Supremes Reject State Bar's Wrist-Slappery

It looks like our Supremes might be sending a little message to the State Bar. The Court has rejected the recommendation of the Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board that Philip Singer be disbarred for three years and repay $67,334 to eight clients. The board also said Singer must submit to binding arbitration on $32,200 in dispute.

According to the LV Sun, Singer admitted to stealing "mishandling" close to $100,000 of his clients' funds. He pled guilty to 14 counts of bar violations and admitted to 59 violations involving misappropriation of funds and failure to communicate with his clients. He also pled guilty to lack of competence and diligence and lack of candor and cooperation with the State Bar.

The Supremes viewed the State Bar's proposed punishment as "inadequate to protect the public." We'd have to check Brooklyn Law School's tuition to see if Singer qualifies for the WWL bright-line rule, but regardless we say good for the Supremes for finally taking a stand against the ridiculously underwhelming punishments SBN has been considering lately.

However, to our disappointment, the Supremes only requested an additional two years of disbarment and 15 hours of ethics CLEs. Not exactly hard-hitting. What do you guys think? Where should the line be for permanent disbarment in this state?

(LV Sun, Thanks Tipster!)

NSC Benchslaps Another Attorney

Drunk with power after handing The Heavy Hitter a slap on the wrist (shockingly, not for his advertising practices), the Nevada Supreme Court has temporarily suspended attorney Philip Singer. You may remember Mr. Singer as the attorney who represented Nicolas Serrano-Villagrana, the drunken driver whose pickup plowed through a bus stop in 2004, killing a 4-year-old boy.

According to the order of suspension, "Singer appears to have misappropriated funds from clients and third-party lienholders, accepted and cashed retainer checks without performing any services, and commingled client and personal funds." The bar attributed Singer's lack of response to his "flippant attitude." Singer handled divorce, personal injury and criminal cases.

For those of you worried about Mr. Singer's future, don't. If history is to be our guide, he will likely receive a private reprimand or, at worst, a public reprimand (which nobody will read). 

You see, here in Nevada, we view our rules of professional conduct more as general guidelines, only to be used against you if you piss somebody off who is higher up on the totem pole than you. Disbarment in Nevada is reserved only for those attorneys who murder innocents or have sex with clients (on tape).

(RJ)