A disciplinary complaint was filed against New York attorneys Richard Harlem, Eric Jervis, James Hartmann and Denis Dineen requesting their disbarment

As the heading says, a disciplinary complaint was filed (I was not the complainant) against the following attorneys:

1) Richard Harlem - son of the late New York Supreme Court Justice and Chief Administrative Judge of the 6th Judicial District Robert Harlem, law partner in the law firm Harlem & Jervis, of Oneonta, NY;

2) Eric Jervis, Richard Harlem's law partner;

3) James Hartmann, of Delhi, NY, husband of the law clerk of the judge-elect Gary Rosa of the Delaware County Family Court, New York, and

4) Denis Dineen, former law clerk of Richard Harlem's father, the late judge Robert Harlem.

There is no statute of limitations for attorney misconduct in New York, so no matter when misconduct was committed by an attorney, it is still reachable by attorney discipline.

The complaint was based on a reportedly unsolicited affidavit sworn to on November 2, 2015 from a witness who asserted under oath that attorney Richard Harlem filed a lawsuit on behalf of the witness while the witness never hired Richard Harlem and never authorized him to file lawsuits on his behalf.  

According to the affidavit, Harlem was notified by the witness about the problem and that Harlem is proceeding on a retainer agreement where the witness's signature was forged.

According to the affidavit, Harlem arrogantly asserted to the witness, an indigent and disabled individual, that Harlem is still his attorney.

According to the affidavit, knowing that he was never hired by the witness to file or prosecute lawsuits on the witness's behalf, attorneys Richard Harlem and Eric Jervis made multiple sworn statements to several courts that they do, indeed, represent the person in question, and obtained a large judgment based on their alleged legal fees against that individual who, according to the affidavit, never hired them in the first place.

Attorney James Hartmann failed to verify whether the witness (one of several parties in the litigation) ever hired Harlem & Jervis or James Hartmann for the trial in the lawsuit, and submitted to the court boxes of sworn statements of Richard  Harlem and Eric Jervis, as well as solicited testimony of Richard Harlem, but not of the individual in question, in support of the contention that Richard Harlem did represent the individual.  

The complaint also points out that Richard Harlem intentionally lied to the court that he represented the person in question when he blocked discovery directed at that person, and that, by lying to the court that Richard Harlem and his law firm represents the person in question, the defendant in the lawsuit was blocked from direct communication with a valuable material witness, which severely impaired the defendant's defense in the case.

The complaint also adds that Richard  Harlem's fraud upon the court was not isolated (it happened in that particular lawsuit over the course of several years), but is coupled with his, his father's and Denis Dineen's misconduct in the Blanding case in Otsego County Surrogate's Court.

The complaint requests disbarment of attorney Denis Dineen (who is now employed with New York State Workers' Compensation Board) for aiding and abetting unauthorized practice of law by a sitting Supreme Court Justice Robert Harlem, while knowing that the sitting judge is not allowed by the State Constitution to practice law, and knowing that an attorney is not allowed to bequeath to himself in a will he drafts any benefits, as Judge Harlem did.  Instead of reporting Judge Harlem's misconduct, Dineen helped Judge Harlem by appearing as a witness on one of the codicils (additions) to the will that Judge Harlem drafted in his favor for a multi-millionaire testator.

I will hold my breath if the system will dare to discipline "blue blood" attorneys who so far escaped discipline for decades.

If it doesn't, you know that attorney disciplinary system exists not to protect you from attorneys who commit misconduct, but to protect powerful attorneys who commit misconduct from criticism and to quash criticism of judicial misconduct and corruption amongst attorneys.

An affidavit like that is at the very least worth investigation and, possibly, referral from the attorney disciplinary committee to appropriate criminal investigators and prosecutors.

If the statements in the affidavit are true, Richard Harlem, Eric Jervis and James Hartmann committed massive fraud upon the court that requires their disbarment and incarceration for the rest of their lives.

Once again, will the system dare to apply the rule of law against these politically connected attorneys?

Stay tuned.