There is a common discussion among my classmates about who would like to go on to law school and become a licensed attorney. I applaud those who have the desire and sincerely wish them the best in the pursuit of their dreams. I, however, have no desire at this time to become an attorney. One of the largest reasons for this apparent complacency is the amount of responsibility that lawyers have.No doubt, paralegals carry a great deal of responsibility, but they are always under the supervision of an attorney (at least in Ohio). I like having the confidence that my work is checked (theoretically, at least) by an attorney who probably knows more about the law than me. However, paralegals must be careful to make sure that their supervising attorneys are asking them only to perform tasks that are ethical.
We are back in Norwalk, Connecticut this week (what is it about that town?), but this time with a different scenario. In this instance, the attorney, Francis DiScala, asked his paralegal to help in deceiving two different clients. First, DiScala asked his paralegal to cover up portions of a document that notified the client that she was entitled to independent counsel and had the right to sue for malpractice. The client signed the document with no knowledge of her rights in these two areas. Second, DiScala failed to file a complaint before the statute of limitations ran out on a different client's claim. DiScala had his paralegal cover the same portions of the document as before when the second client signed. DiScala also misled the client and told her he had actually settled the case and paid her $15,000 out of the firm's expense account.
DiScala was reprimanded by the Connecticut Statewide Greivance Committee but is still able to practice law. The complaints can both be found here.
Now, if you were the paralegal and your supervising attorney asked you to do something you knew was unethical, how would you handle it?
The attorney has to run a business and keep making money to keep the doors open; the paralegal has bills to pay and wants to keep her job. What would you do?
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Even if I had to risk my job, I would do the correct thing and be ethical about the whole situation. If your attorney wants to fire you for being ethical and following the correct way to do things then he/she clearly doesn't care about you or your job. I would approach the attorney nicely and tell him/her what is unethical about the situation. If the attorney decides to fire you for wanting to do things the right way then your job wasn't worth it and you need to report the unethical situation. I'm sure many people would be scared about losing their job or even approaching the attorney but if something horrible went wrong and you went ahead and did the unethical thing, it could all fall back on you in the end. It's always better to be safe then be sorry.
ReplyDeleteI would be ethical about the situation, even if it meant losing my job. I think that integrity is an important characteristic that I will try my hardest to always possess. I believe that if you have this characteristic, good things will come to you. Or, at least, things that also possess integrity, like a law firm that always does the right thing and would be happy to have a paralegal working for them who possesses integrity :)
ReplyDeleteI would not worry about being fired because I would not work for this attorney. I'm sure these two examples are only representative of many more unethical practices. We have heard about law firms doing backround checks on potential paralegal employees. I would research the law firm before applying for a position.
ReplyDeleteIf the attorney asked me to cover up some of the documentation and make a copy for the client to sign, I would have to tell him no. He would have to do that himself. I could not work for such an unethical attorney. I may not be able to quit that day, but better believe I would have my resume out looking for another attorney to work for.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous comments, I would not worry about losing my job. The way I see it is that if you lose your job for being unethical then you would have a pretty hard time finding another job. However, if you do act ethically your chances of finding another job is better. And anyway, what if the lawyer was found out and he tells everyone that you did that against his judgment. Then who is in the hot seat?
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