Professional Conduct Committee

Judicial Branch Home
Administrative Office of the Courts
Supreme Court
Superior Court
District Court
Probate Court
Family Division
Alternative Dispute Resolution Program

Court Rules
Court Locations/Hours
Site Map
List Service
Contact Us
SEARCH
FAQs

Attorney Discipline System

    On January 1, 2004, a new Supreme Court Attorney Discipline System went into effect in New Hampshire. It has been designed to improve the effort to protect client rights and guarantee lawyers a full and fair evaluation of complaints against them. The system is composed of the Attorney Discipline Office, a Complaint Screening Committee, Hearings Committee and Professional Conduct Committee.
    Several significant changes have been made to improve the efficiency of the process. Additional staff has been hired for the Attorney Discipline Office, which will evaluate and process complaints against lawyers and prepare a report for a screening committee. Attorney Landya B. McCafferty has been named the new, full-time “disciplinary counsel” and will present cases when necessary to hearing committee panels. The hearings panels will then report their findings to the Professional Conduct Committee for disposition.
      McCafferty, who has worked for the N.H. Public Defender program and the appellate defender program at Franklin Pierce Law Center, has been a volunteer member of the Professional Conduct Committee for more than three years.
     Lawyers and members of the general public who would be interested in participating in this very important public service, when vacancies occur, are encouraged to complete an application for membership.
     As of June 1, 2007, the Supreme Court Attorney Discipline Office is located at 4 Chenell Drive, Suite 102, Concord, N.H. 03301. Phone: (603) 224-5828.

* * * * * *

NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT
ATTORNEY DISCIPLINE SYSTEM

Lawyers and members of the general public serve on the following committees of the New Hampshire Attorney Discipline System:

Complaint Screening Committee

The nine-member Complaint Screening Committee will consist of five lawyers and four non-lawyers. The Committee will meet once a month in Concord.

All complaints alleging professional misconduct by lawyers, filed with the Attorney Discipline Office, will be fully investigated by the office’s general counsel and his or her deputy and assistants. Counsel will then prepare reports on the results of their investigation and submit them to the members of the Complaint Screening Committee to read in advance of their meetings. Committee members will have little or no writing responsibilities. Counsel will make oral presentations at the committee meetings and members will take one of the following actions:

Table the matter and direct counsel to obtain further information.
Dismiss the complaint with a finding of no professional misconduct, or dismiss on any other basis
Offer diversion to the respondent-attorney as an alternative to discipline for minor misconduct.
Determine that a hearing is necessary and refer the matter to disciplinary counsel to prepare for a hearing before a panel of the Hearings Committee.

Hearings Committee

The Hearings Committee currently consists of 34 members, both lawyers and members of the public, who will be appointed to hearings panels to consider individual cases. The number of times that members are asked to serve on a hearing panel in any given calendar year will depend on the number of cases in which hearings are required. It is expected that members may be asked to sit on four to six hearing panels a year.

When the disciplinary counsel, acting on the recommendation of the screening committee, makes a request for a hearing, the Hearings Committee Chair will appoint a hearing panel from the Committee’s members.

Each hearing panel will consist of three to five members, with at least one non-lawyer member on each panel. The Hearings Committee Chair shall designate a hearing panel chair as well as a reporter who will be responsible for writing the panel report.
The hearing panel, in a written report, will make findings of fact and conclusions and recommend that the Professional Conduct Committee either:

make findings of misconduct and recommend sanctions, or,
dismiss the complaint with findings of no professional misconduct, with or without a warning.

The ability to write is an important qualification for this committee.

Professional Conduct Committee

The 12-member Professional Conduct Committee will consist of eight lawyers and four non-lawyers. The Committee will meet in Concord on the third Tuesday of the month. Meetings may last about one half a day. The ability to write decisions is an important qualification for membership on the Professional Conduct Committee.

The Committee, acting as a whole, will consider hearing panel reports and memoranda submitted by respondent-attorneys and disciplinary counsel. When requested, the Committee will hold oral arguments.

The Committee will consider the record and take one of the following actions:

· Dismiss complaints, with or without a warning, administer a reprimand, public censure or a suspension not to exceed six months.

· Attach appropriate conditions to any discipline it imposes.

· Offer diversion to respondent-attorneys if appropriate.

· Direct disciplinary counsel to file a petition in the New Hampshire Supreme Court on all matters in which the Committee decides that the appropriate sanction should be disbarment or suspension of more than six months.

· Where appropriate, assess to a disciplined respondent-attorney expenses incurred by the Attorney Discipline System in the investigation and enforcement of discipline.

Complete text of August 27, 2003 Supreme Court order on Rule 37, Attorney Discipline System.

2003 Annual Report of the Professional Conduct Committee is available in Adobe Acrobat format. To download the free Adobe Acrobat viewer, go to http://www.adobe.com.

See Rules of Professional Conduct in the NH Court Rules.

NH State Seal