On Thursday, December 1, 2022, the State of New York, Supreme Court, Appellate Division of the Third Judicial Department ruled on the motion of the Attorney Grievance Committee for the imposition of discipline upon San Diego attorney Enrique Elliot Adler concerning his felony conviction in the Southern District of California.
The case, titled In the Matter of Enrique Elliot Adler, was brought by the Attorney Grievance Committee. Case #PM-206-22.
The following are as summarized from the filing:
Adler was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, a federal felony, before the United States District Court for the Southern District of California on May 2022. He entered a plea of guilt and admitted that he and a coconspirator had filed false tax returns and participated in a fraudulent scheme over several years to disguise various monies as charitable contributions to a religious organization.
The Attorney Grievance Committee (“AGC”) then moved to impose discipline upon Adler as a consequence of his conviction.
The Memorandum and Order on Motion state:
‘AGC correctly alleges, and respondent effectively concedes, that respondent’s adjudicated violation of 18 USC § 371 meets the statutory definition of a “serious crime.’
The Court, in ruling against Adler stated among others:
‘We observe at the outset that standard 5.11 of the American Bar Association’s Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions generally prescribes disbarment for “serious criminal conduct [which includes the] necessary element of . . . misrepresentation [or] fraud” or “any other intentional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation that seriously adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness to practice.”‘
Accordingly, the Court ruled against Adler in relation to the serious crime he committed, and the fact that his criminal conduct encompassed multiple offenses over a course of several years.
The disposition reads:
“ORDERED that the motion of the Attorney Grievance Committee for the Third Judicial Department is granted, and it is further
ORDERED that respondent is disbarred and his name is stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law of the State of New York, effective immediately; and it is further
ORDERED that respondent is commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form in the State of New York, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another, and respondent is hereby forbidden to appear as an attorney or counselor-at-law before any court, judge, justice, board, commission or other public authority, or to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice in relation thereto, or to hold himself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law in this State; and it is further;
ORDERED that respondent shall comply with the provisions of the Rules for Attorney Disciplinary Matters regulating the conduct of disbarred attorneys and shall duly certify to the same in his affidavit of compliance.”
Prior to his disbarment, Mr. Adler practiced in San Diego, California. He earned his law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo, School of Law. Adler had been licensed in New York, license no. 5381785, as well as California, and the District of Columbia. His info can be found on All California Attorneys website.
