In re Eisenstein
Missouri Supreme Court
485 S.W.3d 759 (2016)
In a divorce case, the husband improperly and secretly accessed his wife's email and obtained her direct-examination questions, turning them over to his attorney, Joe Eisenstein (defendant), in November 2013; Eisenstein realized upon reading the document that it was improper for him to possess. He nonetheless said nothing to the wife or her attorney until February 2014, when he included the document among trial exhibits he turned over to opposing counsel. The state's disciplinary authority (plaintiff) charged him with illegally obtaining evidence in violation of professional conduct rules, and a disciplinary panel recommended an indefinite suspension with a 12-month bar on reapplication.
Whether an attorney who receives a document he recognizes was mistakenly sent or improperly obtained satisfies his ethical duty by eventually disclosing it to opposing counsel at trial, roughly three months after he first realized the impropriety.