In Re Petition for Disciplinary Action Against Andrade

I respectfully dissent, for two reasons. First, I find the court’s penalty of disbarment disproportionately harsh when compared with the discipline imposed for comparable offenses in the past. Second, I conclude that the lesser penalty of suspension followed by supervised probation would satisfy the purposes of attorney discipline proceedings, as we have articulated them.

The court begins with the premise that the presumptive discipline to be imposed, based on Andrade’s felony conviction, is disbarment, and that lesser discipline is to be imposed only when there exist “substantial mitigating…