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A Washington lawyer who represented two prominent Iranian political dissidents has agreed to disbarment.
Lily Mazahery initially fought charges that she committed ethics violations in her representation of two men seeking asylum in the United States. On Feb. 5, the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility released a report stating that Mazahery agreed to accept the board's recommendation of disbarment.
Mazahery's lawyer, James Maloney of Maloney & Mohsen, declined to comment.
The Office of Bar Counsel charged Mazahery in 2010 with ethics violations concerning her representation of two former clients, Ahmad Batebi and Mahdi Kianoosh Sanjari Baf. She was accused of dishonesty, shoddy legal work and threatening Batebi and Sanjari with deportation unless they followed her instructions, among other allegations.
Bar counsel also charged Mazahery with mishandling money she helped raise to aid a woman sentenced to death in Iran and making a false claim about a charge on her bank account.
Mazahery denied wrongdoing. Maloney argued in a brief that the "uncontroverted evidence is that Ms. Mazahery provided competent, skillful and careful representation."
The Ad Hoc Hearing Committee, which hears testimony before making a report to the Board on Professional Responsibility, recommended disbarment in September 2011. One member dissented, saying he would have recommended a three-year suspension.
In October, the Board on Professional Responsibility recommended disbarment. Sanjari and Batebi ultimately were granted asylum, but the board said in its report that Mazahery should still face the most serious sanction available.
"Respondent's dishonesty and incompetence, coupled with her lack of appreciation for the severity of her misconduct, causes concern that she would be poised to commit similar violations in the future," the board found, adding that disbarment would send a message to other members of the bar.
The case was slated to go before the D.C. Court of Appeals, which has the final say in attorney discipline cases.
Mazahery's practice, according to filings from the disciplinary proceedings, focused on humanitarian law issues. She founded the Legal Rights Institute, representing political dissidents and victims of human rights violations. Before striking out on her own in 2002, she was an associate at Jones Day. She had no previous disciplinary history in Washington.
After she was charged with misconduct in 2010 and suspended from practicing in D.C., the U.S. Department of Justice Board of Immigration appeals suspended her in 2011 from practicing before immigration courts and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Contact Zoe Tillman at ztillman@alm.com. On Twitter: @zoetillman.
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Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202642344893/Lawyer-for-Iranian-Asylum-Seekers-Agrees-to-Disbarment#ixzz2t2Co84xx
