Maryland denies admission for delay in disclosure of DWI

Yet another wake up call for students. (See previous ones here, here and here.) The Maryland Court of Appeals recently denied admission to a lawyer who did not disclose a DWI arrest and conviction until after he passed the bar exam. The case is In re Strzempek, Md., available here. The court said that the lawyer's failure to amend his bar application and come clean during his character committee interview showed a lack of candor that torpedoed his effort to prove that he had the good moral character to practice law in Maryland. The court did give credit to the lawyer's statement that he did not come forward sooner because it would have all been moot if he did not pass the Maryland bar examination. The court found that it is not the choice of a candidate for admission whether to disclose and under what conditions.