Nation’s high court dismisses discipline case against Foley partner

Listen to this article

The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed an attorney discipline case against a partner of Foley & Lardner LLP.

According to the court’s order issued Monday, “petitions for certiorari [must] be stated ‘in plain terms,’ and may not delegate that responsibility to the client.”

The complaint against Howard Shipley, a patent attorney at Foley’s Washington, D.C., office, was related to a petition for a writ of certiorari in Sigram Schindler Beteilingungsgesellschaft MBH v. Lee. The petition for writ of certiorari was filed Oct. 6.

The court had denied that petition on Dec. 8, but also ordered Shipley to, within 40 days, show why he should not be disciplined for his conduct regarding the petition. On Jan. 7, he filed a motion for an extension to file his response, which was granted.

According to Shipley’s response to the court’s order to show cause, filed Feb. 19, Dr. Sigram Schindler, for whom Shipley had filed the brief, “insisted on retaining primary control over the substance” of the petition. Schindler had been a Foley client for about 10 years.

According to court filings, “Mr. Shipley elected to file the petition rather than withdraw from the representation of a longstanding client in a manner that likely would have prejudiced the client’s ability to seek Supreme Court review at all.”