Josh J.T. Byrne of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin. Courtesy photo Josh J.T. Byrne of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin. Courtesy photo

As we all know all too well, 2021 has been a very "different" year for everyone. It appears that this is true for the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court  as well. According to the board's 2019 annual report, between 2014 and 2019, the board averaged 177.5 impositions of discipline a year with a high of 211 in 2019 and a low of 160 in 2016 and 2018. During that same six-year span, the board averaged 33.8 disbarments a year with a high of 46 in 2014 and a low of 19 in 2016.

When the pandemic hit last year, the board implemented operational procedures to allow staff to work remotely and to continue the board's work through the use of advanced video technology. This has left many of us riveted to the board's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Rzfgcm91b2y3TRTXAViHw), but has also been accompanied by a decrease in the number of cases resulting in public discipline. As the board's 2020 annual report noted, there was an 18% reduction in the number of complaints filed during the pandemic and the number of cases where sanctions were imposed fell to 148. The number of disbarments in 2020 was just below the prior six-year average at 30.