Lawyer Might Lose Commission Position Because of Book

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has apparently lost confidence in its chairman because of a book, according to Law.com. As the story says, "The agency's 10 commissioners -- all but Felder -- were unanimous in expressing their loss of confidence," and it released a statement saying that the members were seeing if they could remove chair Raoul Felder.

Oh, he must have written a very, very, very bad book. Oh, wait, it was called Schmucks! and the other author was comedian Jackie Mason. Bad, bad, bad, wicked man. To write something that is "crude, biased, vulgar and otherwise demeaning" in the eyes of the commissions. No matter that Mr. Felder makes his living as a divorce lawyer, surely one of the most acrimonious professions one could imagine, particularly with clients like former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. But that was apparently fine.

What put things over the line? Here's something from the story:

In its statement, the commission cited several aspects of "Schmucks!" that
"undermine the appearance of impartiality, and the dignity and probity that is
required of the Commission and its Chair."

One unacceptable assertion cited in the statement was that "anytime you hear the word 'allegedly' you can bet it's true."

"Such a viewpoint is untenable from a Commission member whose
role is to evaluate allegations of judicial misconduct," the commission stated.

How excruciatingly naughty to think something like that, as I would bet most lawyers do, and then to actually say it. Of course, Felder's comments during his career - for example, during the Giuliani divorce when he said that now ex-wife Donna Hanover was "howling like a stuck pig" - were perfectly fine. I guess that doesn't affect the appearance of impartiality nor the dignity and probity required of the position.