Montana Lawyer Suspended for Practicing While on Inactive Status

A Montana attorney who had been placed on inactive status for failing to comply with his continuing legal education requirements but continued to practice law has been suspended indefinitely by the state’s highest court.

The Montana Supreme Court on March 3 suspended Patrick Begley “for an indefinite period of not less than seven months, effective thirty days from the date of this Order.” It concluded he violated ethics rules on dishonesty and the unauthorized practice of law.

When Begley petitioned the state high court for reinstatement to active status in 2018, he said he hadn’t violated any professional conduct rules during his period of inactivity, the court said.

But he actually filed a pleading in Carbon County “and continued representation in this matter for over a year,” it said.

Begley never responded to a complaint filed by the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel in July 2019, so the allegations are deemed true the court noted.

He also failed to comply with terms for resolving still another disciplinary matter, it said.

There, the state’s Commission on Practice agreed to hold the matter “in abeyance” so long as Begley met three conditions, including the filing of reports with the ODC and the commission by Aug. 2019, which he never did, the court said.

In his defense, Begley said he had been delayed because of a recent car accident, where he sustained “serious injuries.”

But the court agreed with the commission that his “protracted failure to follow through with requirements designed to assist him to returning to the competent and ethical practice of law” as well as his other ethics violations warrant the suspension.

The case is In re Begley, 2020 BL 80469, Mont., No. PR 19-0444, 3/3/20.