A hearing officer recommended disbarment for a former Nike Inc. president and two other prominent lawyers over allegations that they set up a sting to discredit a judge in billion-dollar battle over a supermarket empire. All three said they planned to appeal.
The recommendation came Thursday over charges that they lured former Judge Maria Lopez's clerk to fake job interviews to try to get him to offer information showing that she was biased when she presided a legal battle between relatives of two brothers who co-founded the Market Basket grocery chain.
All three lawyers worked at times for the losing side in the family fight. They are Richard K. Donahue, a former Kennedy adviser who later led Nike and the Massachusetts Bar Association; former assistant attorney general Kevin P. Curry; and Gary C. Crossen, a former counsel to two governors.
The disbarment recommendation by M. Ellen Carpenter, a hearing officer for the Board of Bar Overseers, would require approval from the full board and a justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court.