Matter of Robertson

My colleagues in the majority treat this case as one which raises an abstract question regarding the meaning of “restitution” under D.C.App. Rule XI, § 3(b), rather than as a concrete dispute with a litigation history of its own and with consequences for flesh and blood people. In doing so, they largely let off the financial hook a lawyer who neglected his client’s case for several years, who intentionally failed to carry out his contract of employment to the severe detriment of his client’s interest, who thereafter repeatedly promised to make the client whole in order to obtain lenient…