2005-11-18 TPARKERSCHOOL - Laserfiche WebLink

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professional conduct. Disciplinary rule 4.2 says, an attorney shall not engage in direct communication with a party that they know to be represented by counsel regarding the subject matter of the representation. And the rule is very clear. And this came to my attention when Leilani Lewis whos a member of the Board of Parker Schools said that she approached Mr. Woodell as he was making measurements at the Kapiolani Road and Lindsey Road intersection on her way to a Parker School board meeting and he said he was making measurements. But, which is okay, I mean I dont have a problem with that. But then he went on to say that the community was never going to give up, that if this, if the Planning Commission ruled against him they would appeal. If the appeal was denied theyd sue the county and sue the school. And that you know that Parker School should know that the communitys never going to give up on this. And that was the communication that was made directly to my client. Now remember that the Board of Directors is the client here, its the applicant and Mr. Woodell knows that Leilani Lewis is a member of the Board of Directors. And she was going directly into a board meeting at Parker School. She was on her way to a Board meeting. And so what came out of that Board meetingwascallstomesayingwhatdoesthismean?Whatdoesthismeanforourschoolyou know? I mean is this going to, is this going to threaten our ability to do this? And so you know what it was is a direct threat to a member of the Board on her way to the Board meeting and it had an impact. And, and so the school wanted me to address this and so I called the Office of Disciplinary Council which is the body that regulates attorneys conduct and I gave an anonymous description of the events. And I was told that disciplinary rule 8.3 says that as an attorney you have a ethical duty to report misconduct. In other words you are required to report misconduct. And I asked them, I gave them an anonymous description of the facts and said under these facts do I have a duty to report and there response was, if your client directs you to or if you client directs you to take appropriate action then yes you do. You have a duty to report. And so, you know I want you to know I, in 29 years of being a lawyer I have any made a disciplinary complaint against another lawyer and I dont like doing it. But I was under an ethical obligation to do it. And having done it, I feel Im under and ethical obligation to raise a disqualification motion. And Im just having done that. We filed a motion we committed to the discretion of the commission and we want to go ahead and get this matter ruled on. Thank you. GALDONES:Thank you Mr. Vitousek. Commissioners I will be allowing also Mr. Woodell to make a statement and also Ms. Leithead-Todd. But as each party makes a representation then I will allow you to question each one so at this moment in time Commissioners do you have any question of Mr. Vitousek? Commissioner Watanabe? WATANABE:So Mr. Woodell is the representative for the intervenor then my question would be if we disqualify him does that mean were going to continue this? VITOUSEK:I, Im afraid it may mean that. And thats not something we want to see happen but we feel that we had a duty to raise the motion and to. You know sometimes what the, sometimes when a court considers a motion to disqualify, it looks at the stage of the proceeding and it looks at the question of whether theres any prejudice to the applicant, or prejudice to the person raising the issue. And so, you know those are the factors that the commission can use in making a decision. If the commission finds that theres no prejudice to the applicant at this point it can deny the motion. EXHIBIT A 5