After 20 tries, law grad passes the bar but is barred from law practice in Massachusetts - ABA Journal
A persistent law graduate who passed the bar exam nearly 30 years after his 1985 graduation won’t be able to join the Massachusetts bar as a result of a decision by the state’s top court.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court refused to allow Lionel Porter to become a lawyer in an April 22 opinion noted by the Legal Profession Blog.
The court cited unlicensed legal work that Porter did as a paralegal for another lawyer, Stephen Hrones. Porter was operating “a virtually independent discrimination law practice,” according to the 2010 opinion that suspended Hrones for failing to supervise Porter.
Porter passed the bar exam administered in February 2014 on his 20th try, he said near the beginning of his December 2021 oral arguments in the case. The Legal Profession Blog said Porter presented “a very professional pro se argument.”
Porter is a resident of the Cabot Park Village, an independent living community in Newtonville, Massachusetts, according to a March 2021 article highlighting Porter’s accomplishments. He was 78 at the time that the article was written.
Porter earned a bachelor’s degree in 1966, obtained a master’s degree in 1970, and made progress toward a PhD, according to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He entered law school in 1981 and graduated in May 1985.
In one of his jobs after graduation, Porter worked at the NAACP, in which he reviewed, drafted and filed discrimination complaints at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Nonlawyers working for qualifying nonprofits are allowed to file complaints with the MCAD, but that exemption didn’t apply to nonlawyers working at law firms.
When he began working for Hrones, Porter handled all the discrimination cases himself, according to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Porter did not dispute that he engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, the court said.
“Porter affirmatively acknowledged, for example, that he signed Hrones’s name on an affidavit, accepted clients, negotiated fees, filed complaints, drafted pleadings, conducted discovery, advised clients as to their legal rights, settled cases and performed other legal work,” the court said.
The court cited some missteps by Porter while working on the cases. He missed some filing deadlines, and a default judgment was entered against his client in one case. He also kept client retainer funds for personal use on at least one occasion, telling the board that he did so because there were times that he didn’t have money.
Porter said he didn’t earn a salary while working for Hrones’ law firm. The firm had paid Porter two-thirds of the contingency fees in employment cases that Porter worked on, according to past coverage of Hrones’ suspension for a year and a day.
The court said it wasn’t satisfied that Porter appreciates the wrongfulness of his earlier unauthorized practice.
The court also cited inconsistent disclosures on Porter’s multiple bar applications regarding old criminal charges, most of which were dismissed. He did, however, plead guilty to operation of an unregistered motor vehicle.
Porter did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal request for comment that was left with the Cabot Park Village.
source: https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/after-20-tries-law-grad-passes-the-bar-but-is-barred-from-massachusetts-law-practice
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