NJ Lawyer Gets 1-Year Suspension for Offering to Cut Fees in Exchange for Sexual Favors
A New Jersey lawyer has received a one-year suspension for offering clients discounted legal fees in exchange for sexual favors.
David Witherspoon, a solo practitioner in Newark, told four female clients in bankruptcy cases that he would reduce or forgive his fees in return for acts of a sexual nature, the New Jersey Law Journal reported Friday.
Witherspoon might consider himself lucky. Two New Jersey Supreme Court justices wanted him disbarred, saying the court should adopt a bright-line rule for sexual misconduct with clients like the one that mandates disbarment for theft of client trust account funds.
But the majority was more forgiving, saying Witherspoon’s offers to his clients—which none of his clients took him up on—didn’t approach the level of sexual misconduct the court has previously considered worthy of disbarment. In the Matter of David Witherspoon (PDF).
Witherspoon told one client she could satisfy her legal fees by allowing him to “watch her with her female friend or by allowing him to join in,” according to the court file. He told another client he would refund his legal fees if she joined him on his office couch.
A defiant Witherspoon said afterward he disagreed with the court’s account of what happened between him and his clients. “I have a decent record of providing affordable service to over 10,000 clients and will resume that level of service when this period is over,” he told the New Jersey Law Journal.
