"Philadelphia Lawyers": Policing the Law in Pennsylvania

With these and other concerns in mind, in 1968 the American Bar Association charged a Commission to study the disciplinary systems in place in the various states.55 The final product, known as the "Clark Report" (for its Chair, former Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark), described a "scandalous situation that requires the immediate attention of the profession."56 "With few exceptions," the Report stressed, "the prevailing attitude of lawyers toward disciplinary enforcement ranges from apathy to outright hostility."57 What's more, acts of discipline were "practically nonexistent in many jurisdictions," practices and procedures were "antiquated," and many disciplinary agencies lacked the power to move against malefactors. Over the course of its 200-plus pages, the Clark Report identified thirty-six distinct "problems" with state-level attorney discipline and offered corresponding "recommendations," particularly involving issues of central coordination, changes in practices involving funding, record-keeping, reciprocal punishments, reinstatements, reporting, and evidence gathering, and treatment of witnesses.58 Pennsylvania allows for both private and public disciplinary options. Private discipline can take one of two forms: an informal admonition, imposed by the Chief Disciplinary Counsel;104 or a private reprimand, imposed by the Board.105 According to the Board's own "Glossary of Terms," an informal admonition is "the lowest form of private discipline usually administered for first time minor offenses," while a private reprimand is "usually for minor misconduct or the next level of discipline for an attorney who previously received an informal admonition."106 Beyond this, our interviews suggest that private discipline is in essence something like an "intervention," particularly for first-time offenders and/or individuals with offenses that, while serious, do not generally rise above misdemeanor criminal matters or especially grave professional infractions. As one disciplinary official explained, when referring to the decision to impose an informal admonition or private reprimand for something like a drunk driving offense, the thinking here is that "We don't want to see this happen again" and thus the lawyer would sit down with the relevant officials and discuss the seriousness of the offense, but that if it were private discipline there would be no public record of the event.107 And thus this variety of sanction does not generally influence an attorney's abil