Noted attorney’s license suspended by New Mexico Supreme Court
JAN 14, 2022 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: JAN 20, 2022
The state Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended the law license of former legislator Victor Marshall after finding he violated the judicial Code of Conduct by filing a frivolous charge, defaming a judge and engaging in conduct detrimental to the administration of justice.
“I’m sorry; I can’t talk to the press because of the court’s ruling,”
Marshall, who practiced law for more than 45 years without previous sanction, said Thursday.
The Supreme Court’s ruling — announced by Chief Justice Michael Vigil following oral arguments Wednesday and formalized in writing Thursday — is in response to a motion the lawyer filed in a decadeslong dispute over water in the San Juan River basin and a related news release he sent to media.
In the motion, Marshall said a settlement in the case — which awarded more than 600,000 acre-feet of water in the basin to the Navajo Nation — should be set aside because, he alleged, now-retired Judge James Wechsler failed to disclose he had once worked for the Navajo Nation before approving the 2013 deal.
Wechsler had worked not for the Navajo Nation itself but for an outfit called DNA, a nonprofit legal aid organization, in the 1970s, according to information provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts in 2018.
Much of the discussion during oral arguments on the disciplinary action centered on the language Marshall used in his pleading.
“Our concern is not so much he made a claim that Wechsler had a conflict,”
Supreme Court Justice Julie Vargas said,
“but the way that he made it.”
Vargas said Marshall implied Wechsler intentionally concealed his relationship with the Navajo Nation, ignored the law and “fixed” the case in favor of his former clients.
The Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Panel stated in written findings, adopted by the court, Marshall’s conduct “was intentional and threatened serious harm to the integrity of the legal system” as well as causing a distraction and delay in the case.
Marshall’s attorney Jeff Baker told the court his client’s word choice may have been poor, but he was merely being a zealous advocate on behalf of his clients — a group of Northern New Mexico water districts — and shouldn’t be disciplined for asking for the case to be stayed while he investigated “rumors” he’d heard around the Legislature about Wechsler’s previously undisclosed relationship with the Navajo Nation.
“It all goes back to Mr. Marshall’s unfortunate use of the word ‘fixed,'”
Baker argued.
“That was too harsh of a word … but it’s not the kind of thing that ought to result in a lawyer losing his license for an indefinite period of time.”
Marshall said his words — particularly a passage in which he said the public might wonder whether Wechsler had fixed the case — were being misconstrued and he’d carefully chosen the language to comport with a rule that requires judges to disqualify themselves when their impartiality might “reasonably” be questioned.
“I do know how to accuse a judge of actually fixing a case if I wanted to,”
Marshall told the court.
“But I didn’t.”
The disciplinary panel disagreed, noting in written findings
“an objectively reasonable person would not ‘wonder whether’ Judge Wechsler ‘fixed the case’ in favor of the Navajo Nation based upon his work as a staff attorney for DNA legal Services roughly forty-five years prior.”
HEAR YE, HEAR YE, HEAR YE.
In the History of the United States, no-one has downed the Federal Judiciary for Corruption.
That is about to Change in 2021.
Y’all are about to Witness a Scandal bigger than OPERATION GREYLORD.#OperationWhiteout has Matured. @uscourts @FBI pic.twitter.com/Qb1xRCOHKl
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) November 7, 2021
The panel had originally contemplated disciplining Marshall via a public censure, according to written findings, but decided his lack of contrition warranted a harsher penalty.
“The panel has substantial concern [because (Marshall) continues to deny that he did anything improper and displays no remorse and] that [Marshall] could engage in similar conduct in the future unless [his] conduct has serious repercussions,” according to panel.
Former Foundation for Open Government executive board member Susan Boe said Thursday the group did not agree with the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We’re disappointed on both a policy level and certainly personally for Victor,”
Boe said.
“It’s a pretty harsh punishment.”
Marshall — who has represented The New Mexican — will be eligible to request reinstatement of his license after one year, according to the Supreme Court’s order.
But he first must complete four hours of continuing education credits and take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination and pass with a score of at least 80 before doing so, according to the order.
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VICTOR R. MARSHALL graduated from Princeton with a degree in Near Eastern Studies (A.B., magna cum laude). Then he worked on Wall Street as an international banker for JPMorgan.
Then he graduated from Harvard Law, moved to New Mexico, and joined the Rodey law firm in Albuquerque.
Victor served 8 years in the New Mexico State Senate, where he co-sponsored the 1988 constitutional amendment for the merit selection of judges.
He sponsored the mandatory seat belt bill and the Natural Lands Protection Act, and served as Co-Chair of the Senate Judiciary Member. He started his own firm in 1990.
Victor concentrates on commercial litigation, state constitutional law, water law, and media law.
Reported cases: Sachs v. Board of Trustees [Kerr-McGee Corp. v. Bokum Resources Corp.], 1978-NMSC-089; First National Bank in Albuquerque v. Energy Equities Inc., 1977-NMCA-098; McKinney v. Gannett Co., 660 F. Supp. 984 (D.N.M. 1981), 694 F.2d 1240 (10th Cir. 1982), 817 F.2d 659 (10th Cir. 1987); Coronado Credit Union v. KOAT Television, 1982-NMCA-176; In re Rehabilitation of Western Investors Life Ins. Co., 1983-NMSC–082; New Mexico Life Ins. Guaranty Ass’n v. Quinn &. Co., 1991-NMSC-036; State ex rel. Clark v. State Canvassing Bd., 1995-NMSC-011; State ex rel. Clark v. Johnson, 1995-NMSC-048; Krahling v. First Trust National Ass’n, 1997-NMCA-082; West Bluff Neighborhood Ass’n v. City of Albuquerque, 2002–NMCA-075; Kysar v. Amoco Prod. Co., 2004-NMSC-025; Kysar v. Amoco Prod. Co., 379 F.3d 1150 (10th Cir. 2004); In re McCarthey, 368 F.3d 1266 (10th Cir. 2004); State ex rel. Board of County Commissioners v. Williams, 2007-NMCA-036; San Juan Agricultural Water Users Ass’n v. KNME-TV, 2011-NMSC-011.
Michael Vigil, whose five-decade career has spanned nearly every aspect of the law in New Mexico, became the chief justice of the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Elected to the position by the five-member court, Vigil succeeds Judith Nakamura, who had served in the position since 2017 and recently announced her intention to retire later this year.
“There is much to be done, but my first priority is to continue the work we have started to keep our courts open for business, and at the same time, endeavor to protect the health and safety of everyone entering our courts — employees, jurors, judges, attorneys, parties, witnesses and members of the public,” Vigil said in a statement.
“In this way,” he added, “we will be doing our part as the third branch of our government to protect constitutional rights and administer justice in a safe manner.”
The chief justice presides over Supreme Court hearings and conferences as well as serves as the administrative head over personnel, budgets and operations of all state courts.
Vigil, 69, was elected to the Supreme Court in 2018. He had served as a judge on the Court of Appeals for 15 years. In that role, he served as chief judge and wrote more than 1,000 opinions.
He also worked as a private attorney for more than 27 years.
Vigil, who graduated from Santa Fe High School and the College of Santa Fe, received his law degree at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He began his career in 1976 as a staff attorney in the Court of Appeals’ prehearing division.
He was administered the oath of office Wednesday by Nakamura, who had defeated Vigil when they ran for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016. A photo released by the Administrative Office of the Courts showed Nakamura good-naturedly offering a baton to Vigil, who was in Albuquerque during the swearing-in ceremony.
“For us at the Supreme Court, this symbolizes the orderly collegial passing of responsibility from the current chief justice to our new chief justice,” Nakamura said.
