Morrissey faces new bar charges

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The Virginia State Bar has leveled new ethics charges against Richmond area lawyer and politician Joseph D. Morrissey.

The new charges follow a lengthy bar investigation that became public last year when Morrissey sought to block access to his lawyers’ files in the wake of a highly publicized criminal case.

But the VSB charges filed Jan. 3 make no reference to Morrissey’s alleged liaison with an underage law office staffer.

Instead, the new charges are based on a complaint from former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who hired Morrissey for a tax dispute involving a foundering Slavery Museum project in Fredericksburg.

The bar says Morrissey bungled the tax case, leaving Wilder with more than $23,000 in court sanctions.

Slavery Museum tax dispute

Wilder launched a campaign to build a National Slavery Museum in 2001 and acquired land from a donor in Fredericksburg. The project stalled and, in 2008, the Museum stopped paying taxes on the land, according to the VSB certification of charges against Morrissey.

Fredericksburg officials sued in 2012 to collect $320,692.72 in unpaid property taxes through a forced sale of the land.

Wilder and developer Louis Salomonsky hired Morrissey and partner Paul Goldman to represent the Museum. Goldman, a non-Virginia lawyer, drafted a complaint seeking to reduce the tax assessment. Morrissey filed the complaint, but he sued the wrong party, the bar said.

The complaint erroneously named the commissioner of revenue rather than the city itself.

A judge granted the commissioner’s motion for sanctions and ordered the Museum to pay $23,294.51 to the city.

Morrissey reportedly told the bar he got approval for the improper complaint from other attorneys, including a tax lawyer working on the Museum’s legal team.

The tax lawyer disputed that account. He reportedly told the bar he was not consulted until the misdirected complaint had already been filed, and he said he told Morrissey it was filed against the wrong party.

Attempted lien for attorney fees

Morrissey also was faulted for trying to force payment of his fees.

After the Museum property had been sold and the tax debt satisfied, Morrissey sought to file a $130,240 lien for his services against other property owned by the Museum.

A judge refused to allow the lien to be filed, saying the statute cited did not appear to support Morrissey’s lien. Va. Code § 54.1-3932 allows a lawyer’s lien “upon the cause of action” for work on tort, contract and divorce cases.

Bar prosecutors contend Morrissey violated seven of the Rules of Professional Conduct, including committing a criminal or deliberately wrongful act.

Morrissey is represented by Richmond lawyer Paul C. Galanides, who termed the Wilder complaint a mere “civil matter.”

“Mr. Wilder and Louis Salomonsky hired Paul Goldman and Joe Morrissey, who did over $100,000 worth of work and paid all the civil fees and have not received a dollar yet,” Galanides said.

He said Wilder made the bar complaint only after Morrissey and Goldman said they would file suit to collect their fees.

“Neither Mr. Morrissey nor Mr. Goldman intend to be bullied by this complaint,” Galanides said.

Unsworn lawyer

The bar also contends Morrissey improperly sent a newly licensed lawyer to a court hearing, before the lawyer had been officially sworn in.

When a prosecutor agreed to withdraw criminal charges against a Morrissey client, Morrissey sent a new lawyer in his office to cover the routine hearing in his place. He failed to advise the judge or the client that he would not be attending the hearing, the bar said.

The client complained that he expected to be represented by Morrissey, not the novice lawyer.

The VSB said Morrissey’s handling of the hearing violated four of the state ethics rules.

No link to Morrissey criminal case

A VSB investigation once focused on Morrissey’s conduct as he defended charges of an illicit relationship with a minor in 2013. The bar had sought files regarding Morrissey’s handling of evidence in the incident and his presentation of a disputed document to a judge at sentencing.

At a hearing last March, Morrissey dropped his opposition to the bar’s subpoenas and allowed VSB access to his lawyers’ files. The new bar charges make no mention of the high profile sexual misconduct case, however.

Morrissey pleaded no contest in 2014 to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He pulled jail time on nights and weekends while serving in the House of Delegates. He is now married to the alleged victim and practices law in Highland Springs.

Morrissey left the House of Delegates in 2015 to run for the state Senate. He dropped out of that race and – last year – mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Richmond mayor.

This is not Morrissey’s first encounter with VSB prosecutors. He was disbarred in 2003 for failing to inform clients about an earlier license suspension. The Supreme Court of Virginia reinstated his law license in 2011. Bar records show his status as active in good standing as a Virginia attorney.

No hearing date has been set for the new set of VSB charges.