Although the Colorado Supreme Court has a staffed office dedicated to investigating complaints of attorney misconduct, the federal trial court based in Denver has its own, smaller operation to respond to rule breaking – even when it occurs outside of the state.

On Sept. 15, members of the U.S. District Court’s Committee on Conduct appeared alongside U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter, who was a member prior to joining the bench, to discuss the process for disciplining lawyers who are admitted to practice in federal court.

“We don’t have the same investigator capacity they do,” said Neureiter, referring to the state’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. “They have paid lawyers, paid investigators.”

Brooke Meyer, a volunteer committee member who formerly worked at OARC, said the most serious complaints tend to come from judges who allege dishonest conduct from attorneys.

“The biggest one is truth telling and following judges’ orders, and making sure you properly go through the mechanism of discovery,” she said.

When a complaint comes to the 12-member committee, it can dismiss the report outright if it lacks merit. Otherwise, a three-member subcommittee will investigate and possibly ask for a response from the attorney in question. The subcommittee will make a recommendation to bring formal charges, dismiss, or enter into an agreement with the attorney to admit a violation and receive a consequence.

Mark Fredrickson, who works with the clerk’s office in the district court, said in his 17-year involvement with the committee there has never been a formal trial of an attorney misconduct complaint, as the process generally stops short of that.

Nonetheless, the district court’s website does catalog the public discipline doled out to attorneys. In 2018, a three-judge disciplinary panel censured a lawyer who U.S. District Court Senior Judge William J. Martínez reported for repeatedly violating procedure and making frivolous arguments. Last year, the panel suspended a lawyer who lied to Neureiter about having no pending disciplinary actions in other states.

Under the “rule of good standing,” Fredrickson said, if an attorney is suspended in any other court, they will be automatically suspended in Colorado’s U.S. District Court.

“If I found out even by a newspaper article that someone has been suspended or disbarred, I’m obligated to apply the rule of good standing,” he said.

Although an attorney’s behavior may merit a complaint to the committee, judges can also impose sanctions when they detect problems. Neureiter recently ordered two attorneys to pay nearly $187,000 for bringing a meritless lawsuit in the wake of the 2020 election alleging an elaborate conspiracy to rig the vote.

“Should I have reported those lawyers to the Committee on Conduct? Maybe,” he said. “But I thought the public reprimand of a sanction that’s ‘on their record,’ so to speak, was enough.”

In another instance, however, Neureiter said he was moved to file a complaint about a lawyer who filed a large number of copyright infringement cases across the country and racked up judicial sanctions in the process for misbehavior.

“This guy was a danger to the public,” said Neureiter. Similarly, he relayed that another magistrate judge in Colorado filed a complaint upon suspecting a lawyer produced a forged document in court.

“You don’t want to deprive a party of due process because their attorney misbehaved,” cautioned committee member Peter Goldstein, in differentiating between sanctions in a case and initiating separate misconduct proceedings.

If a lawyer learns they are the subject of a complaint, Goldstein continued, they “have to take it seriously,” and should probably obtain an attorney. However, sometimes complaints will simply amount to a client being upset they did not win their case.

“There are a lot of non-meritorious grievances and complaints. Rest assured, if you ever receive a complaint,” Meyer clarified, “comply and be open to the extent you can.”

The committee does submit an annual report, but it is confidential. The proceedings, like their counterparts at OARC, are also largely shielded from public view. Neureiter described the disciplinary complaints as the equivalent of a legal complaint filed to initiate a lawsuit.

“So you can’t sue someone for libel for a complaint filed with the Committee on Conduct,” he said.

Complaints against judges go through a separate process, handled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Colorado. The chief judge of the circuit will determine whether a report lacks merit or may move forward to an investigation.

“There was a complaint against me. He looked at the allegations and said, ‘You don’t have to respond to four out of the five allegations, but you do have to respond to the fifth,'” Neureiter recalled.

The speakers suggested there may be times when an “emergency suspension” from practicing in the court is necessary – such as a lawyer facing murder charges. For lesser criminal conduct, like drunk driving, the committee would likely wait to see the outcome of the case.

If an attorney is suspended elsewhere and, thus, suspended from the U.S. District Court, readmission to the federal court is not always automatic.

“You still have to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that you’ve been rehabilitated,” said Goldstein.

The Faculty of Federal Advocates sponsored the panel discussion, which took place at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in Denver.