## Facts

- Richard Gates was a licensed attorney permitted to practice before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
- While entering the Richmond federal courthouse to conduct legal business, Gates repeatedly had conflicts with court security officers at the screening station.
- On multiple occasions, Gates set off the magnetometer; when officers requested additional screening or asked him to remove items, Gates responded with verbally abusive, profane, and insulting comments directed at the officers in front of members of the public.
- Gates’s outbursts caused delays for others waiting to enter the courthouse, and security officers repeatedly told him his conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer and officer of the court.
- In a November 2016 incident, Gates’s shoes triggered an alarm. When asked to place the shoes in a screening container, Gates angrily slammed/threw them so forcefully that one bounced to the floor. A deputy U.S. marshal escorted him and warned that the behavior was unacceptable; Gates replied that he thought the screening procedures were too strict.
- On March 29, 2018, Gates triggered a waist-level alarm on the magnetometer. A security officer instructed him to remove his belt and empty his pockets for rescreening.
- Gates reacted with extensive profanity and aggressively flung his belt onto the conveyor; the belt struck the arm of a woman standing in line behind him. The security officer apologized to the woman; Gates did not.
- The bankruptcy court issued an order requiring Gates to show cause why he should not be disciplined for repeatedly directing disruptive and abusive behavior toward courthouse security personnel.
- The court held an evidentiary hearing on April 4, 2018. The U.S. Trustee presented testimony from security and law-enforcement witnesses, and Gates presented evidence on his own behalf.

## Issues

1. Whether Gates’s repeated profane, abusive, and disruptive conduct toward courthouse security personnel constituted attorney misconduct warranting discipline.
2. Whether the bankruptcy court could impose attorney discipline for conduct occurring at the courthouse security checkpoint when the conduct was connected to access to the court and disrupted courthouse operations.

## Decision

- The court found that Gates repeatedly engaged in disruptive, profanity-laced, demeaning conduct toward courthouse security officers during the screening process, and that the March 29 incident (including the belt striking a bystander) was part of a pattern rather than an isolated event.
- The court concluded that Gates’s conduct violated the standards governing lawyers practicing before the court, including professional-conduct rules barring deliberate wrongful acts reflecting adversely on a lawyer’s fitness to practice and local rules requiring lawyers to conduct themselves with dignity and propriety.
- The court imposed discipline, including suspending Gates from practice before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and restricting his ability to enter the courthouse for a specified period (six months).

## Legal Principles

- A federal bankruptcy court may supervise and discipline members of its bar for misconduct that interferes with court operations, threatens order, or reflects on a lawyer’s fitness to practice before that court.
- Attorney discipline is not limited to conduct in the courtroom; misconduct during courthouse entry and screening may be sanctionable when it is tied to the attorney’s attempt to access the court for legal work and disrupts courthouse functions.
- Repeated verbal abuse, profanity directed at court personnel, and aggressive physical acts during courthouse procedures can violate professional-conduct rules and local rules requiring dignified, proper behavior by counsel.
- A pattern of misconduct after prior warnings supports stronger sanctions, including suspension from practice and temporary courthouse-access restrictions, to protect court personnel, the public, and the administration of justice.

## Conclusion

The bankruptcy court concluded that Richard Gates’s repeated profane and abusive confrontations with courthouse security—culminating in an incident in which he flung his belt and struck a member of the public—breached professional and local conduct standards and warranted significant discipline, including a suspension from practice before the court and a time-limited restriction on entering the courthouse.


In re Gates, Misc. Case No. 18-00301-KRH (2018)