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(EMAILWIRE.COM, September 17, 2011 ) Short Hills, New Jersey -- In response to an ABA Panel recommendation that the investigatory and prosecutorial functions be removed from NJ District Ethics Committees, former District V-B Ethics Committee Chair Mike Spar expressed skepticism as to the practicality of the suggestion.
He was quoted in the August 8, 2011 issue of the New Jersey Law Journal as saying "Where will the OAE get the man-power? There is a significant financing Issue."
Currently, those functions are performed by the members of the District Ethics Committees, who are all volunteers. There are a number of Committees, each having multiple members, who at any given time are handling one to several cases. The cost of hiring professionals to take this over would be substantial; the question would become, who is going to fund that. To expect the bar to fund it by raising fees on attorneys would be unfair, particularly in this difficult economic environment. The ABA panel suggested that moving the investigatory and prosecutorial functions to a professional staff would lead to more consistency throughout the system.
Spar also expressed concern over whether a full-time professional disciplinary staff might tend not to have a practical real world perspective on the ethical challenges and conundrums confronted by practitioners. "When there are [full-time disciplinary] professionals only, sometimes they lose touch with the real world and real world pressures that exist. It's good to be tethered to the real world."
Spar served on the District V-B Ethics Committee from September 2004 through August 2008. He was vice chair from September 2006 through August 2007 and Chair from September 2007 through August 2008.
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