High court: Lawyer was duped by imposter

Saying that Evan M. Slavitt was ‘‘duped by an imposter’’ when he recommended for bar admission a man who turned out not to have a law license, the state’s highest court yesterday explained why it reduced the time Slavitt was suspended from practicing law from one year to two months.

According to the Supreme Judicial Court’s opinion, Slavitt did not, as the Board of Bar Overseers concluded, make a false or misleading statement when he swore that he did not realize Douglas Fineberg was not a licensed lawyer when he wrote a letter recommending Fineberg for admission to the Massachusetts bar.

Slavitt is a former federal prosecutor and 2002 Republican candidate for attorney general.

The SJC did fault Slavitt, however, for recommending Fineberg to the Massachusetts bar despite knowing that he had once falsely claimed to be a lawyer in California, since that lie compromised Fineberg’s fitness to be an attorney.

Slavitt has acknowledged he should not have written the recommendation.

But he has said he vouched for Fineberg because he believed that Fineberg, despite the earlier lie, had finally won admittance to the California bar.

Slavitt believed that for three reasons: Fineberg told him he was licensed, a Fleet Bank employee told him Fineberg was doing legal work for the bank, and Fineberg had been hired by the law firm Gadsby Hannah.

The high court accepted Slavitt’s explanation, calling it ‘‘eminently believable’’ and concluding that ‘‘the fact that he was duped by an imposter ... does not warrant bar discipline.’’

The SJC also noted that neither Fleet nor Gadsby Hannah checked Fineberg’s credentials, as Slavitt ‘‘could reasonably have expected.’’

Slavitt said he will not return to private practice or to his former Boston law firm, Bodoff & Slavitt.

‘‘I’m pleased that the allegation that I deceived a court, which I’ve never done in my life, has been cleared up, but my fundamental trust in the entire process is gone, and that’s one of the reasons I’m not coming back to Massachusetts,’’ said Slavitt, who lives in South Carolina.

He said he has accepted a job as vice president for business and legal affairs at AVX Corp., a Myrtle Beach manufacturing company.

Bar counsel Constance Vecchione, who pursued the disciplinary case against Slavitt, said of the justices: ‘‘They’re the full bench; they make the final call.’’

The SJC reduced Slavitt’s Sept. 18, 2006, suspension in March, but did not explain until yesterday why it did so.
(By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe staff)