics Case Against Client Attorney
Rejecting a recommendation for harsher discipline, the Louisiana Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded attorney Craig Mordock, saying that he violated legal ethics rules by filing a libel suit on behalf of a client who is also an attorney.
Because the libel suit was based on statements made in an individual’s attorney disciplinary complaint against Mordock’s client, Ramon Fonseca Jr., the court found that Mordock himself violated legal ethics rules by filing the defamation case, reports the National Law Journal. The article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board said in a 2006 opinion concerning Mordock that filing defamation claims on this basis has a chilling effect on clients who bring attorney disciplinary complaints against their lawyers, the article notes.
However, the supreme court rejected the board’s recommendation for a six-month suspension, saying that the young attorney had only been in practice for three years and had no prior disciplinary record. (Mordock is not the well-known Bingham McCutchen partner of the same name, the article adds.)
In the underlying case, Fonseca represented Valerie Tabor in a custody dispute with her ex-husband, Cornelius Tabor, before Fonseca eventually withdrew from the representation after having an affair with his client. Meanwhile, Cornelius Tabor made an attorney disciplinary complaint against Fonseca alleging intentional misconduct and abuse of process.
Fonseca and his former client are now married, the legal publication says.
Says Mordock: “I can get on with my life now. It’s been eating me up for the last four years.”
Updated on June 24 to eliminate reference to attorney-client privilege and add information about chilling effect finding.
