Ex- Covington & Burling Lawyer Disbarred for Stealing Antiques
A former staff lawyer at Covington & Burling has been disbarred after she pleaded guilty to stealing antiques in two separate cases.
Faith Ruderfer, who is 51, said in a statement that she went “downhill” as she reached midlife, when she began suffering from an undiagnosed lack of impulse control that is a family legacy, Legal Times reports.
She pleaded guilty to grand larceny in both cases, the legal newspaper says. In one, she was accused of using a chair to shatter the window of an antique store and steal about $5,000 worth of items that included vases and jewelry. In the other, she was charged with walking out of a store with an art deco lamp and hand-painted teapot even though she paid for other goods that day.
Ruderfer pointed to her unblemished background as a lawyer, which included work for the Securities and Exchange Commission, in her statement acknowledging a problem with compulsive shoplifting.
“I spent the first 25 years of my legal career with a stellar record—judicial clerkship, large firm and government practice with no ethical or criminal problems, but it seems that midlife occasioned the onset of the illness (a family legacy) and I went downhill over the last five years,” she said. “I am trying to rebuild my life at the present with the help of medication, therapy, 12-step programs, and friends/family support.”
