The state's highest court issued a ruling on Thursday that unanimously ordered the permanent removal of an attorney from practice. The decision, authored by Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud, affirmed a previous recommendation to revoke the law license of Shakespear N. Feyissa. The court rejected assertions that the disciplinary process had been unfair or influenced by racial prejudice.

The case centers on a dispute regarding fee structures in personal injury settlements. The court determined that the attorney misunderstood a prior precedent known as the Mahler decision, which he interpreted as justification for adding a surcharge to his compensation. Beginning in 2013, he included an ambiguous reference to this ruling in his contingency agreements.

Investigation into these practices revealed that across sixteen matters, the attorney collected more than $48,500 in unauthorized fees. In some instances, this brought his total compensation for a case to between 41 and 59 percent of the settlement. The court found that he also applied this charge to clients whose contracts did not contain the specific provision.

The investigation intensified in August 2019 following a grievance filed by a former paralegal. The complaint alleged that the attorney had stolen from clients and instructed staff to lie to insurance companies. Another grievance involved a massage provider who treated a client. After she declined to lower a $999 bill, the attorney sent payment along with a message describing her as "one horrible useless incompetent and stupid waste of a human."

Following the start of the formal inquiry, the attorney contacted three clients whose original agreements lacked the disputed surcharge provision. He drafted statements for them to sign, claiming they had lost their original paperwork but believed they had agreed to the extra fee. He then altered an electronic file to create backdated documents containing the provision and submitted them as evidence. The attorney later admitted during the hearing that the signed statements were false.

The court rejected his defense that he was not accountable for his attorney submitting the materials. The ruling stated that actions taken by legal counsel bind the client and that the attorney had intentionally created false evidence for the proceeding.

The attorney, who immigrated from Ethiopia as a teenager, appealed the recommendation for disbarment by arguing that racial bias affected the hearing.

The Supreme Court flatly rejected these claims after reviewing the entire record.

Justice Gordon McCloud wrote that the hearing officer properly admitted relevant testimony regarding cultural differences and that descriptions of Feyissa’s communications were based on extensive documentary evidence of his actual behavior, not stereotypes.

The court concluded that Feyissa “has not overcome the presumption that the [hearing officer] was unbiased.”

The court also dismissed Feyissa’s argument that his documented struggles with clinical depression should mitigate his sanction.

While the court acknowledged his genuine emotional difficulties during a stressful custody battle, it ruled that his depression did not explain his intentional decisions to falsify documents and obstruct the disciplinary process.

Upholding the disbarment, the Supreme Court emphasized that falsifying information during an attorney discipline proceeding is “one of the most egregious charges that can be leveled against an attorney.”

In addition to disbarment, the court affirmed an order assessing $33,984.88 in court reporter costs against Feyissa.

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