Former Manatee County Judge John Lakin is now suspended in Washington, D.C., and Florida for accepting baseball tickets from plaintiffs attorneys in a case he presided over. Photo: Shutterstock.

A Washington, D.C., appeals court Thursday suspended former Miami attorney and Manatee Circuit Judge John F. Lakin from practicing law for two years, matching punishment Lakin received from the Florida Supreme Court in May.

The Florida Bar accused Lakin of asking for and accepting tickets to watch three Tampa Bay Rays baseball games from two Palmetto lawyers with a case pending before him.

Lakin ordered a new trial in the case, which benefited the lawyers' client.

Attorneys Melton Little and Scott Kallins represented the plaintiffs in a slip-and-fall case against Walmart Inc. Jurors returned a defense verdict, but a court-appointed referee found Lakin had accepted one set of tickets and requested another, before granting a new trial for the plaintiff.

Lakin disclosed during a status conference that he'd accepted the tickets. He then recused himself from the case, according to the referee's report. But the gifts led to an ethics charge and the end of his stint as a Florida judge.

Lakin resigned in March 2016, ending a Judicial Qualifications Commission ethics investigation. Little and Kallins both received 18-month suspensions.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejected Lakin's argument that the court should accept the referee's recommended 90-day suspension, instead of the Florida Supreme Court's harsher discipline and five-year suspension. But just as the Florida high court had done, its D.C. counterpart opted to suspend the attorney.

"To the extent respondent argues that his actions would not constitute an ethical violation in this jurisdiction, or that this jurisdiction would impose a substantially different and reduced sanction, he is mistaken," the per curiam ruling said.

Lakin argued it would be an injustice to receive reciprocal discipline, but the court found he had failed to explain why.

"Respondent merely attempts to reargue his sanctions and refers to his years of experience. However, discipline is imposed to protect the public and to safeguard the integrity of the legal system," the ruling said.

Lakin's attorney, Tracy Kramer of Lakinslaw in Miami, pointed to her client's answer brief in the Florida Bar case, and said they respectfully disagree with the ruling,

"The Florida Supreme Court's two-year suspension was eight times that recommended by [referee] Judge Hayward, without any legal justification," Kramer said. "Mr. Lakin is a man of character and is ethical. Four circuit court judges testified Mr. Lakin had no corruptive intent, and would not have compromised the process, that the tickets had no influence on his four-page written decision to overturn the Walmart verdict."

Lakin testified in the Florida proceedings that he was remorseful, but stressed that the tickets had no bearing on his ruling, as he recalled being stunned by the jury's verdict. Lakin claimed he'd struggled with the transition from attorney to judge, saying, "I did not anticipate the level of scrutiny day-to-day on individual decisions I would make as a judge by outside factors," according to the referee's report.

It was the first disciplinary incident for Lakin, who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2001. He rose to the bench in 2012, after working at Bradenton firms Barnes Walker and Lakin Smith.

Lakin began his legal career in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1990, and is still eligible to practice in the state, according to the Board of Bar Overseers.

Read the opinion:

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