The State Bar Association of North Dakota Fall 2014 Gavel Magazine | Page 16

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

I knew what he meant, because each day as
lawyers we are confronted with occasions
when we are tempted to breach the duties
entrusted to our profession by society and
owed to our clients. It is hard sometimes
to reconcile the situation faced by those
who have given in to human temptation
or addiction and now find themselves as a
subject of discipline.
To avoid these pitfalls, I have remembered
my grandfather’s admonition, “If it doesn’t
seem right, don’t do it.” In many ways
that still guides the ethical paths a lawyer
confronts every day.

D A N T R AY N O R
ABA Delegate

When I was in law school, I attended a
The Disciplinary Board Cleans Up
local Grand Forks County Bar Meeting.
Its Docket
Upon seeing my name tag, an older
After I was elected Chair of the Disciplinary
gentleman approached me and said he
Board, I encountered a backlog of cases
remembered my grandfather, Mack
with some pending without resolution
Traynor, who apparently spoke at his
for close to a decade. In all instances, the
admission ceremony. According to his
lawyer had been disbarred or suspended in
memory, my grandfather
another matter or was subject to an
If it
summed up the ethical rules by
interim suspension in the matter
saying, “If it doesn’t seem right,
still pending. So, there was no risk
doesn’t
don’t do it.”
of harm to the public. But the

“

seem right,
don’t do it.

Many years later, I began
serving on the Disciplinary
Board of the Supreme Court
and was eventually elected Chair. In that
capacity, I called a lawyer from western
North Dakota who was nearing the end of
his term as a member. I wanted to thank
him for his service and to encourage him
to finish up the last case he chaired. The
lawyer confided that he enjoyed serving
on the Disciplinary Board, but would not
miss that feeling of whistling past the
graveyard.
16

THE GAVEL

”

unresolved case left the complainant
with no resolution, and the lawyer
was left in limbo.

To resolve these stale cases, I assigned all of
them a single panel that included Attorney
Pat Monson, Carol Norgard, and myself.
Over the course of a year, the Disciplinary
Board cleaned up its docket. Our minutes
from December 2012 reflected 37 formal
matters pending. In September 2014, our
draft minutes reflect seven formal matters
pending with only one of those pending for
more than a year.

This could not have been done without the
cooperation of Paul Jacobson and Brent
Edison, who helped push these matters
through during a time of transition in the
Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

ABA Review of the Lawyer
Disciplinary System

With the many changes occurring in our
profession, the North Dakota Supreme
Court and SBAND invited the ABA
Standing Committee on Professional
Discipline to review the lawyer disciplinary
system in North Dakota. It had been 31