Matter of Downer

I joined the dissenting opinion in In re Bell, 126 N.J. 261, 596 A.2d 752 (1991) that suggested:

[Although the Wilson rule [of almost invariable disbarment] is the right rule for the vast majority of misappropriation cases, the inflexibility with which it can be applied runs the risk of creating within our attorney-discipline system an almost reflexive approach to such cases, obscuring and ignoring the individual circumstances to an intolerable degree.

[Id. at 267, 596 A.2d 752 (Stein, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (quoting In re Konopka, 126 N.J. 225, 241, 596 A.2d 733 (1991)…