A Lawyer's Honesty

What a lawyer may do and still remain an honest man in the sight of his profession is something of which the average man feels at liberty to make light. A lawyer may be tried for unethical conduct and disbarred if he be found guilty. Occasionally a lawyer of conspicuous standing is compelled to explain.

A case in point is that of Thomas L. Chadbourne, who was exonerated on March 2 by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court from charges of unprofessional conduct. The American Bar Association preferred the charges a year ago. They had to do with Mr. Chadbourne's connections with George J. Gould.

Mr. Chadbourne was accused of having been grossly negligent in failing to advise Mr. Gould that he should turn over to the estate of Jay Gould commissions on Western Union stock bought for the estate by Mr. George J. Gould as executor. The court pointed out that there was no reason for Mr. Chadbourne to believe that Mr. Gould would not honestly turn over to the estate the commissions of the sale, and that Mr. Chadbourne pointed this out eight years later as soon as he discovered that the commissions had not been paid to the estate.

Mr. Chadbourne was also accused of having negotiated a fraudulent contract for Tailer & Co., bankers. Here, also, the court pointed out, Mr. Chadbourne had no way of knowing that the contract was made for fraudulent purposes.

The moral of the entire case is that the courts will not hold any lawyer guilty of unethical conduct solely because a client of the lawyer succeeds in using him unwittingly as a tool for fraudulent transactions. A lawyer is responsible only for his own honesty --not for that of his clients.