A lot can happen over the span of a legal career. It wouldn’t even be unheard of for a lawyer or judge to be reminded of a matter or case, long forgotten, that they were a key actor in. Memory’s imperfections are usually cured by a gentle, “Hey, do you remember back when [XYZ] happened?” If the call to recollect comes with a little more gravitas, say you had to submit an accurate campaign finance report because you wanted to run for office, failing to accurately recall can come with some serious consequences — like disbarment. Law.com has the story:
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday disbarred a former Miami-Dade County judge from the practice of law over his “clear and deliberate pattern of dishonesty to advance his own interests.”
In the 37-page order, the state Supreme Court ruled that Miguel “Mike” Mirabal repeatedly certified campaign finance reports he knew were false, made material misrepresentations and omissions in his application to fill a judicial vacancy with the judicial nominating commission, and committed misconduct during his disciplinary proceedings.
…
As far as the JNC application, in response to the question of whether Mirabal had “ever been a party to a lawsuit either as a plaintiff or as a defendant,” Mirabal failed to list six lawsuits in which he was a party.
Who does this guy think he is? Clarence Thomas? Legitimacy is an anchoring condition of possibility for a judiciary to function meaningfully in a democracy — not that we’re in one — but as long as we pretend to be, we have to at least pay lip service to the notion that our public servants are honest and aren’t putting their private interests above their vocation’s calling. I mean they are, but hey, optics. As addressed earlier, forgetting is human, but if all of the cases you forgot happened to be ones where it makes you look bad, forgetting looks a lot more like hiding. Nobody wants that guy on a soapbox gavel banging about how wrong other people are.
Good luck in another career!
Ex-Miami Judge Disbarred for Professional Misconduct [Law.com]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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