JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (St. Louis Record) — Omaha attorneys and brothers Joseph P. Cullan and Patrick J. Cullan have been reciprocally reprimanded following separate Oct. 19 Missouri Supreme Court orders after the two were similarly reprimanded by the Iowa Supreme Court in May.
The Missouri high court sustained the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel's separate motions for reciprocal discipline before reprimanding Joseph Cullan and Patrick Cullan, ordering both to pay all costs in their separate matters, according to the court orders.
On May 2 the Iowa Supreme Court issued separate orders of public reprimand through that state's attorney disciplinary board, according to judgments filed in August against Joseph Cullan and Patrick Cullan by the Nebraska Supreme Court. The Nebraska Supreme Court similarly disciplined the two in August.
The Iowa attorney disciplinary board's case against both attorneys "generally involved representing in an application for admission pro hac vice that he had not been sanctioned in the past," said the Nebraska Supreme Court's separate and almost identically worded judgments. "In fact, [both Cullans] had recently been sanctioned in two cases in the district court for Douglas County, Nebraska."
The Cullans both were admitted to the bar in Missouri on Jan. 2, 2015, according to their separate profiles at The Missouri Bar's website. Patrick Cullan was admitted to the bar in Nebraska on May 22, 2007, and Joseph Cullan was admitted to the bar in that state July 1, 2001, according to the separate judgments handed down in that state.
The two are attorneys with Cullan & Cullan in Omaha, a firm lead by their uncles, Sam Cullan and Gene Cullan.
In its judgment, the Nebraska Supreme Court said it considered the record and "the facts as determined by the Iowa attorney disciplinary board" before determining public reprimand for both attorneys to be appropriate.
"Our record includes a notice of the findings of the Iowa attorney disciplinary board which found that the respondents 'lack of care . . . went beyond mere negligence," both Nebraska Supreme Court judgments said. "We take the determination of misconduct as found in the Iowa public reprimand to be established herein. Accordingly, we grant the motion for reciprocal discipline and enter an order of public reprimand."