I never liked the “Blue Code of Silence” that cops use to protect the bad apples, and I don’t like the “White Coat of Silence” that some doctors use to protect each other. So if I don’t like it for others, then I won’t do it myself.
Which brings me to this AP story that appeared last week in Newsday:
NEW YORK (AP) – Two personal injury lawyers who pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients were sentenced Thursday to community service and five years probation after repaying the money they stole.
Michael Mann, of Little Silver, N.J., and Joshua Just, of Manhattan, pleaded guilty in August to scheme to defraud. They admitted that from 2003 through 2005 their Manhattan law firm, Mann & Just LLP, stole at least $275,000 from at least 10 clients by charging for expenses the firm never incurred.
While some in other professions may look away from their own problems — and every business or industry has them, from teachers to clerics –I don’t think that we should follow that script. There are bad actors in every business, and the others in the business ought to be on the front lines of cleaning it up, not hiding it. And so I give this story just a tiny bit more of publicity.
Because the plea deal was for felony conviction, both people will be disbarred. As they should.