These matters are before the Court on the Report and Recommendation of the Review Panel, which recommends that law partners Respondent Thomas C. Sinowski State Bar No. 649126 and Respondent Steven F. Freedman State Bar No. 275350 be disbarred for violating Standards 12 lawyer shall not solicit professional employment through direct personal contact with a non-lawyer who has not sought his advice regarding employment of a lawyer, 13 lawyer shall not compensate a person to recommend or secure employment by a client or as a reward for having made a recommendation resulting in employment by a client and 26 lawyer shall not share legal fees with a non-lawyer of Bar Rule 4-102 d, which apply in these cases as the conduct occurred prior to January 1, 2001. These cases have been zealously litigated since 2002 and have involved extensive discovery and multiple evidentiary hearings. They arise out of Formal Complaints filed by the State Bar in which it charged Respondents with violating Standards 4, 12, 13 and 26. The State Bar alleged that in their practice Respondents utilized “runners” non-lawyers who recruit, recommend or direct people to the services of a given lawyer in return for a fee or other compensation from the lawyer. Each of the Standards Respondents are alleged to have violated may be punished by disbarment. This Court rejected Respondents’ petitions for voluntary discipline in which they sought public reprimands, see S08Y1436, S08Y1437 January 26, 2009. The special master, Jonathan A. Pope, subsequently entered an order granting the State Bar’s motion for summary judgment as to Standards 12, 13 and 26 and the State Bar withdrew its claim regarding Standard 4. An evidentiary hearing was conducted concerning aggravating and mitigating circumstances after which the special master denied Respondents’ motions to set aside and dismiss the charges as barred by the statute of limitations, a renewed motion to set aside judgment as to Standard 12 and a demand for a jury trial. The special master filed his report on May 4, 2010 and recommended a one-year suspension. Both parties filed exceptions and requests for Review Panel review, and the parties presented oral argument. The Review Panel filed its report on November 12, 2010 and recommended that Respondents be disbarred. The parties filed exceptions and responses in this Court and oral argument was held on April 4, 2011. The parties subsequently filed supplemental briefs regarding the oral arguments.
The Review Panel adopted the special master’s findings of fact, and Respondents’ admissions, that from April 1995 through April 1999 they paid runners to secure clients for them and paid non-lawyers compensation for referrals. They kept a record of those payments in a “Runner Book.” Although Respondents and the State Bar disagree on the amount and volume of the runner activity, Respondents admit to payments to 46 runners the State Bar contends it was 54 of $276,025 as opposed to the State Bar’s assertion of $399,733 in 1,376 separate cases versus the State Bar’s assertions of 2,441 cases. Respondents stated that in 1996 they became aware of Falanga v. State Bar of Georgia , Case No. 1:95-cv-2160-GET in the U. S. District Court in which, in their view, Judge Tidwell legalized solicitation of clients, although Freedman acknowledged that the order applied only to Standard 12. They were approached by two chiropractors whom they agreed to pay to send them clients. Robert Gorgoglione, a non-lawyer, later handled the arrangements for Respondents. In August 1998 the 11th Circuit reversed Judge Tidwell in Falanga v. State Bar of Georgia , 150 F3d 1333 11th Cir. 1998 and on April 26, 1999 the U. S. Supreme Court denied cert, see Falanga v. State Bar of Georgia , 526 U. S. 1087 1999. Although Freedman testified that they stopped taking cases from runners the day the U. S. Supreme Court denied cert in Falanga , a long-time employee testified that they stopped taking cases on April 30, 1999 when federal agents searched their office pursuant to a warrant and seized the runner book, which fact Sinowski conceded. Respondents admit they shared fees with Gorgoglione and another non-lawyer who solicited cases for them. On May 31, 2000 Gorgoglione met with State Bar investigators as part of a plea agreement to felony tax charges and described Respondents’ activities. On December 19, 2001 he signed an affidavit regarding their activities. On January 11, 2002 the Investigative Panel initiated a Memorandum of Grievance against Respondents. As Respondents admitted violating Standards 13 and 26, the Review Panel considered only whether they also violated Standard 12, which Respondents deny, claiming Standard 12 requires direct personal contact between the potential client and the lawyer or lawyer’s employees, and the Review Panel then considered the appropriate sanction. Although the Review Panel found that Respondents violated Standard 12, we disagree and hold that there was no direct contact between Respondents and potential clients. Therefore, the issue for this Court to decide is the appropriate level of discipline for the Respondents’ admitted violations of Standards 13 and 26. Respondents argued that even a one-year suspension is too severe based on the results in similar, unreported cases such as dismissed grievances and confidential discipline. We agree with the Review Panel, however, that information about such cases was not admissible evidence and accordingly, may not be considered in these cases.
