Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department

M35479

K/nal

A. GAIL PRUDENTI, P.J.

ANITA R. FLORIO

HOWARD MILLER

ROBERT W. SCHMIDT

THOMAS A. ADAMS, JJ.

2002-09693 In the Matter of John Spiridakis, a suspended attorney. (Attorney Registration No. 1983592)

DECISION & ORDER ON MOTION FOR REINSTATEMENT

Motion by the respondent for reinstatement as an attorney and counselor-at-law. The respondent was admitted to the Bar at a term of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial Department on May 1, 1985. By opinion and order of this court dated March 1, 2004, the respondent was suspended from the practice of law for a period of one year, commencing April 1, 2004, as a result of a disciplinary proceeding in which nine charges of professional misconduct were sustained. The charges included failure to properly safeguard funds entrusted to him as fiduciary, incident to his practice of law; failure to promptly pay or deliver to clients funds in his possession to which the clients were entitled; commingling; failure to maintain required bookkeeping records; and engaging in a pattern of filing late, incomplete and/or misleading retainer and closing statements with the Office of Court Administration. By decision and order on motion of this court dated June 24, 2005, the respondent's motion for reinstatement was held in abeyance and the matter was referred to the Committee on Character and Fitness to investigate and report with respect to the respondent's current fitness to be an attorney, including but not limited to the status of the pending complaint before the Grievance Committee by the respondent's former client, as well as of her underlying action for which the respondent was previously retained, and the respondent's income tax returns for 2004, if filed.

Upon the report of the Committee on Character and Fitness and the exhibits annexed thereto, it is

ORDERED that the motion is granted; and it is further,

ORDERED that, effective immediately, the respondent is reinstated as an attorney and counselor-at-law and the Clerk of the Court is directed to restore the name of John Spiridakis to the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law.

PRUDENTI, P.J., FLORIO, H. MILLER, SCHMIDT and ADAMS, JJ., concur.

ENTER:

James Edward Pelzer

Clerk of the Court