Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Paralegals & Legal Secretaries Blogs -> Practical Paralegalism

Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

: Practical Paralegalism

Does Disorderly Behavior at Home Affect Your Ability to Do Your Job?

By Lynne DeVenny

I suspect the answer to that question should be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the city of Richland in Washington has placed a legal assistant for the city attorney on paid leave, while considering whether her recent arrest for disorderly conduct will affect her job performance.

The alleged behavior in question took place in the legal assistant's front yard. The News Tribune reports in an article subtitled "Public Nuisance" that the legal assistant and several cohorts (who were also arrested) yelled, swore and appeared "highly intoxicated" when a neighbor requested that they turn down "extremely loud music" that could be heard several houses away.

Within the next 30 minutes, police received two more complaints that the music was back up and the three suspects were screaming at neighbors and acting like they were performing a sex act on each other in front of small children in the yard, documents said.

Reports were made from three separate witnesses on Torbett down the block and up to five houses away, police said. When officers returned, they found seven neighbors who witnessed the disorderly conduct, lewd act and noise violation, documents said.

These are some extremely embarrassing allegations for anybody. If I partied so hard in my front yard that it led to my name appearing in the newspaper the next day, I would seriously evaluate the role of alcohol in my life, as well as whether my jointly implicated cohorts were good for me. And no doubt, I would be embarrassed to face not just my co-workers, but anybody that knew me.

But what do you think? Assuming an employer does not have a morals clause, should arrests for alleged inappropriate behavior which occurs at home, and not at work, result in any employee's suspension or termination - prior to a court disposition of the charges?

Is the standard for the behavior of legal professionals in their private lives higher than the standard for the general public? Could this situation fall under Rule 8.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct which prohibits committing a criminal act which reflects adversely on a lawyer's fitness as a lawyer in other respects? If any of these charges against this legal assistant are confirmed by a guilty verdict or plea, does this behavior affect her ability to be professional and competent at work?

If we don't get anything else out of this news story, we should be reminded that what happens in our front yards may not stay in our front yards.

Source: TheNewsTribune.com

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on September 12, 2010 (boomark / email).