The D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday unanimously rejected the disbarment recommendation from the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility and instead imposed a five-year license suspension on lawyer Henry Uscinski Jr.and remanded the case for further proceedings regarding whether the underlying offense involved moral turpitude. In re Henry J. Uscinski, No. 03-BG-414 (D.C. Ct. App. Oct. 1, 2009).  From Blog of the Legal Times:

The Uscinski case involves two parallel disciplinary proceedings—the criminal case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and the other stemming from a reciprocal discipline matter in New York.

In 2003 in New York, Uscinski was suspended for the practice of law for five years after pleading guilty to tax evasion in federal district court in Florida.

In the criminal case, he was sentenced to 42 months in prison. The criminal case stemmed from Ucinski’s work in a forfeiture action involving a client of defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey. The client, Claude DuBoc, was indicted in 1994 on drug and money laundering charges for his role in an international scheme that involved distributing hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana and hash. …

The court wants a hearing committee to determine whether Uscinski’s conviction for tax evasion was a crime involving moral turpitude.