Matter of Greenberg

In In re Wilson, 81 N.J. 451, 409 A.2d 1153 (1979), this Court abandoned its longstanding prior practice of weighing mitigating circumstances in imposing discipline on lawyers who misappropriate client funds, and adopted a rule of virtually automatic disbarment for that most egregious infraction:

In this case, respondent knowingly used his clients’ money as if it were his own. We hold that disbarment is the only appropriate discipline. We also use this occasion to state that generally all such cases shall result in disbarment. We foresee no significant exceptions to this rule and expect the…