The National Forensic Council clarifies that this conduct constitutes a serious disciplinary offense which causes prejudice to the entire legal profession
“The behavior of a lawyer who threatens death constitutes (also) a serious disciplinary offence, because it undermines the principles of dignity, probity and decorum (art. 9 of the CDF) with consequent damage to the image and dignity of the entire legal profession. a person and his three children (in this case, through the alleged intervention of international organized crime)”. Thus the National Forensic Council, in sentence no. 166/2024 published on 1 October on the Code of Ethics website.
In the matter, the lawyer was sanctioned by the CDD of Naples with suspension from the profession for two years following several combined disciplinary proceedings, which found him guilty of having reiterated death threats to his ex-partner and his children, even with the appeal to international organized crime to carry out the murderous intent, after the woman had made herself unavailable to continue the emotional relationship with the appellant, having reconciled with her husband.
The lawyer ultimately assumed that the sentences addressed to the ex were motivated by a serious, uncontrolled alteration of his own spirit and had to be referred to a strictly private sphere, in which he could not be the subject of forensic ethical scrutiny.
For the CNF, however, the thesis cannot be shared because, as stated in the decision of the Court of Cassation (order no. 17115 of 11.7.2017) “the new Forensic Code of Ethics is informed by the principle of the typification of disciplinaryly relevant conduct and of the related sanctions, ‘as far as possible’ (art. 3, co. 3, L. 247/2012), since the varied and potentially unlimited case history of all behaviors (even in private life) constituting a disciplinary offense does not allow identification detailed, exhaustive and not merely illustrative”. Consequently, “the failure to describe one or more behaviors and the related sanction does not generate immunity, since it is still possible to contest the offense also on the basis of the aforementioned closing rule, according to which “the legal profession must be practiced with independence, loyalty, probity, dignity, decorum, diligence and competence, taking into account social importance and defense and respecting the principles of correct and loyal competition”.
Therefore, having confirmed the disciplinary sentence in its entirety, the CNF, however, taking due account of the seriousness of the conduct, decided to arrive at a mitigation of the overall sanction “which must in any case be interdictory but contained in one year of suspension from the professional practice”.
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