Advocate Discipline

New York, United States

Richard M. Nixon: disciplinary decision

Decision, 8 July 1976On 8 July 1976 the Appellate Division, in a per curiam opinion, held "we direct that respondent should be disbarred" (In re Nixon, 53 A.D.2d 178, 385 N.Y.S.2d 305). The Historical Society of the New York Courts says Justice Arthur Markewich presided on the panel that disbarred Nixon. It says he sat in the Appellate Division, First Department from 1969 until 1982.1,2

Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department

What the decision found

The Grievance Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York brought five specifications of misconduct alleging obstruction of justice connected to Watergate. According to the opinion, they included obstructing an FBI investigation of the Democratic National Committee break-in, approving payments to E. Howard Hunt, and attempting to obstruct a Justice Department investigation of the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. The court found the documentary evidence, including the White House tapes and congressional testimony, sufficient to sustain all charges. It held that its disciplinary power reached misconduct committed in public office.1

Response

According to the opinion, Nixon did not answer the petition or appear through counsel. He submitted a resignation from the bar that lacked the required acknowledgment of culpability. The court said his failure to answer "must be construed by this court as an admission of the charges."1

Appeal and later events

The court decided the matter on default after an inquest on the documents. No later order was found in the sources reviewed.1

Status now

Disbarred in New York by order of 8 July 1976.1

This site covers only lawyers whose cases were widely reported and decided in published rulings. Each record states the decision exactly as the body made it, and any appeal or later change.

Sources

  1. New York Appellate Division, First Department (text via CounselStack), In re Nixon, 53 A.D.2d 178, 385 N.Y.S.2d 305 (8 July 1976)
  2. Historical Society of the New York Courts, Arthur Markewich (28 October 2026)