Opinion
Docket No. DRB 08-137
07-24-2008
In the Matter of Christopher W. Hyde
JULIANNE K. DECORE CHIEF COUNSEL ISABEL FRANK DEPUTY CHIEF COUNSEL ELLEN A. BRODSKY FIRST ASSISTANT COUNSEL LILLIAN LEWIN DONA S. SEROTA-TESCHNER COLIN T. TAMS KATHRYN ANNE WINTERLE ASSISTANT COUNSEL
LOUIS PASHMAN, ESQ., CHAIR
BONNIE C. FROST, ESQ., VICE-CHAIR
EDNA Y. BAUGH, ESQ.
MATTHEW P. BOYLAN, ESQ.
BRUCE W. CLARK, ESQ.
JEANNE DOREMUS
RUTH JEAN LOLLA
HON. REGINALD STANTON
SPENCER V. WISSINGER, III JULIANNE K. DECORE
CHIEF COUNSEL ISABEL FRANK
DEPUTY CHIEF COUNSEL ELLEN A. BRODSKY
FIRST ASSISTANT COUNSEL LILLIAN LEWIN
DONA S. SEROTA-TESCHNER
COLIN T. TAMS
KATHRYN ANNE WINTERLE
ASSISTANT COUNSEL RICHARD J. HUGHES JUSTICE COMPLEX VIA CERTIFIED MAIL , R.R.R.
Christopher W. Hyde, Esq.
Winterberry Farm
118 Parker Road
Chester, NJ 07930 District Docket No. X-06-103E
LETTER OF ADMONITION Dear Mr. Hyde:
The Disciplinary Review Board has reviewed your conduct in the above matter and has concluded that it was improper. After a careful review of the record, the Board has determined to impose an admonition.
Specifically, you violated RPC 5.5(a) and R. 1:28-2 by engaging in the practice of law from September 2005 to June 2006, while on the Supreme Court list of ineligible attorneys for failure to pay the assessment to the New Jersey Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection.
In aggravation, the Board considered that this is your fourth period of ineligibility since 2001, all allegedly due to mix-ups with the postal system. In mitigation, the Board considered that you have no prior discipline, that you were not aware of your ineligibility, that you cured it as soon as you became aware of it, and that you took steps to rent a post office box in order to prevent any future reoccurrence of the postal problem.
Your conduct has adversely reflected not only upon you as an attorney but also upon all members of the bar. Accordingly, the Board has directed the issuance of this admonition to you. R. 1:20-15(f)(4).
A permanent record of this occurrence has been filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court and the Board's office. Should you become the subject of any further discipline, it will be taken into consideration.
The Board has also directed that the costs of the disciplinary proceedings be assessed against you. An invoice of costs will be forwarded under separate cover.
Very truly yours,
/s/
Julianne K. DeCore
Chief Counsel JKD/sj
c: Chief Justice Stuart Rabner
Associate Justices
Stephen W. Townsend, Clerk, Supreme Court of New Jersey
Gail G. Haney, Deputy Clerk, Supreme Court of New Jersey
(w/ethics history)
Louis Pashman, Chair, Disciplinary Review Board
David E. Johnson, Jr., Director, Office of Attorney Ethics
Catherine M. Brown, Chair, District X Ethics Committee
Caroline Record, Secretary, District X Ethics Committee