Suspended lawyer blames golf and holidays

A New Jersey lawyer who has been suspended for three months has blamed a lifestyle of golf and holidays for making him neglect his files.

Golf was blamed for getting in the way of work Mikael Pamkier

Jared Stolz was suspended by the New Jersey Supreme Court for making ‘sarcastic and sophomoric’ comments to colleagues and for making mis-statements to a judge. Amongst comments made to opposing counsel were ‘Why don’t you grow a pair?’ and ‘This will acknowledge receipt of your numerous Emails, faxes and letters. … In response thereto, Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla’. 

Too much golf

Mr Stolz denied that he lied to the judge but explained that he was frequently out of the office. He told an ethics hearing which recommended his suspension to the Supreme Court: ‘I neglected my files, I played too much golf, I went to Punta Cana with my family all within two months. Was it wrong? I don’t know. This is the lifestyle that I’ve chosen, the practice I’ve chosen because I worked at Methfessel & Werbel for 15 years in a cubicle rising to managing director. I didn’t want that anymore. I want to play golf. I do insurance work. I missed it. I screwed up. I had no motivation to lie to the judge about this particular thing.’ 

Getting lazy

He continued: ‘Should I have done things differently? Absolutely. Did I learn a lesson about this? Absolutely. After this, and I got that I now have hired two other attorneys, they review things, I review everything that comes in. Am I going to get lazy again and play more golf? I hope so. But I certainly did not intentionally lie.’ Source: ABA Journal

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