Earlier this week, Rick Luthmann and I sat down with New Jersey attorney Ken Rosellini (a half hour in the video below), and he described the arbitrary process by which punishment is doled out by the bar in New Jersey.
Today, I sat down with attorney Bruce Matzkin, who described something similar in Connecticut.
More than a decade ago, he represented Robert Dunn in a dispute with his business partner, Joseph Voll.
The dispute was over money that Dunn had purportedly stolen from their business, MacDaddy in Connecticut.
Dunn had created MacDaddy, and he brought in Voll to expand from one to three locations.
Voll was supposed to finance the other two locations, however, as Bruce told me, Dunn gave him a 50% ownership stake before Voll put in any money.
Voll argued that because Dunn was paying himself by withdrawing money from the cash register this amounted to theft.
Voll was represented by Michael Conway and Liz Acee of the now defunct law firm LeClair Ryan.
Neither Conway nor Acee responded to emails for comment.
During his representation, Matzkin told me he learned that a competitor had emerged to MacDaddy called Mac’N’Out. This competitor was being run by Voll’s twenty something daughter.
Shockingly, both Conway and Acee represented her. Here is part of a transcript where Matzkin questioned Voll’s daughter.
In fact, Bruce told me that he learned that Mac’N’Out was planning to open their locations in the same spots that Dunn and Voll had agreed to expand for MacDaddy.
There was a glaring conflict of interest, and Bruce made that argument in court.
The judge hearing the argument seemed to acknowledge that a conflict existed.
“It just seems t me at some point you might be cross examining Katelyn Voll,” the judge stated to Conway and Acee, noting the conflict.
The judge was Kari Dooley. At the time, she was a Connecticut state judge, however, in 2017, then President Donald Trump appointed her to be Federal District Judge, where she sits now.
Judge Dooley made a brief appearance in Paul Boyne’s case, denying a habeas petition asking the federal court to dismiss the charges.
In this case, while Judge Dooley seemed to indicate that a conflict existed, she never recused Conway and Acee from either case. They continued to represent both entities simultaneously.
In the end, Dunn, through Judge Dooley’s order, was removed as owner of MacDaddy. Mac N’Out opened two locations where Dunn wanted his stores to open, and this blatant conflict was ignored.
Judge Dooley told Dunn to take the conflict up with the bar.
He filed a complaint.
That complaint was dismissed for lack of probable cause without the bar acknowledging that a conflict existed.
Fast forward to 2022, it was Bruce facing a bar complaint. He said the whole thing started when a client complained over a $500 bill. He said rather than dismissing the complaint, the Connecticut bar said there was probable cause that his bill was too vague.
When Bruce complained about his treatment on social media, the Connecticut bar added charges.
He said attempts to sanction him for social media posts violate his first amendment rights. Bruce told me that more than two years after this bar complaint was filed there is still no resolution. A resolution is not coming soon, he added.
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