Florida: Lawyer Disbarred for Professional Misconduct Including Multiple Drug-Related Charges-Summarized by Student Brittany McGree

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2010/sc08-1375.pdf
On November 04, 2010 the Florida Supreme Court disbarred lawyer Philip David Irish due to professional misconduct charges brought against him by The Florida Bar. Professional misconduct was found due to Irish’s disregard and neglecting of his client’s cases, six drug-related felony charges, and collection of fees without providing the services needed to the clients. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the referee’s conclusions that the lawyer was found guilty of professional misconduct by violation of the Florida Bar 3-4.2, 3-4.3, 4-1.1, 4-1.3, 4-1.4(a), 4-1.4(b), 4-1.5(a)(1), 4-3.2, 4-8.1(b), 4-8.4(b), (c), (g). Philip David Irish filed a motion for rehearing to the Supreme Court of Florida arguing that his misconduct was directly related to drug addiction which he had recovered from and that his case was similar to other cases such as Florida Bar v. Rosen, 495 So. 2d 180 (Fla. 1986) and Florida Bar v. Hochman, 815 So. 2d 624 (Fla. 2002). Irish was disbarred by the Supreme Court due to lacking of proof that he was a recovered addict and the cases in which the attempt was made to show precedents were lacking similarities. Irish was seeking help from a psychiatrist and addiction therapist but the proof of rehabilitation was lacking in that the conversations that took place between Irish and the psychiatrist were totaling of three hours of phone conversation and one brief face-to-face meeting. There was also no medical documentation of proof that he did have a clean system. The cases that were used as precedent did not relate to the case at hand due to the fact in both situations the attorneys sought help themselves before endangering any of their clients.