r1r STANDING COMMITTEE ON RULES OF PRACTICE - Maryland ...

estores the lawyer to good standing.” An amendment to
subsection f. 4. (ii) of the Rule makes clear that, like a lawyer
who is suspended under the Rules in Title 16, Chapter 700, a
lawyer who is temporarily suspended under Rule 16-811 is not
authorized to practice law and must comply with the requirements
of Rule 16-760 (c).
In considering whether Rule 16-903 also should use
“temporary suspension” terminology, members of the Committee
noted that there is a qualitative difference between a lawyer’s
failure to pay the Client Protection Fund assessment and a
lawyer’s failure to file a pro bono reporting form. Payment of
the Client Protection Fund assessment, which provides the
necessary funding to reimburse losses caused by defalcations of
lawyers, is a condition precedent to practicing law; filing a pro
bono reporting form, which assists in measuring attainment of the
aspirational goals set forth in Rule 6.1 of the Maryland Lawyers’
Rules of Professional Conduct, is not a condition precedent to
practicing law. The Committee recommends that rather than
incorporating the full panoply of “temporary suspension”
ramifications into Rule 16-903, the term “decertification” be
retained in Rule 16-903 and that the terminology of “rescinding
[a] Decertification Order” be deleted and replaced by the phrase,
“enter an order that recertifies the lawyer and restores the
lawyer to good standing.”
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