WE WOULD BE PROUD to defend you, a fellow member of The Florida Bar, because too many Florida licensed attorneys are dealing with a grievance or Bar complaint even though they did nothing wrong.
If The Florida Bar's own Discipline Statistics are accurate, The Florida Bar might have opened a discipline file about you even though you did nothing to warrant discipline. The Bar's own statistics show that The Florida Bar opened 6,293 discipline files in its fiscal year 2013-2014, yet only 391 Discipline Orders were entered. That's 6.2%. Does this mean that 92.8% of discipline files were opened on Florida lawyers who were not subject to discipline? Were 92.8% of those Florida lawyers WRONGFULLY ACCUSED?
The Florida Bar's own statistics show that for its 5 fiscal years from 2009-2010 through 2013-2014, The Florida Bar opened 36,609 discipline files. Yet only 1,754 Discipline Orders were entered during that time. That's 4.8%. Does this mean that 95.2% of the Florida attorneys facing grievances or Bar complaints during that 5 year period were WRONGFULLY ACCUSED?
Could YOU find yourself wrongfully accused of an ethics violation?
If this analysis of The Bar's own statistics is correct, then the answer could be YES.
I want to help my fellow Florida lawyers who find themselves wrongfully accused by The Florida Bar of a grievance, a complaint, or an alleged ethics violation. My name is Patrick John McGinley. Twenty years ago, while in law school, I served as a law clerk and ethics law research assistant to The Florida Bar's former Executive Director, Mr. Marshall Cassedy while he and his partners were in private practice defending lawyers and judges. Today, I am proud to be a member of The Florida Bar since 1996, and to have been Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Appellate Practice since 2008. I am the author of several nationally-distributed treatises on Florida law that are published as part of West's Florida Practice Series and are available on WestLaw. I am a regular speaker on attorney ethics at CLE's. And I am disappointed that my beloved Florida Bar would pursue even a single WRONGFULLY ACCUSED lawyer.
I believe all of us members of The Florida Bar need to do our part to protect WRONGFULLY ACCUSED attorneys who face Florida Bar grievances or ethics complaints. To do my part, I offer you this Defending Lawyers website as a resource to help you defend yourself. And if you are a Florida licensed attorney who would benefit from my assistance, it would be my great honor to represent you.
There are lawyers who are afraid to oppose The Florida Bar. I am not. I am proud to be a member of The Florida Bar, and I am proud of what The Bar does for our community. But no organization is perfect. The Florida Bar makes mistakes, and when it does, I am proud to try to help set things right.
Whether or not you choose to rely upon me for help, I hope you find this Defending Lawyers website helpful. On the next page, we share some insights into The Florida Bar's Grievance Prosecution procedures that you might not find elsewhere.
If The Florida Bar's own Discipline Statistics are accurate, The Florida Bar might have opened a discipline file about you even though you did nothing to warrant discipline. The Bar's own statistics show that The Florida Bar opened 6,293 discipline files in its fiscal year 2013-2014, yet only 391 Discipline Orders were entered. That's 6.2%. Does this mean that 92.8% of discipline files were opened on Florida lawyers who were not subject to discipline? Were 92.8% of those Florida lawyers WRONGFULLY ACCUSED?
The Florida Bar's own statistics show that for its 5 fiscal years from 2009-2010 through 2013-2014, The Florida Bar opened 36,609 discipline files. Yet only 1,754 Discipline Orders were entered during that time. That's 4.8%. Does this mean that 95.2% of the Florida attorneys facing grievances or Bar complaints during that 5 year period were WRONGFULLY ACCUSED?
Could YOU find yourself wrongfully accused of an ethics violation?
If this analysis of The Bar's own statistics is correct, then the answer could be YES.
I want to help my fellow Florida lawyers who find themselves wrongfully accused by The Florida Bar of a grievance, a complaint, or an alleged ethics violation. My name is Patrick John McGinley. Twenty years ago, while in law school, I served as a law clerk and ethics law research assistant to The Florida Bar's former Executive Director, Mr. Marshall Cassedy while he and his partners were in private practice defending lawyers and judges. Today, I am proud to be a member of The Florida Bar since 1996, and to have been Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Appellate Practice since 2008. I am the author of several nationally-distributed treatises on Florida law that are published as part of West's Florida Practice Series and are available on WestLaw. I am a regular speaker on attorney ethics at CLE's. And I am disappointed that my beloved Florida Bar would pursue even a single WRONGFULLY ACCUSED lawyer.
I believe all of us members of The Florida Bar need to do our part to protect WRONGFULLY ACCUSED attorneys who face Florida Bar grievances or ethics complaints. To do my part, I offer you this Defending Lawyers website as a resource to help you defend yourself. And if you are a Florida licensed attorney who would benefit from my assistance, it would be my great honor to represent you.
There are lawyers who are afraid to oppose The Florida Bar. I am not. I am proud to be a member of The Florida Bar, and I am proud of what The Bar does for our community. But no organization is perfect. The Florida Bar makes mistakes, and when it does, I am proud to try to help set things right.
Whether or not you choose to rely upon me for help, I hope you find this Defending Lawyers website helpful. On the next page, we share some insights into The Florida Bar's Grievance Prosecution procedures that you might not find elsewhere.