A former law firm associate who offered to provide information to an opposing party for a $2,000 fee has been suspended from the practice of law for five years.
Glenn A. Kiczales, a former associate at landlord-tenant firm Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, began representing real estate firm Stahl Associates in 2002 in an action to recover an apartment from a tenant and a sublessee named Rajiv Gosain.
Gosain offered at various points in the action to pay Kiczales, 36, for help in the case, including $20,000 in the event of a favorable settlement.
Though Kiczales was unable to accept that fee because he was too junior a lawyer to influence his client on a settlement, he offered for a $2,000 fee to provide Gosain information about how certain audiotape evidence would be used.
Gosain never paid the $2,000, though and his own lawyer subsequently reported Kiczales' conduct to partners at Ingram Yuzek. He was terminated immediately and the firm withdrew as counsel to Stahl Associates.
In my opinion, Kiczales should have been disbarred, not suspended. Details here from New York Law Journal via Law.com.