Samson Habte reports:
The Indiana Supreme Court July 17 disbarred a lawyer who published a book that spilled secrets about a former client and romantic partner who used to be a high-ranking political official (In re Smith, Ind., No. 29S00-1201-DI-8, 7/17/13).
Most of the ethics infractions the court found were based on what attorney Joseph Stork Smith wrote in the book, which the per curiam opinion describes as a work “purporting to be a true autobiographical account of [Smith’s] relationship from roughly 1990 through 2010 with a former client (‘FC’), who was active in politics and at one point held a high-level job in the federal government.”
The court found that Smith breached Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct 1.9(c)(1) and 1.9(c)(2) by disclosing details that he learned from his representation of the client in “several criminal cases” and a divorce matter.
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