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Craig S. Jepson (WSBA No. 25154, admitted 1995), of Austin, Texas (formerly of Concord, New Hampshire), was ordered to receive a reprimand on April 10, 2007, by order of the Washington State Supreme Court imposing reciprocal discipline in accordance with an order of the New Hampshire Professional Conduct Committee following a stipulation to a public censure. This discipline was based on his conduct in 2006 involving filing a false report with a law school committee.
In January 2005, Mr. Jepson was admitted to practice law in the state of New Hampshire. Mr. Jepson worked full-time as a tenured professor of law at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord (Pierce Law). For the academic year 2005-2006, Mr. Jepson was appointed to serve on a faculty committee charged with assessing the performance and qualifications of another law professor in connection with that professor’s application for tenure. As part of his committee responsibilities, Mr. Jepson was required to attend classes conducted by the professor and to submit a report of his observations to the committee chair. Mr. Jepson prepared and submitted a report describing two of the professor’s classes in detail. The report was a fabrication. Mr. Jepson had not attended any of the professor’s classes. In response to initial informal inquiries of other committee members, Mr. Jepson reiterated falsely that he had attended the professor’s classes. Once it was established that the report was a fabrication, Mr. Jepson admitted his misconduct and apologized to the faculty. Mr. Jepson’s misconduct did not prejudice the professor’s candidacy for tenure. Mr. Jepson resigned from the law school faculty.
Mr. Jepson’s conduct violated New Hampshire RPC 8.4(a), prohibiting a lawyer from violating the Rules of Professional Conduct; and New Hampshire’s RPC 8.4(c), prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
Joanne S. Abelson represented the Bar Association. Mr. Jepson represented himself. |