District Character and Fitness Committee: AGC associate counsel to help screen State Bar applicants

By John Minnis Legal News If Todd McConaghy does a good job in his volunteer work for the State Bar of Michigan, he will have less work to do his in day job with the Attorney Grievance Commission. As the newly appointed chair of the District H subcommittee of the State Bar's Standing Committee on Character and Fitness, McConaghy will assign three-member panels to interview applicants to the State Bar of Michigan, usually recent law school graduates who have successfully passed the bar exam. He was recommended for the chairmanship by the district committee's current chair, Stephen M. Taratuta, an assistant Wayne County prosecutor who is will leave the committee at the end of this year because of term limits. "This is important work that we are doing for the State Bar," Taratuta said, "work that requires the utmost integrity. I believe that Mr. McConaghy will continue to uphold those traditions." McConaghy, who has been with the AGC for four years and on the District Character and Fitness Committee for three years, pointed out that he is one of seven attorneys from the AGC office serving on the district committee, which has 49 members. "I'm not patting myself on the back," he said, "but for my whole office, the Attorney Grievance Commission, this is a real honor." Applicants to the State Bar are required to file, under oath, a comprehensive Affidavit of Personal History, complete with supporting documentation. The affidavit's 58 questions include those on identification, background, school discipline, employment terminations, civil litigation, financial history, criminal history and general fitness. Applicants' truthfulness is crucial. "An applicant's candor when filling out the APH, and during the entire character and fitness process, may be the most telling indicator of the applicant's current character and fitness," wrote Diane Van Aken, manager of the State Bar's Character and Fitness Department, in "Unraveling the Mystery of the Character and Fitness Process." "If an applicant is not truthful concerning a past incident, that lack of candor may say more about the applicant's true character than any incident that may have previously occurred." If while verifying an applicant's information, State Bar staff finds discrepancies or "red flags" pop up, the file is referred to the appropriate District Character and Fitness Committee. The applicant bears the burden of proof (clear and convincing evidence) demonstrating he or she possesses the requisite character and fitness to practice law. "We will probe into what the issue is that raised a red flag," McConaghy said. Applicants who are found to have "significant adverse information" in their background are given the opportunity to argue their case at four different levels: the district committee, the standing committee, the Board of Law Examiners and the Michigan Supreme Court. If the Board of Law Examiners' denial of character and fitness clearance becomes final, an applicant may reapply after a two-year waiting period. No single action or incident will per se result in an applicant being denied admission to practice in Michigan, according to Van Aken. Each applicant is considered individually. Robert B. Ebersole, chairman of the Standing Committee on Character and Fitness, stressed that applicants are evaluated as they are today, and past incidents are considered in that light. "We're not going to hold their background against them if changes have occurred," he said. Ebersole, who began volunteering on a district committee, said some 120 to 150 applicants are referred to district committees each year. Of those, 25 to 30 require a full hearing before the standing committee. Interviews before the district committee are informal, while hearings before the standing committee are more formal and under oath. "At the Attorney Grievance Commission, we deal with this every day," McConaghy said. "It is really a very good fit for our office. We are really geared up for this sort of thing." McConaghy said he typically sits in five applicant interviews a year and expects the number of State Bar applicants to rise with the number of students graduating law schools. "This is at the very beginning, to make sure they have are of good character and fitness," he said. "We're a self-regulating industry. We have to be very watchful." Published: Wed, Dec 21, 2011

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