You can't say the Florida Bar never acts against well-connected attorneys.
The much-maligned body has issued a one-year suspension from practice for ex-prosecutor-turned-Scott Rothstein partner Howard Scheinberg, as first reported by JAABLOG. Scheinberg is expected to appeal.
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The Scheinberg case began at Timpano's restaurant on Las Olas where he and Judge Ana Gardiner were alleged to have had ex parte conversation about an ongoing death-penalty murder trial. Gardiner was the judge, Scheinberg the prosecutor.
Not long after I wrote about the matter in 2008 article titled Judging Ana, Scheinberg left the State Attorney's Office and joined Scott Rothstein's Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. Gardiner was transferred out of the criminal division, where she was serving as chief. The ensuing Judicial Qualifications Commission investigation found that the two had hundreds of phone calls and text messages between them in the following weeks and that Gardiner had been untruthful about the relationship.
Gardiner resigned from the bench as the JQC investigation heated up and joined the law firm Cole Scott & Kissane. The Florida Bar has also found probable cause against Gardiner, but no punishment has been announced.