The Connecticut Legal Profession is Destroying its Mission
June 24, 2024
Many people do not realize that professionals – doctors, lawyers, accountants etc. – must be approved by professional societies to function. This is especially true of lawyers. Each state, including Connecticut, has a Bar Association (CBA) that administers a test that all lawyers must pass.
For all practical purposes, you cannot function as a lawyer unless you are a member of the Connecticut Bar. No firm will employ you long term. Judges will not take you seriously. No client in his right mind will hire you. In other words, a Connecticut lawyer must be a member of the bar if he or she wants to put food on the table.
The CBA can recommend disbarment to the Superior Court (who has the right to disbar lawyers) for misconduct such as embezzling a client’s money, perjury etc.
We can now add another crime that risks disbarment: Questioning the verdicts against Donald Trump. The CBA just issued the following ominous statement:
Words matter. Reckless words attacking the integrity of our judicial system matter even more.
In the wake of the recent trial and conviction of former President Donald Trump, public officials have issued statements claiming that the trial was a “sham,” a “hoax,” and “rigged”; our justice system is “corrupt and rigged”; the judge was “corrupt” and “highly unethical”; and, that the jury was “partisan” and “precooked.” Others claimed the trial was “America’s first communist show trial”—a reference to historic purges of high-ranking communist officials that were used to eliminate political threats.
These claims are unsubstantiated and reckless….
To be clear, free speech includes criticism. There is and should be no prohibition on commenting on the decision to bring the prosecution, the prosecution’s legal theory, the judge’s rulings, or the verdict itself. But headlines’ grabbing, baseless allegations made by public officials cross the line from criticism to dangerous rhetoric. They have no place in the public discourse.
It is up to us, as lawyers, to defend the courts and our judges. As individuals, and as an Association, we cannot let the charged political climate in which we live dismantle the third branch of government. To remain silent renders us complicit in that effort (my emphasis)
Respect for the judicial system is essential to our democracy. The CBA condemns unsupported attacks on the integrity of that system.
Translation: Any Connecticut lawyer who questions the verdicts against Trump risks being disbarred. The First Amendment be damned.
How can this happen? The skeptical reader has only to witness the treatment of John Eastman who represented President Trump when he questioned the results of the 2020 election.
It is a bedrock of the American legal system that all citizens – whether they be axe murderers, pedophiles or wife beaters – have a right to adequate counsel and be judged by their peers. Even when these individuals are found guilty of heinous crimes, their lawyers are never disbarred. The lawyers who represent these people try to get their clients the best deal possible. This is the American legal system.
But not if you represent President Trump, a former president. Eastman was disbarred by the liberal California Bar Association. This is a first in American history.
And where was the CBA when Eastman was disbarred? Nowhere to be heard.
Where was the CBA when thugs were threatening Supreme Court justices over the impending reversal of Roe v Wade (the decision that legalized abortion in 1973). Nowhere to be found.
Does the CBA honestly believe that NY prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s bullying of Trump with the legal system is legitimate even though he just refused to prosecute Columbia students who took over a building, trashed it, kidnapped a janitor and assaulted Jewish students?
Several years ago, Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven people of Jewish faith. One of them was Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz.
Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, a congregant at the Tree of Life Synagogue was murdered in the attack. His murderer’s life was saved by a team led by Dr. Jeff Cohen, who is also a member of the synagogue.
When the police arrived, they shot Bowers several times and he was then rushed to Allegheny General Hospital where his life was saved by a medical team, lead by Dr. Jeff Cohen. Not only is Dr. Cohen Jewish, but he is also a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue.
The medical profession did not castigate Dr. Cohen for saving this murderous psychopath’s life. In fact, he was also lionized. We doctors were proud of him. He exemplified the nobility of our profession. As Dr. Cohen said himself: “My job isn’t to judge him … my job is to care for him…He’s some mother’s son.”
The CBA should think long and hard before it discards the First Amendment and insists that a lawyer cannot question a judicial procedure or ruling. And the CBA must condemn the disbarring of John Eastman for representing an unpopular client such as Donald Trump.
While lawyers are not always the most popular members of society, they are perceived by the public as fierce advocates for their clients once hired. But if the CBA persists in politicizing the judicial system, the legal profession will suffer tremendously in the long run – and more importantly, so will the rights of the accused.
Follow Dr. Bentivegna on Twitter (X) @joebentivegnamd
Comment: jfbentivegna@gmail.com
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