An attorney in Middlesex County recently received a reprimand from the Supreme Court for drafting a will that made his wife a beneficiary in a $1.3 million estate.

The controversy was first brought to the ethics committee, where the attorney was charged with a violation of a Rule of Professional Conduct that prevents a lawyer for preparing a document that gives a substantial gift to a relative unless the recipient of the gift is related to the client. He was also charged with misrepresentation and conducting his affairs in a way as to prejudice the administration of justice. The last two accusations were grounded upon the committee's perception that the lawyer sought to conceal his role in the incident because of testimony he gave at a deposition.
       
The ethics committee recommended a five-year suspension. The Disciplinary Review Board  determined that a reprimand was a more appropriate sanction because the testator had a remote and strained relationship with her only living heir who was a sister and that the attorney’s wife would have been the likely beneficiary of the testator's estate. The Disciplinary Review Board also found that the lawyer had been deposed in a rather contentious environment and that the transcript which formed the basis of the other two accusations was really an acrimonious joust with words.  The Supreme Court endorsed the recommendations of the DRV.