Rudy Giuliani and the practice of law

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you know that Rudy Giuliani who is often labeled to be "a personal counsel to Donald Trump" has been in the news a lot lately and that his appearances on TV have generated a lot of commentary, and jokes.  From the Professional Responsibility perspective, here are a few interesting questions Giuliani's practice has generated:  

Is Giuliani practicing law to begin with?

There has been much discussion on whether Giuliani is acting as a lawyer or as a public relations spokesperson.  It is difficult to say because we don't know what is the content of the communications with Trump or Trump's team and what tasks he has been asked to perform specifically.  But I think it can be said that he is doing both. I don't think that making personal appearances and operating as a spokesperson for a client means one is not practicing law at the same time.  I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.  Yet, I am not so sure when it comes to taking a trip to Ukraine to meddle in an investigation, which he admitted to with those words!


Is Giuliani violating the rule regarding competence?  Is he incompetent as a lawyer?

Uf!  That's a tough one.  It is pretty clear he has committed some serious mistakes, during appearances on TV by contradicting himself, admitting to misconduct etc.  So, on the one hand, he had made mistakes, but whether those mistakes rise to the level of misconduct because of incompetence, I guess would depend on the quantity, frequency and severity of the mistakes.  I have not been keeping count, so I can't really offer an informed opinion.  I would be interested to hear if anyone has been keeping a record and what they have to say.


Is Giuliani threatening frivolous actions?

Earlier today Pro. Jonathan Turley posted, in part, that Giuliani suggested he was considering suing members of Congress over their impeachment efforts.  In response, Turley states:

Such a lawsuit would be frivolous and it is unsettling that Giuliani would put any credence into such fringe advice.

Calling the impeachment effort as “worse than McCarthy,” Giuliani revealed that he had sought legal advice on the issue: “I had a couple of talks with civil rights lawyers and a constitutional lawyer today and here’s what they’re recommending: that we should bring a lawsuit on behalf of the president and several of the people in the administration, maybe even myself as a lawyer, against the members of Congress individually for violating constitutional rights, violating civil rights.” 

In a long parade of uniquely bad ideas, this would be the final climax. First, the allegation of self-dealing in the Ukrainian call would be a valid basis for an article of impeachment. It would still have to be proven and there are defenses for any such trial that I have previously discussed. This would be viewed by a court as a facially legitimate inquiry. Second, courts do not second guess the House on such efforts. While there continues to be a debate over what might be reviewable in an impeachment proceeding, it is exceptionally unlikely that a court would seriously question this effort. 

The claim is that the impeachment interferes with a president’s inherent authority over foreign relations under Article II. That is facially frivolous.

Can Giuliani rely on attorney-client privilege to avoid Congressional testimony?

Giuliani has suggested that he is protected by attorney-client privilege in the impeachment inquiry by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.  There are a number of problems with this suggestion.

First of all, Giuliani can't be "protected" by the privilege.  The privilege protects information, not an individual, and the privilege belongs to the client who is the one who has the right to claim it.  Second, the privilege only covers communications between the attorney and the client which were shared for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, and if Giuliani is not practicing law (see above) or if the communications were related to tasks other than legal services, the privilege does not apply.  Third, the information provided to an attorney by people outside the attorney-client relationship (such as foreign leaders) may not be protected.

Often Giuliani sounds like he thinks that anything told to him is protected merely because he has a law degree.  If that's what he thinks, he does not understand the law (which may point to incompetence (see above)).

Fourth, it is not clear what information Congress has requested of Giuliani and, therefore, whether it is protected by the privilege.  It is possible, for example, that the information can be considered not privileged because of the crime-fraud exception.

For more on whether Giuliani claims of privilege are valid, go to the ABA Journal, and Above the Law.

Why did Rudy Giuliani concede that he made false and defamatory statements about the plaintiffs in a defamation case, thus conceding the elements of the claim?! -- UPDATED

 Last Tuesday Rudy Giuliani filed a two-page stipulation in a long-running defamation lawsuit by two Georgia election workers stating that he “does not contest” that his statements about the plaintiffs were “false” and “carry meaning that is defamatory.”  According to the reporting, Giuliani’s attorney added that Giuliani was not in fact “admitting” to the plaintiffs’ allegations against him but making a decision to stop contesting them, which he says should end the plaintiffs’ effort to seek further factual evidence – emails, text messages and other communications – from Giuliani.

Unfortunately for Giuliani, that’s not how anything works.

First of all, trying to make a distinction between conceding the allegations and not contesting them is nonsense.  You can’t have it both ways.  In the document, Giuliani conceded that he made the statements alleged in the complaint, that the statements were false and that they were defamatory per se.  That means he conceded all the elements of the cause of action. Period, end of story.  All Giuliani has left after that is arguing affirmative defenses.  And which ones are there?  I don’t see any.  

He apparently claims that either the statements were statements of opinion or that they were constitutionally protected.  Both arguments are wrong.  

Once he admits that the statements he made were “false” he has admitted they were not opinions.  By definition opinions can’t be true or false – that’s what distinguishes them from statements of fact.  But Giuliani has conceded they were statements of fact.  So that argument is out - he defeated it himself!  

The other possible argument – that the statements were constitutionally protected, is also flawed.  First, the notion of defamation is based on the doctrine that not all speech is protected and that if it is not protected, it can result in possible liability.  That’s what defamation law is all about.  So the question becomes whether the plaintiff can meet the standard needed to show that the speech is not protected and, therefore, should subject the defendant to liability.

On that, the doctrine has created different standards for different categories of plaintiffs.  If the plaintiff is a public official or a public figure, the plaintiff has to meet a higher standard because speech about them is more protected.  But the plaintiffs in this case were neither.  They were private persons performing a volunteer job as election officials.  I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think they were elected officials for that job, and they were not known celebrities before the elections and before Giuliani and others started accusing them of misconduct.  If I am correct in those assumptions, the plaintiffs in this case do not have to show actual malice on the part of the defendant and will have an easier time defeating the argument that the statements were constitutionally protected.   

Second, Giuliani can’t just say that he wants to end discovery because he does not want to disclose more information.  Discovery exists to allow the parties access to information and, as everyone knows, discovery is not limited to evidence that can be used at trial.  You can use discovery to get access to evidence that will likely lead to evidence that can be used at trial.  In this case, the plaintiffs may want to use discovery to determine if there are other potential defendants they can go after or to discover support for a claim for punitive damages, for example.

The fact Giuliani says he is conceding the elements of the claim to end the plaintiffs’ effort to seek further factual evidence just makes me wonder what he has that wants to hide so badly. 

And, further, defamation was not the only claim in this case.  The plaintiffs’ also sued for emotional distress which is a separate cause of action and they should have the right to continue discovery in order to get evidence related to that claim, which should include the evidence that Giuliani apparently does not want them to get access to.

For these reasons, it seems to me the decision to concede the elements of the defamation cause of action was not a very smart one.  It defeats one of his defenses, makes it easier for the plaintiffs to support their claim and should not stop discovery.

Finally, as an aside, I also can't imagine that publicly admitting that he lied in a way that caused so much injury to private individuals is going to help Giuliani's chances to avoid discipline in the various disciplinary proceedings he is facing.

For coverage of Giuliani's confession see Politico, NPR, MSNBC, The Guardian, The Hill, The Conversation and Above the Law.

UPDATE 8/9/23:  As expected, the judge did not buy it.  See here.

UPDATE: 9/3/23:  The Court has now entered a judgment by default against Giuliani and ordered him to pay attorneys' fees and other sanctions.  The case will now proceed to trial on the question of damages only which is likely to result in a very high verdict for the plaintiffs.  Go here for my post on this new development.

New York Court imposes interim suspension on Rudy Giuliani

 As I am sure you know by now, last week the First Judicial Department of the Courts in New York imposed an interim suspension on Rudy Giuliani for alleged violations of Rule 3.3(a), 4.1, and 8.4(c), all of which deal with dishonesty and makes false statements having found uncontroverted evidence that Giuliani communicated "demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer."  The court concluded that Giuliani's conduct warranted an interim suspension because the conduct "immediately threatens the public interest."  

Giuliani argued, first, that the investigation into his conduct violates his First Amendment right of free speech, and, second, that even if his statements were false, he did not make the statements knowing they were false when he made them.  The court rejected both arguments.  

Even though the court did not hold a hearing, the parties had the chance to file briefs to support their positions.  The court found that the disciplinary counsel met its burden to prove that Giuliani made false and misleading factual statements and then commented on whether Giuliani's argument demonstrated that there is some legitimate dispute about whether the statement is false or whether the statement was made by him without knowledge it was false.  The court concluded he did not. 

Conclusory or vague arguments will not create a controverted issue as to whether there has been misconduct. Consequently, once the AGC has established its prima facie case, respondent’s references to affidavits he has not provided, or sources of information he has not disclosed or other nebulous unspecified information, will not prevent the Court from concluding that misconduct has occurred

Evidently, Giuliani's "defense" followed the same tactics he used when making his claims of voter fraud.  He made assertions but provided no proof or credible evidence to support them.  Was he trying to prove that his original lies were not lies, by using more lies to "prove" it?  Who knows?   As the court explains,

In opposition to this motion, respondent refers to affidavits he has not provided. He also relies on a “confidential informant”. We do not understand, nor does respondent explain why, as a private attorney seemingly unconnected to law enforcement he would have access to a “confidential informant” that we cannot also have access to. At yet another point respondent claims he relies on a Trump attorney who chooses not to be identified. Respondent also refers to hundreds of witnesses, experts, and investigative reports, none of which have been provided or identified and an Excel spreadsheet, also not provided, purportedly listing the names of thousands of deceased voters who allegedly cast ballots in Michigan. [citations omitted.]

I think the allegations against Giuliani are supported by the alleged facts. In particular, I think there is enough proof to impose discipline for his conduct before tribunals and legislative bodies.  That is, proof that he engaged in frivolous litigation and that he engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.  

Having said that, let's talk about this "interim suspension" business.  Notice that the decision of the court is not to discipline Giuliani, but to prevent Giuliani from practicing law temporarily while the court decides whether to prevent him from practicing law permanently.  That's what an interim suspension means.  

This type of interim suspension is always a possibility; but it is rarely used for the type of conduct involved in this case.  More often it is used as a means to prevent harm (often imminent harm) to clients.

Knowing this, the court justified the interim suspension by claiming that Giuliani's conduct poses a risk to the public; the implication being that the public needs protection from Giuliani's lies.  Is that convincing?   Citing the “risk that respondent will continue to engage in future misconduct while this disciplinary proceeding is pending,” here is how the court justified it:

The hallmark of our democracy is predicated on free and fair elections. False statements intended to foment a loss of confidence in our elections and resulting loss of confidence in government generally damage the proper functioning of a free society. When those false statements are made by an attorney, it also erodes the public’s confidence in the integrity of attorneys admitted to our bar and damages the profession’s role as a crucial source of reliable information. It tarnishes the reputation of the entire legal profession and its mandate to act as a trusted and essential part of the machinery of justice. [Citations omitted.]

Is this convincing?  Consider this excerpt from an Op-ed in The Washington Post:

A New York appellate court has temporarily suspended former mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s law license, writing that he had made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large.” Just as lawyers who participated in the Watergate scandal were held to account, so too should former president Donald Trump’s lawyers pay a price if they engaged in illegal or unethical conduct. As this case continues, however, the disciplinary agency and courts should be careful not to chill lawyers’ political speech.

…

As the case goes forward, courts should think more deeply about the First Amendment question. It is unlikely that the public credits media personalities who are attorneys more than others, or that, when these attorneys are caught in lies, the public sees it as a reflection on the entire legal profession. It seems likely, for instance, that the harm from Giuliani’s lies resulted from his proximity to the former president rather than his status as a lawyer.

Lawyers have the right as private citizens to engage in political debate. This includes a right to lie about the government — not because lies are desirable, but because it is too dangerous to give the state the power to determine which statements are true or false when it comes to political speech. Robust political debate would be chilled because people would fear misspeaking. Efforts to expose government wrongdoing would be abandoned out of concern about retribution.

You should read the full opinion suspending Giuliani here.

Obviously, the opinion has gotten a lot of press coverage.  Here are some links: New York Times, Law & Crime, Courthouse News Service, Politico, NPR, Above the Law, The Guardian, Law & Crime (again), ABA Journal, and The Legal Profession Blog.

Judge dismisses Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceeding

July 12, 2024

Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane has dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, removing a shield that for six months froze two Georgia election workers’ efforts to collect their $148 million defamation judgment. In the ruling (available here), the judge commented on Giuliani’s “continued failure” to provide financial transparency. 

Giuliani's case involves the interests of the two Georgia election workers who won a defamation claim against him, in addition to those of Dominion Voting Systems, and Giuliani’s former assistant Noelle Dunphy. The latter two have pending lawsuits, while the Georgia workers have an enforceable judgment for many times the value of Giuliani’s assets. 

Because they’re not all going to get the money they seek from Giuliani, the ones with perfected claims would like to attach all his assets now.  Dominion and Dunphy have argued that the case should remain as a Chapter 11 bankruptcy claim, while the Freeman plaintiffs urged the court to dismiss the case entirely.

And that is exactly what the judge did, leaving [for the moment] nothing for Dominion, whose defamation suit is still in discovery, or for Dunphy, who is suing Giuliani in state court for assault and various labor violations. Of course those parties would prefer that the court retain jurisdiction and adjudicate their claims while a Chapter 11 trustee babysits the debtor to ensure he doesn’t loot the estate.  I imagine appeals will follow.

For more on the story you can check:

The Hill 

Above the Law

MSNBC

Law & Crime (‘Continued failure’: Rudy Giuliani has bankruptcy case dismissed by angry judge who points out numerous ‘troubling’ discovery violations)

Courthouse News Service (Judge chides Rudy Giuliani for ‘troubling’ conduct, tosses NY bankruptcy case)

The Guardian

Above the Law (Rudy Giuliani Falls Ass Backwards Out Of Bankruptcy)

Jurist

Rudy, that's not how anything works, Part III: Giuliani found liable for defamation by default

A few days ago, I posted a story questioning why Rudy Giuliani would concede the main elements of a cause of action for defamation he had been fighting (based on his comments about two election workers).  Giuliani -- or perhaps, more accurately, the lawyer representing him -- apparently thought that it was a good tactic in order to avoid complying with a discovery request, but that made no sense.  My original comment explaining why the tactic was likely to fail is here.  

As I predicted, the tactic not only failed, it backfired spectacularly.  See here.  First it resulted in an order to explain his argument and eventually in a finding of liability by default.

Maybe Giuliani and his lawyer did not realize that what they did amounted to conceding the main elements of the cause of action and for that reason, and because of the fact that they did not comply with discovery, the court has found Giuliani liable by default.   

Now that default judgment has been imposed, the case will move to trial on the question of the value of the injury, ie, on the damages issue alone.  And if you have been paying attention to the story in the news and have watched some of the testimony by the plaintiffs, you know it is fair to say that the value will likely be high.  Plus, Giuliani will have to pay attorneys' fees to the plaintiff's lawyers and more in sanctions.

Giuliani is in real trouble.  He is reportedly in dire financial trouble and a huge verdict against him in this case will cause him a lot of distress.  He has been trying to find funding for his legal bills, which include pending disbarment proceedings in New York and Washington DC, the indictment in Georgia, and at least one other defamation case.  Reportedly, Trump is not contributing to his defense fund and Giuliani has put up his NY condo up for sale and is hosting events in attempts to raise funds.  (Trump apparently agreed to appear in one of them, although I won't be surprised if he makes the appearance all about himself and ends up trying to get contributions for his legal defense fund rather than for Giuliani, but that's another story for another day.)

You can read the court's opinion here.  You can find reports and commentary on the default judgment against Giuliani in the following:

Courthouse News Service

The Legal Profession Blog

NPR

The Guardian

Above the Law

NPR audio

Jurist

MSNBC

Things keep getting worse and worse for Rudy Giuliani: two of his lawyers withdraw (or try to) from his representation in Georgia

Oct 4, 2023

If you have been following the news, or this blog, you know that things are getting pretty desperate for Rudy Giuliani, (see here, and here, for example) and they just got worse in the past few days.  Here is the latest:

Last month, Giuliani's former lawyers in one of his many ongoing cases sued him for nearly $1.4 million for outstanding legal bills.  See here.

Last week, the judge overseeing the RICO case in Georgia in which Giuliani is one of 19 defendants, granted a motion to withdraw filed by one of Giuliani's lawyers.

Yesterday, a second lawyer representing Giuliani in that case filed a motion to withdraw.  See here.  If that motion is granted, the Giuliani will be left without a Georgia based lawyer in the case.  The only lawyer left would be a New York-based lawyer.  I don't know if there is a requirement that a defendant must have local counsel to "sponsor" the out of state lawyer.  If so, it is possible the judge will deny the motion to withdraw.  We'll have to wait and see.

It was also reported this week that Hunter Biden has sued Giuliani.  See here and here.

But Giuliani is fighting back.  He denies that he has a drinking problem.  See here and here.  And he has filed a defamation lawsuit against President Joe Biden for calling him a “Russian pawn” during a presidential debate nearly three years ago.  See here and here.   Given everything else, this strikes me as a desperate move, which I predict will be dismissed promptly because the court will find that the statement is political speech, and rhetorical hyperbole or a statement of opinion.  The more interesting question is whether the court will also find that the claim is frivolous and impose sanctions, which will, again, make things even worse for Giuliani.  Someone should remind him he is already in a big hole, and should stop digging.

UPDATE 10-5-23:  MSNBC has a short comment on the most recent news here.

Update on Trump lawyers: Lin Wood retires to avoid disbarment; Hearing committee recommends disbarment for Giuliani

The list of lawyers for the Trump campaign (or for Trump himself) that are under investigation keeps getting longer.  John Eastman, Sydney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Jenna Ellis, among others, have been in the news recently.

So today I am writing to report on two developments this week.

First, you may remember attorney Lin Wood who was sanctioned by a court in Michigan.  (see here, here and here) and who was facing an investigation in Georgia for his involvement in Trump's campaign's attempts to overturn the last presidential election.  (He was also famous for filing a motion in which he claimed it was based on "plenty of perjury," but that is another story).

This week it was reported that, rather than face disbarment, Wood has filed a petition to retire from his practice in Georgia.  As discussed in an article in Above the Law, 

If granted leave to retire, this would end the career of a once-respected attorney whose decision to embrace MAGA craziness dragged him into an ethical quagmire that he had little hope of ever escaping. Rudy Giuliani’s fall from crusading U.S. Attorney to getting his law license yanked and making ends meet on Cameo is rightfully the most dramatic instance of a lawyer throwing away everything for Trump’s adoration, but Wood’s not far off.

And speaking of Rudy Giuliani, the second report of the day is that last week a Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline hearing committee recommended that Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to derail the 2020 presidential election in support of former President Donald Trump.

You can read the report here.  The case will now go before the Board on Professional Responsibility.  

Obviously, this means that this is not the end of the case.  Giuliani has the right to appeal and the case will likely make its way to the courts eventually.

The committee, comprised of D.C. attorneys tasked with reviewing Giuliani’s conduct, deliberated for months after a weeks-long series of hearings that featured testimony from Giuliani and several of his close associates.

For coverage on Lin Wood's retirement you can check out MSNBC, Above the Law, ethinking.com, Courthouse News Service, NPR, The Hill, Lex Blog, The ABA Journal and the New York Times.

For coverage of Giuliani's case, you can check out MSNBC, Jurist, Lex Blog, Politico, Courthouse News Service, Above the Law, The Hill, and the Legal Profession Blog.

Things keep getting worse for Rudy Giuliani, part 2 (or 3 ?, I've lost count!)

 If you have been following the news, or this blog, you know that things are getting pretty desperate for Rudy Giuliani, (go here and scroll down for the latest) and they just keep getting worse.   

Here is the latest update:  last Friday, the judge presiding over one of Rudy Giuliani’s current defamation trials penalized Giuliani again for his “continued and flagrant” disregard of court order.  U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the decision means jurors will be told that Giuliani intentionally hid financial documents and other records in defiance of court orders.  See here and here.

Now, someone might say that Giuliani actually has pretty much nothing to lose here.  He was already found to be liable and the trial is merely to determine the amount of damages he will be forced to pay although it is unlikely that he has much money available to pay much.  (See here for the background on the case.)

So, the real question is what are his lawyers thinking?  They can be risking sanctions imposed on them for Giuliani's conduct...  Oh wait, that's right, his lawyers either withdrew or are asking to withdraw... 

So Rudy is left with no lawyers, no money, no case and no reputation. And he is likely going to be disbarred in DC and New York.  So, does he have anything else to lose?

Rudy, I told you that's not how anything works! -- UPDATED

 Last Friday I posted a story about how Rudy Giuliani attempted to prevent having to comply with discovery in a defamation case by conceding all the elements of the cause of action against him and, at the same time, trying to raise defenses in the case.  And, after explaining the situation I concluded "Unfortunately for Giuliani, that’s not how anything works."  My original story is here.

I fully expected Giuliani's tactic to be rejected and that is just what happened.  Reportedly, the judge overseeing the case has given Giuliani the following options.  He can:

1.  submit a new stipulation conceding liability to the claims “all factual allegations ... as to his liability for plaintiffs’ defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy claims, and his liability as to plaintiffs’ claim for punitive damages” and that a default judgment as to his liability is appropriate, or

2.  explain why he is declining to submit such a stipulation by clarifying “what precisely his original stipulation conceded regarding the plaintiffs’ factual allegations and legal claims.”

Should Giuliani fail to choose one or two, the judge will convene a hearing (on August 15) to determine how, if at all, he has complied with her prior order to search and produce all materials responsive to the plaintiffs' discovery requests. 

Stay tuned!

MSNBC has coverage here.  TechDirt has a comment here.

UPDATE: 8-19-23:  Courthouse News Service reports (here) that "The judge in the Smartmatic suit ordered Giuliani to complete discovery production in two weeks, by August 30, or risk an order to a judgment of the company's legal fees arising from the particular motion for an order to show cause."

UPDATE: 9/3/23:  The Court has now entered a judgment by default against Giuliani and ordered him to pay attorneys' fees and other sanctions.  The case will now proceed to trial on the question of damages only which is likely to result in a very high verdict for the plaintiffs.  Go here for my post on this new development.

At least two different groups of lawyers file complaints asking for Rudy Giuliani to be disciplined in New York

 A few days ago I reported that the New York State Bar Association was considering expelling Rudy Giuliani from its membership.  See here.  However, the NYSBA is just not a regulatory agency so expulsion from the association would not affect Giuliani's ability to practice law in the state.

Since then, however, at least two groups of lawyers have filed complaints about Giuliani before the appropriate regulatory agency in New York, which could lead to discipline.  Obviously, all the complaints can do is advocate for the agency to take action.  The agency will decide whether to conduct an investigation and, then, what to do given the results of the investigation.  Like any other disciplinary complaint, it could be dismissed, or it could start a process that could result in disbarment.  But a lot has to happen before it gets to that point.

Meanwhile, the complaints do make for interesting reading.  One of them was filed by a group called Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Inc. You can read it here.  Forbes has a short summary.  

The 18 page document (plus appendices) essentially argues that Giuliani should be disciplined for violating the New York versions of Model Rules 8.4, 4.1, and 3.1, related to the duties of honesty, trustworthiness, and the duty not to pursue frivolous litigation.  The complaint argues that Giuliani engaged in dishonest conduct by knowingly lying about the results of the election and pursuing a court challenge with no support.  It concludes that “A lawyer who lies to the public and abuses the court system to undermine democracy and the rule of law is not fit to practice law.”

The other complaint, which makes very similar arguments, was brought on behalf of Michael Miller, a past President of both the New York State Bar Association and the New York County Lawyers Association and was signed by dozens of prominent lawyers and academics.  You can read that one here.   

For more discussion and commentary you can go to:  Forbes, The New York Times, Law & Crime and Otherwise.

Rudy Giuliani is now officially disbarred in Washington DC

 In a move that was very slow in coming, but that could not possible have surprised anyone, Rudy Giuliani has been officially and permanently disbarred in Washington DC. You can read the one page decision here.  For more on the story, here are a few sources:

Courthouse News Service

Politico

The Legal Profession Blog

Law & Crime

The Hill

MSNBC

TechDirt

Above the Law has a good, short, account of how Giuliani ended up here (from his failed presidential run, to his unfulfilled hopes of joining the Trump administration, to becoming Trump's personal attorney, to his downfall, and, more than likely, upcoming bankruptcy) and explains the DC result as follows:

Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani got disbarred. Again. And in the most Rudy Giuliani way possible.

In a one-page order, the DC Court of Appeals noted that it had ordered him on July 25 “to show cause why reciprocal discipline should not be imposed” after America’s erstwhile Mayor was relieved of his license to practice law in the state of New York. Giuliani was apparently preoccupied stumbling into and out of bankruptcy and generally flopping around the federal docket like a beached orca as he desperately attempts to fend off the $148 million judgment in favor of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Atlanta poll workers he defamed. And so Rudy just didn’t bother to respond to the show cause order.

Under local precedent, “The imposition of identical discipline when the respondent fails to object should be close to automatic, with minimum review by both the Board and this court.”

And so, not having replied to the order, the court proceeded to disbar him.   

Rudy Giuliani is, finally and officially, disbarred in New York

In a move that I suspect surprised no one, Rudy Giuliani was been disbarred in New York.  You can read the full order here.  It concludes, in part that, 

Contrary to respondent’s allegations, there is nothing on the record before us that would permit the conclusion that respondent lacked knowledge of the falsehood of the numerous statements that he made, and that he had a good faith basis to believe them to be true. On the contrary, as the Referee properly found, the 16 acts of falsehoods carried out by respondent were deliberate and constituted a transparent pattern of conduct intended and designed to deceive. More specifically, as the Referee aptly described, respondent “told numerous lies in the numerous forums all designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of the citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government.” Undeterred, respondent went as far as to attempt to deceive this tribunal by his numerous inconsistent statements before the Referee and the AGC.

 As you probably recall, Giuliani was suspended from practice in New York in 2021 pending his disciplinary proceeding (see here) and later recommended for disbarment in Washington Dc (see here).  The proceeding took a long time to unfold in New York but the decision was finally announced this week.  

For all my posts about the claims against Giuliani, go here.

You can read coverage and commentary about the disbarment in New York, here:

The Hill, Politico, Law & Crime, Courthouse News Service, MSNBC, The Legal Profession Blog

UPDATE July 12, 2024:  Giuliani's hearing to determine if he should be disbarred in Washington DC was held recently.  For a report, go to Law & Crime, here.

DC Disciplinary Counsel rules that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting that the District of Columbia Disciplinary Counsel just filed a 46-page Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in In re Giuliani concluding that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred.  It concludes that 

The Hearing Committee should recommend that the Court of Appeals disbar Mr. Giuliani because the integrity of the legal profession demands it. The Court must send a message that lawyers who misuse their law licenses to undermine our constitutional form of government cannot continue to practice law. One hopes that no other lawyer will ever engage in comparable conduct. Alas, as divided as our country is and as distrustful as many of us are of the basic institutions of our democracy - a distrust that Mr. Giuliani fostered and continues to foster - that may be a forlorn hope. But at the very least, the bar needs to know clearly that the consequences of such a betrayal of one's oath to support the Constitution is the loss of the privilege to practice law.

 

Rudy Giuliani gets suspended in Washington DC

 About two weeks ago I reported that Rudy Giuliani's license to practice law was suspended by a court in New York.  One question that suspension raised, of course, was whether other jurisdictions in which he was licensed would suspend him "reciprocally" also.  Now we have the answer.

Last week a District of Columbia court suspended Giuliani from practicing law in the nation’s capital.  Because the suspension was just an order based on the fact that he was suspended already in another jurisdiction, the order was very short.  It essentially simply said that the D.C. court system had received a “certified copy” of New York’s decision to suspend Giuliani’s law license which triggered D.C. Bar Rule XI, § 11(d) related to “reciprocal discipline.”   Law & Crime has a good explanation here.  

For more coverage and commentary go to Above the Law, NPR, and Politico.

In addition, here is a short podcast discussing Giuliani's suspension and his possible future in the practice of law.  You can listen to it below by clicking on the play button or by going here.

Rudy Giuliani's lawyers call it quits

 Well that took longer than I expected but it is not surprising.  Rudy Giuliani's lawyers have been trying to cover for his obvious attempts to avoid complying with court orders for a while and now that the judge finally threatened issuing an order for contempt of court, the lawyers apparently decided it was not worth to stick their necks out for their delinquent client.  

The specific reason or reasons for the two lawyers’ requested withdrawals aren’t fully clear because the court filing asking for withdrawal is partially redacted, but the lawyer's cited a rule equivalent to Model Rule 1.16(b)(4) which states that a lawyer may withdraw when the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement and another local rule that states that the lawyer can withdraw when the client fails to cooperate in the representation or otherwise renders the representation unreasonably difficult for the lawyer to carry out employment effectively.  

I assume these allegations are based on the fact that Giuliani tried to hide assets and kept avoiding complying with court orders. And let's not forget that he lost the defamation case because he refused to comply with discovery in the first place...

You can read more about the adventure it is to represent a client like Rudy and why it is better to step away from him here: 

The Hill

Law & Crime

MSNBC

Above the Law

By the end of the week, Giuliani had found a new lawyer and relinquished some of his property as obligated by the court's order.  The Guardian has that part of the story here.

In predictable turn of events Trump is reportedly refusing to pay Giuliani's legal fees

 You can't make this stuff up.  The Washington Post has the story here.  Also see Above the Law and Yahoo news.

And, there is a bit more to the story.  First, there is the fact that some according to some stories, Giuliani asked to be paid $20,000 a day, a fee that would most likely be held to be unreasonable under the rules of professional conduct.  

When asked about that story, Giuliani supposedly said that he had not asked for that amount.  Instead, he told the New York Times, he had not entered into a formal agreement with Trump but that they would "work it out in the end."

Agreeing to provide legal services without an agreement and expecting to work it out in the end with a client notorious for not paying his bills...  well, that's not very smart...  which raises the issue of Giuliani's competence, but that is yet another story for another day.

Article by lawyers for whistleblowers on whether Rudy Giuliani can claim the protection of the attorney client privilege

A few days ago I posted a short comment on Rudy Giuliani and the practice of law.  In it, I questioned whether he understands the notion of the attorney-client privilege. 

Now, here is a new article by several lawyers who represent whistleblowers on how they (the authors) have used the crime-fraud exception to the privilege in the past to deny the use of the privilege and on why they think that Giuliani will not be able to claim the privilege successfully.

New York State Bar Association considers expelling Rudy Giuliani

 The New York State Bar Association is launching an inquiry into expelling Rudy Giuliani from its membership over his comments ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his efforts to cast doubt on the results on the presidential election.  The NYSBA is not a regulatory agency, however, so expulsion from the association would not affect Giuliani's ability to practice law in the state.

You can read more about the story here: NPR, Politico, Law & Crime, Above the Law, and the ABA Law Journal.

Jeffrey Clark argues disciplinary agency has no jurisdiction over his conduct because it violates the principle of separation of powers

As you may remember, the District of Columbia filed disciplinary charges against both Rudy Giuliani and former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark for their efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss.  The case against Giuliani seems to be proceeding quickly since he recently announced the witnesses he intends to call.  Likewise, last week there was an interesting development in the case against Clark.

Clark has filed a petition to remove the case to federal court arguing that the agency of the D.C. Bar responsible for filing and adjudicating disciplinary proceedings against attorneys and the D.C. courts do not have the jurisdiction to bring ethics charges against him. He argues that "no state possesses the power to supervise the internal operations and deliberations of any branch of the federal government" and that the ethics case against him represents a "direct attack on the fundamental principle of separation of powers."  You can read his petition here.

So what happens when a lawyer tries to remove a state ethics discipline matter to federal court?  Does the court have jurisdiction?   Michael Kennedy, bar counsel for the state of Vermont, shares his experience on this matter here.  

Above the Law has a comment on Giuliani's case and Clark's cases here.

Rudy Giuliani and the practice of law, part 2

About 3 weeks ago I posted a comment on issues raised by some of Rudy Giuliani's recent comments and actions.  In it I suggested that there are problems with the argument that his testimony is protected by the attorney-client privilege.  Yet, I did not address the issues regarding confidentiality.  So, to complete that picture, here is an article published in LawFare discussing the issue.