Two lawyers, the Bar, and a gross injustice | Editorial - Sun Sentinel

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Trinity Audioplayer ready...U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and North Florida lawyer Daniel Uhlfelder both belong to the Florida Bar. As such, both are equally bound to an elaborate code of ethics ordained by the Florida Supreme Court.

The code commands them to be truthful in dealing with the courts, the public and each other.

Bondi’s contempt for legal ethics is so notorious that 384 fellow Stetson Law alumni called on the school to formally disapprove her. They received no reply. Media inquiries produced silence.

Dozens of Florida lawyers similarly struck out when they petitioned the Bar last year to discipline Bondi. The Bar refused to accept the complaint. The Supreme Court ruled they had no legal right to it.

In stark contrast, the Bar, at the court’s command, is persecuting Uhlfelder for an offense so minor in comparison that the Taylor County circuit judge who heard it recommended only the least possible sanction of an “admonishment.”

Uhlfelder, who practices in Santa Rosa Beach in the Panhandle, would also have to attend the Bar’s Ethics School and pay $7,447.40 in costs.

The Bar wants blood

An admonishment, said Judge Gregory Parker, acting as a referee, “would appropriately balance the seriousness of the conduct with appropriate rehabilitative measures.”

But the Bar wants blood. It announced that it will appeal Parker’s recommendation. The 91-day suspension it has been demanding would be just long enough to require Uhlfelder to prove his “fitness” to resume practicing, which could sideline him indefinitely.

Uhlfelder’s offense is that he failed to notify Florida’s First District Court of Appeal that his two co-counsels had withdrawn from a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis before he appealed it.

As ethics offenses go, it’s the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Compare that to how Bondi prostituted the Justice Department to a vengeful president and bungled the entire Epstein matter.

Uhlfelder’s ordeal reflects poorly on not only the Bar but two of Florida’s most important courts: The state Supreme Court, which controls the Bar, and the First DCA in Tallahassee.

Uhlfelder drew wide attention by dressing in a Grim Reaper costume to protest DeSantis’ refusal to shut Florida beaches during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then he sued the governor. That failed, although the circuit judge who dismissed it suggested that he appeal.

The odor of politics

A three-judge panel dismissed the appeal as frivolous, lacking any “good faith” basis, and ordered the attorneys to show cause why they shouldn’t be punished for “an improper use of the appeal process.”

Uhlfelder replied, but not just on paper. He sounded off to the media, calling it “interesting” that the panel’s criticism came two days after he organized a political committee to oppose DeSantis.

The three judges did not like the implication, so they ordered the state attorney in Uhlfelder’s district to file charges against him with the local court as well as with the Bar, citing a rule against impugning the integrity of judges. They also implied Uhlfelder should be prosecuted for criminal contempt, a threat still pending.

The Bar Board of Governors eventually recommended only an ethics retraining course. But the Supreme Court ordered the Bar to try again.

One of the three district court judges who started it, Adam Tanenbaum, was appointed by DeSantis last month to the Supreme Court. The Bar’s promised appeal could result in not just Uhlfelder’s suspension but his disbarment.

The case exposed lax ethics on the part of the Bar itself. It failed to disclose that the two other lawyers in the original case, who would be witnesses against Uhlfelder, also faced Bar discipline on unrelated matters. Concealment of such a potential conflict of interest would get a criminal case dismissed or a conviction overturned.

Excessively harsh

Former Florida Bar President Henry “Hank” Coxe of Jacksonville joined Uhlfelder’s defense team and filed a motion unsuccessfully asking referee Parker to dismiss the case on account of the Bar’s “cheating.”

Meanwhile, the other two lawyers in trouble got off lighter. A public reprimand was ordered for one, a 60-day suspension for the other. But the Bar still intends to ask the court to punish Uhlfelder much more harshly.

It’s impossible to ignore the politics at work. DeSantis appointed six of the seven sitting Supreme Court justices. They have long circled the wagons around him, consistently ruling his way except for his appointment of a justice who had not been a member of the Bar long enough to qualify.

In 2021, the newest judge on the panel that lowered the boom on Uhlfelder was Tanenbaum, who had previously been general counsel for the Republican Florida House. The district court has consistently ruled for DeSantis too.

For four years, the First Circuit state attorney has had to file monthly reports with the court on the status of its case against Uhlfelder.

The underlying issue there was his freedom of speech. The Bar was prudent to not pursue that. But after settling on a minor ethics violation instead, it has unwisely pursued a drastic punishment. The referee’s recommendation was reasonable. To appeal it would be unfair.

“It will be a five-year odyssey for Mr. Uhlfelder,” said one of his attorneys, Scott Tozian. “Enough is enough. But apparently not for the Florida Bar.”

But Bondi, who has done incalculably greater damage, remains untouchable.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at [email protected].