A New Jersey attorney placed on indeterminate suspension after pleading guilty to improper sexual contact with a minor was a partner at Day Pitney and in-house attorney at Valley National Bank, according to LinkedIn.

The state's Disciplinary Review Board decision said the conduct in question took place during April 2022, while Michael T. Rave was employed as a mergers and acquisitions attorney at a New Jersey bank. Rave's LinkedIn profile says he was employed at Valley National Bank from September 2020 to June 2022.

Before that, until September 2020, Rave was a partner at a law firm in Parsippany, the DRB opinion states. Rave's LinkedIn page says he worked at Day Pitney as a partner from January 2006 to September 2020 and as an associate from October 1998 to December 2005.

Rave may not apply for reinstatement for five years under a Supreme Court order after the state's DRB was split 4-4 on whether he should be disbarred.

The disciplinary case came after Rave pleaded guilty to charges of endangering the welfare of a child and having criminal sexual contact with a minor.

Rave exposed himself and masturbated during video chats with four 14-year-olds he met on a website called Omegle, disciplinary counsel Hillary Horton told the Supreme Court at a Sept. 23 hearing.

Authorities also found 83 images of child pornography on his laptop computer, the DRB said.

Rave was sentenced to a two-year period of noncustodial probation for each of the two counts, with the terms to run concurrently. The sentence was issued by Superior Court Judge Noah Franzlau in Morris County Superior Court on Jan. 31, 2023.

Rave is also required to comply with Megan's Law and to continue in sex-offender therapy until completion, or as recommended by probation.

'Everything I Can to Redeem Myself'

At the DRB, four members voted to disbar Rave, and four others voted for an indeterminate suspension.

Rave told the DRB that the bank where he was working in May 2022 terminated him after becoming aware of the pending charges. He was earning more than $500,000 a year in his position there, and he forfeited unvested restricted stock totaling more than $250,000 and approximately $5,000 in employer contributions to his 401(k) plan, the DRB said. After that, he had trouble finding work other than as an attorney performing document review and occasional contract work, the DRB said.

In addition, Rave said he had to pay $295 per session for sex addiction therapy, according to the DRB. He said his girlfriend at the time terminated their relationship and his sister and several former friends no longer maintain their relationships with him, he told the DRB.

In January 2023, Rave opened a legal recruiting agency in Wilmington, Delaware, the DRB said, but his attorney, Robert Dunn of Hanlon Dunn Robertson in Morristown, said he's no longer working at that venture.

The DRB, in its decision, noted that before 2014, offenses involving sexual misconduct against children drew discipline ranging from a reprimand to disbarment. But in the 2014 case involving former state legislator Neil Cohen, the Supreme Court imposed an indeterminate suspension after child pornography was found on his home and office computers. In that case, the justices took note of a growing awareness of "the pernicious effects of sexual crimes against children" and "recent changes in the law increasing the severity of those crimes."

The DRB said its four members recommending an indeterminate suspension concluded that Rave's misconduct, while "deplorable," is most similar to past cases where the court imposed a discipline short of disbarment.

Those members would leave it up to the Supreme Court to decide in the future whether Rave has rehabilitated himself enough to be eligible for reinstatement to the practice of law, the DRB said.

This group also found the difference between online contact and in-person contact significant and also noted that Rave, in using a website promoted as catering to those 18 and older, did not actively seek contact with minors, the DRB said.

The DRB members who favored disbarment "accorded substantial weight to the attorney's overt act of arranging a formal meeting" with one of the minors and his admission that, "at the time of his arrest, he was on his way to that meeting," the DRB said.

"In the view of these members, given the current and ever-evolving state of technology, the fact that respondent satisfied his sexual urges by masturbating in view of minors using a live, online video feed, as opposed to doing so within a child's physical line of site, does not make disbarment any less appropriate," the DRB said.

Dunn, the attorney for Rave, said he was very pleased that the court did not disbar his client. Asked if he expects Rave to restart his law practice, Dunn said, "I think he is extremely motivated to do so. I think he's very remorseful for what happened. I think he's making tremendous efforts to make sure he doesn't get involved with something like that again."

Calls to a Day Pitney spokesperson and to managing partner Gregory Hayes were not returned. A Valley National Bank spokesperson did not respond to a call or an email about the case.

Rave asked for leniency in a Sept. 23 hearing before the Supreme Court, saying he was "extremely regretful and embarrassed about my actions."

"The short thing I'd like to say is I don't live my life like that anymore. I was in a bad place. That's not an excuse. I have been working since then to do everything I can to redeem myself, not only as an attorney, but as a human being," Rave said to the justices.

He told the court that he was volunteering at an animal shelter and attending four to five 12-step meetings a day.

"My professional career has suffered greatly, and I'll never get that back, no matter what happens. Even if I retain my license, the type of work I did—I'm never getting that back. I'd like to retain my license, and I understand there's going to be a suspension involved, but I would like to get to the point where I can make a living as an attorney. It's the only thing I've been doing for my whole career," Rave said.

"And, you know, I can assure the court that nothing like this is going to happen again," he added. "And you know, regardless, I'd like to say that, you know, I'm going to continue my work in the community and to make myself a better a person regardless of what happens with my career."