Respondent Charles Matthew Hutt State Bar No. 774444 is a member of the Florida Bar and was admitted to practice law in Georgia on December 3, 2010. Hutt filed a petition for voluntary discipline pursuant to Georgia Bar Rule 4-227 b after the Supreme Court of Florida entered an order suspending him from the practice of law in that state for 45 days for his admitted violations of the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct. See Florida Bar v. Hutt , SC11-1992 Dec. 22, 2011; Florida Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 8.4 a attorney shall not violate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, c attorney shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. For the reasons that follow, we grant the voluntary petition and suspend Hutt from the practice of law in Georgia for 45 days nunc pro tunc to January 3, 2012. According to Hutt’s petition, in October 2009, approximately one month after he was admitted to the Florida Bar, he began his employment as a junior associate with a high-volume civil litigation firm in Jacksonville, Florida. Hutt was assigned to work primarily on foreclosure cases, where it was his firm’s customary practice to file an affidavit of attorney fees at the summary judgment stage. The fee affidavits were usually very similar, if not identical, with only the captions and dates changed. The purported affiant on the fee affidavits was “Attorney X,” whom the firm had hired to train junior associates. Attorney X also reviewed foreclosure files on a few occasions. Hutt’s employer told him that Attorney X had given the firm permission to sign his name on attorney fee affidavits in his absence. Hutt’s employer also said that signing Attorney X’s name on the fee affidavits was common practice in the office and that Hutt was expected to do so. Feeling pressured as both a new employee and a new attorney, Hutt signed Attorney X’s name on fee affidavits on numerous occasions. Aside from the signatures, the affidavits Hutt signed were accurate.
A judge eventually recognized the signature on the fee affidavits as a forgery and brought the matter to the attention of the Florida Bar. The Florida Bar determined that Attorney X did not give the firm permission to sign his name on the fee affidavits in his absence. Hutt had no prior disciplinary history, and he cooperated in the resulting investigation, which led to a prosecution against Hutt’s former employer. On December 22, 2011, the Supreme Court of Florida entered an order suspending Hutt from the practice of law in Florida for 45 days.
