STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. FRIESEN

Summary

The Oklahoma Supreme Court considered a summary attorney-discipline proceeding arising from Larry Douglas Friesen's guilty pleas to three federal misdemeanor counts for willful failure to pay employment taxes. The court continued his suspension through the effective date of the decision, deferred further discipline during his federal probation, and conditioned resumption of practice on payment of proceeding costs.

Holdings

1. An attorney's repeated willful failure to pay employment taxes, particularly taxes withheld from employee paychecks, reflects adversely on the attorney's fitness to practice law, even when the attorney filed the required quarterly returns and was not convicted of failing to file tax returns.
2. The appropriate discipline was to suspend Friesen from the practice of law from the date of the interim-suspension order through the effective date of the Court's pronouncement, defer further discipline while he remains on federal probation, and reserve authority to impose additional discipline if he violates probation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Friesen's repeated willful failure to pay employment taxes, after withholding those taxes from employee paychecks, demonstrated unfitness to practice law.
2. What discipline was appropriate in light of the tax offenses, the absence of client harm, the federal probation sentence, and the mitigating evidence.
3. Whether the interim suspension should continue during federal probation and whether final discipline should be deferred subject to compliance with probation.

Disposition

other