In re Baca

In In re Baca, 11 P.3d 426, 427 (Colo. 2000) (en banc) (per curiam), a hearing committee disbarred an attorney who accepted an undivided forty percent interest in real property from a client and then, while suspended, misrepresented to third parties that the client was the sole owner (even though the client's ex-wife retained a fifty percent interest in the property) and abused legal process to attempt to deprive the client's ex-wife of the value of her interest in the property. Id. On appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, the lawyer argued, like Appellants here, that his conduct was not governed by Colorado's Rules of Professional Conduct because the acts took place while he was suspended. Id. Rejecting that argument, the Colorado Supreme Court held that because suspended lawyers are still members of the bar, they "may be disciplined for engaging in conduct violating the rules of the profession even though [they were] suspended at the time of the conduct." Id. at 430.