Lawyers Slapped for Paying Revenue-Based Bonuses to Staffers
The New Jersey Supreme Court has opted for disciplinary probation rather than a license suspension in the case of three lawyers who shared legal fees with office employees.
The court chose the lighter punishment because the lawyers had no prior discipline and because of an “extraordinary delay” in resolving the case, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.
The lawyers’ Cherry Hill law firm—Tomar, Simonoff, Adourian, O’Brien, Kaplan, Jacoby & Graziano—had based the compensation of an office administrator and other employees on firm revenues, according to evidence in the case. Former managing partner Ronald Graziano and ex-litigator Michael Kaplan had argued the payments were bonuses rather than improper referral fees.
The Disciplinary Review Board had recommended one-year suspensions for Graziano and Kaplan and a six-month suspension for litigator Charles Riley, the story says.
