BigLaw Associate Fined For Misconduct In Divorce Case

A BigLaw attorney who is representing himself in a divorce case has been sanctioned $10,000 by a judge who cited a “maelstrom of misconduct,” including using his law license to bully and harass other lawyers, medical experts, and even judges. The attorney, Anthony Zappin, was repeatedly told to stop, but he kept on, doing “everything in his power to undermine the legal process and use his law license as a tool to threaten, bully, and intimidate, seriously calling into question his fitness to practice law,” wrote Justice Matthew Cooper of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County in Manhattan. Zappin was working for Mintz Levin, but the ABA Journal reports he is said to no longer be employed by the firm. Zappin made “frankly outrageous” verbal attacks on judges, created a website to disparage another lawyer, and gave a judge a hand-written note reading, “You’re pathetic!”