Walter Scott’s epic words quoted above are a good guide for all of us; especially for attorneys. In what would appear to be a perfectly ridiculous way to lose a law license, New York City attorney James A. Robbins has been disbarred after losing a will entrusted to his safekeeping and then making up a series of completely phony excuses as to why the estate was being delayed without ever disclosing that the will was lost. He evidently compounded his mistake by forging documents filed with the Surrogate’s Court in an elaborate cover up to try to probate the will.

The  completely dumb thing about this is that (as your lawblogger has reported at length in earlier posts) a lost will may be admitted to probate in a situation such as this where the loss and disappearance of the document can be explained by the attorney who was its last custodian. The facts and circumstances reported in the New York Law Journal would indicate that this was a situation where instead of a series of lies and fabrications, counsel could have succeeded in having a copy of the will admitted to probate by simply falling on his sword and admitting to his mistake and explaining that  the will had disappeared in his custody. We all make mistakes and , especially where the results are not fatal, an explanation coupled with an apology and cleaning up the mess is usually sufficient to placate most clients. However, even if the client’s reaction is to fire counsel, the loss of the business and the client is a far acceptable outcome to the loss of a professional license, a felony conviction and 500 hours of community service.