In re Curry

Attorney Kevin P. Curry contests an information filed in the county court by the Board of Bar Overseers (board) that unanimously recommends his disbarment for violating S.J.C. Rule 3:07, Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (2) and (4)-(6), as appearing in 382 Mass. 769 (1981), and S.J.C. Rule 3:07, Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (5) and (7), as appearing in 382 Mass. 785 (1981).1 The disciplinary proceedings against him arose from Curry’s role in a scheme to impugn the integrity of a *505Superior Court judge in an ongoing matter by invading the confidential communications between the judge and her former law clerk in an attempt to affect the outcome of the case. The matter was tried before a special hearing officer appointed by the board. With one minor exception, which we address below, the board adopted in full the extensive findings and conclusions of the special hearing officer concerning Curry’s conduct. It recommended disbarment.2 The case is before us on reservation and report of the single justice. We accept the board’s recommendation and remand the case to the county court where a judgment of disbarment shall enter.

As we describe more fully below, Curry engaged in egregious, multiple, and prolonged violations of the disciplinary rules prohibiting attorneys from acts of deceit and dishonesty in their professional dealings and from acting in a manner prejudicial to the administration of justice. With no motive other than his own financial gain, and with no evidence, Curry persuaded a group of dissatisfied litigants (with whom he had no prior dealings) in a bitterly-contested, high-stakes civil matter that a Superior Court judge had “fixed” their case, so that it was “over before it began.” Curry then developed and participated in an elaborate subterfuge whose purpose was to induce or coerce the judge’s former law clerk into making statements that the law clerk otherwise would not have made about the judge and her delibera*506five process, which Curry intended to use to remove the judge from the still ongoing case, and to require reversal of her prior rulings against the litigants Curry solicited.

Although unsuccessful, the ruse, which we describe below, caused needless embarrassment to a judge, an attorney, and then-respective families; mocked the foundations of good-faith dealings and respect for the orderly administration of justice on which the legal profession stands; and damaged the public’s perception of our legal system. Curry points to nothing that mitigates his actions or justifies a sanction short of disbarment.

We turn now to the background of this case, whose factual complexity requires a lengthy summary.

1. Background. We draw our recitation of facts from those found by the special hearing officer and adopted by the board, reserving recitation of certain facts for later discussion, as appropriate, and noting discrepancies where they occur. See Matter of Hilson, 448 Mass 603, 604 (2007). We focus on the facts most relevant to the information filed against Curry. For further details of the findings of the special hearing officer, see Matter of Crossen, post 533 (2008) (Crossen).

a. Demoulas litigation. This bar disciplinary proceeding has its origins in the protracted legal warfare between the family of George Demoulas and the family of Telemachus Demoulas over interests in the family supermarket business. See Demoulas v. Demoulas, 432 Mass. 43, 44 (2000) (recounting history of intrafamily litigation); Demoulas v. Demoulas Super Mkts., Inc., 424 Mass. 501, 504-509 (1997) (recounting substance of dispute). See also Demoulas v. Demoulas, 428 Mass. 555 (1998). Here we summarize only the most salient facts, beginning in 1990. By that time, Demoulas Super Markets, Inc. (DSM), and other entities jointly owned by the families of brothers George and Telemachus Demoulas were estimated to be worth approximately $1 billion.3 Two law suits filed in Superior Court in 1990 by *507George’s family4 against Telemachus and his family would eventually determine ownership and control of the bulk of the Demoulas fortune. The first lawsuit alleged that the Telemachus Demoulas defendants had fraudulently transferred stock from George’s family to themselves, and that Telemachus’s children had fraudulently received 400 shares of DSM stock belonging to George’s family (stock transfer case). The second suit, brought by Arthur S. Demoulas, George’s son, while the first case was pending, alleged that the Telemachus branch of the family had diverted corporate opportunities from DSM to entities the defendants separately controlled (shareholder derivative case). Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez presided over both cases.

The stock transfer case was tried before a jury. Judge Lopez directed verdicts for Telemachus’s children on certain counts. Subsequently, in May, 1994, the jury returned verdicts in favor of George’s family against Telemachus and his family for breach of duty related to the fraudulent transfer of stock and other interests belonging to the plaintiffs. Judge Lopez reserved the issue of damages.

The shareholder derivative case was tried before Judge Lopez without a jury from December 12, 1994, through May 15, 1995. Her decision was entered on August 3, 1995. Judge Lopez’s law clerk for the trial was then in his second year of clerkship for the Superior Court; he worked on the case from the fall of 1994 until the end of August, 1995, when his clerkship ended.

Both the stock transfer case and the shareholder derivative case took fateful turns in three decisions issued by Judge Lopez in August, 1995. First, as just noted, on August 3, 1995, judgment entered in the shareholder derivative case. Judge Lopez found that the defendants had improperly diverted corporate opportunities of DSM, and ordered the rescission of certain transactions, disgorgement of improperly obtained gains, and payment of attorney’s fees, all in favor of George’s family. The next day, on August, 4, 1995, Judge Lopez, responding to a request by the plaintiffs, vacated the directed verdict for Telemachus’s children that she had issued in the stock transfer case. Her new order directed that the disputed 400 shares of DSM stock be *508held in constructive trust by Telemachus’s children for members of George’s family. Finally, on August 29, 1995, Judge Lopez amended the judgment in the shareholder derivative case to provide, among other things, for the repayment to DSM of certain cash distributions and sale proceeds, the cancellation of all promissory notes issued by DSM to shareholders, the transfer of all assets and liabilities of DSM and affiliated real estate entities to an entity held equally by George’s and Telemachus’s families, and payment of the plaintiffs’ legal fees and expenses.5 We upheld that judgment in major part and remanded the case to the Superior Court for additional findings and the issuance of orders implementing relief. See Demoulas v. Demoulas, 428 Mass. 555, 557-558, 591-592 (1998).

With our decision affirming Judge Lopez, it was settled that Telemachus’s branch of the family would lose much of their control of the Demoulas businesses and fortune. Not surprisingly, the Telemachus Demoulas defendants were alarmed at this prospect. They were disappointed in the group of attorneys and law firms to whom they had paid millions of dollars in legal fees, and they were convinced that Judge Lopez was biased against them.6 Their suspicions of Judge Lopez were heightened by some of these attorneys, who assured them that Judge Lopez was “too dumb” to have written the Demoulas decision.

We turn now to the events germane to this disciplinary proceeding. At the time of the conduct at issue in this matter, approximately August, 1995, through August, 1997, the Demoulas litigations were still ongoing. The dockets in the Superior Court reflect numerous motions and other proceedings, and there were ongoing proceedings in both the Appeals Court and this court for several years after the events that we shall describe. See, e.g., Demoulas v. Demoulas Super Mkts., Inc., 428 Mass. 543 (1998).

b. The initial meeting with the Demoulas family. In 1995, *509Curry was a member in good standing of the Massachusetts bar, having gained admission in 1968. Early in his career he spent five and one-half years as an assistant attorney general in the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General. Curry then entered private practice.

In August, 1995, approximately two weeks after Judge Lopez issued the Demoulas decision, Curry and Ernest Reid, a private investigator who had worked with Curry in the past, sent a letter to Telemachus proposing to meet with him concerning “a matter of importance and confidence.”7,8 As a result of this communication, Curry, Reid, and members of the Demoulas family, including Telemachus and his son, Arthur T. Demoulas (Arthur T.), met at DSM headquarters in Tewksbury in early September, 1995.9 Curry told his hosts what they were apparently eager to hear: Judge Lopez had decided the shareholder derivative case against them before opening statements in the case. Specifically, he told them, among other things, that the case was “over before it began.” He proceeded to make salacious and disparaging remarks about Judge Lopez’s character on and off the bench, and also about the character of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Curry told Telemachus and the others that Judge Lopez had previously done “a big favor” for another individual *510in “a big case.” Curry told them that their case was “fixed.” However, at the time he made this presentation, Curry, in the words of the special hearing officer, “had no documentation to support any of his scurrilous charges.”

Curry’s aim was true. Telemachus was aghast that he had “been had.” He asked Curry what could be done. Curry informed Telemachus and the others that they would need evidence of what Curry described as Judge Lopez’s “prior corrupt acts” and “judicial misconduct” to take to this court and to the media. Curry volunteered himself and Reid to produce the evidence.10 A week after the meeting, Arthur T. asked Curry and Reid to investigate Judge Lopez.11 In the ensuing twelve months, Reid mined public records for information on the personal and professional lives of Judge Lopez and of the attorneys who had worked on the Demoulas cases for George’s family. In November, 1996, Curry reviewed Judge Lopez’s written decisions to that date in an effort to determine whether the judge had written the Demoulas decision.12

In November, 1996, Arthur T. gave Curry a resume that the law clerk, with Judge Lopez’s permission, had sent to various Demoulas defense counsel in the fall of 1995 seeking employment. Reid and Curry deduced from the resume that the law clerk was interested in international commercial civil litigation. Together they decided to contact the law clerk under the guise of offering him lucrative employment in that field. In the words of the special hearing officer, they concocted the law clerk’s “dream job.”

c. Initial meetings with the law clerk. To further their plan, Reid gathered public documents relating to the law clerk, his neighbors, his parents, and their neighbors. In April 1997, Reid *511contacted the law clerk by telephone. Using his real name, Reid told the law clerk that he was a headhunter who wished to interview him about an “attractive opportunity” as an attorney at a law firm, at a salary of $90,000 per year. The law clerk was excited,13 and Reid set up a meeting in the law clerk’s home on April 9, 1997, to discuss the “opportunity.”

At their first meeting, Reid slightly changed course. He told the law clerk (falsely) that his client was a corporation with offices in Bermuda, New York, and Boston, and that the corporation was looking for in-house counsel. Using the pretext that his client demanded a candidate with excellent writing skills, Reid then asked him if he had worked on any “cases of note” while clerking for the Superior Court. The law clerk promptly replied, “[W]e wrote the Demoulas decision.” When asked to clarify, he said, “I wrote the decision.” He also told Reid that Judge Lopez had read, but not edited, the decision. A general discussion ensued about Judge Lopez, her husband, and her husband’s businesses. Reid left with a promise to be back in touch.

The next day, Reid met Curry in Forest Hills Cemetery, where they often met for confidential talks. Among other things, Reid recounted the law clerk’s remarks about authoring the Demoulas decision, and told Curry that the law clerk had sent him a copy of the decision. Curry then telephoned Arthur T. to report what he had learned from Reid.

On May 4, 1997, Reid called the law clerk to tell him that the “client” was impressed with the writing samples, especially the Demoulas decision. Reid arranged another interview for May 7, 1997. At the second meeting, Reid again emphasized the lucrative and adventurous aspects of the sham in-house position and probed more deeply into the authorship of the Demoulas decision. Among other things, the law clerk claimed that, although he discussed the case with Judge Lopez during the lengthy trial, the legal conclusions were his. When Reid asked if the case were rightly decided, the law clerk replied, “The *512[Supreme Judicial Court] upheld me so what does it matter.” Reid said the client would like to meet him either in New York or in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to which the law clerk agreed.

d. The first sham interview (Halifax). Reid subsequently reported to Curry that he did not have the “right vibes” from the law clerk at the second meeting and could not get what he “wanted” from him. The two decided on a third meeting with the law clerk, this time in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The special hearing officer did not credit Curry’s testimony that Halifax was chosen because it was a place Reid had always wanted to visit. She concluded that Halifax was chosen because, unlike Massachusetts, Nova Scotia is a jurisdiction in which recording a conversation is legal so long as one party consents to the tape recording.

The preparations for the Halifax interview were substantial. The plan was for Curry to present himself to the law clerk as “Kevin Concave,” an employee of a fictitious British Pacific Surplus Risks, Ltd. (British Pacific), an “international insurance underwriting business.” Richard LaBonte, a private detective recommended by Reid, would also be present at the Halifax interview.14 LaBonte was to pose as “Richard LaBlanc,” another British Pacific employee. Reid and Curry arranged for business cards to be printed with the aliases of Curry and LaBonte. The business cards listed an address for British Pacific that was an actual address in London, a working facsimile number, and a telephone number that was answered by a person with an English accent when the law clerk called, as he later did. Curry and the two investigators also discussed whether the meeting with the law clerk should be tape recorded. The special hearing officer found that a decision not to tape record the interview was made during a telephone conference among the three in Halifax prior to the interview.15

Reid provided LaBonte with extensive documentation con*513ceming the law clerk. He scripted a set of interview questions. Some time before June 5, 1997, Curry gave Reid a round-trip airline ticket to Halifax and $300 in cash, both of which Reid passed on to the law clerk. The money was allegedly to compensate the law clerk for missing a day’s work.16

On June 5, 1997, the law clerk flew to Halifax. At a meeting room in the Citadel Hotel, he met “Kevin Concave” (Curry), who was introduced as the director of operations at British Pacific, and “Richard LaBlanc” (LaBonte), “the person who put out fires” for the company. As the interview progressed from introductory generalities to specifics about the supposed job, the law clerk began to stutter. “Concave” told the law clerk that they knew he stuttered, and reassured him that they were interested primarily in his writing skills. When he asked how they knew he stuttered, Curry produced a recommendation letter mentioning his stutter that had been written by attorney Stephen Mulcahy in support of the law clerk’s application for admission to the Massachusetts bar. The law clerk then volunteered that he did not personally know Mulcahy, but that Mulcahy had written the required recommendation letter as a favor to a mutual acquaintance, another attorney, who was unable to submit a letter.17 The information about the bar recommendation letter was news to Curry and LaBonte.

The interview then proceeded with Curry spinning tales about the worldwide reach of British Pacific and the “adventures” the law clerk would have around the world in his work for the company. He told the law clerk that he would be paid in excess of $90,000 per year, in part to compensate him and his wife for lengthy stays they would be required to make in different countries. Then followed a series of questions by Curry and *514LaBonte that was, in the words of the special hearing officer, “unquestionably designed to inquire into . . . Judge Lopez’s deliberative process in the Demoulas decision, as well as to elicit potentially damaging personal information about her.” Curry emphasized that writing skills were extremely important for the job. He told the law clerk, falsely, that attorney Robert Shaw was British Pacific’s outside counsel, who had reviewed the Demoulas decision and was very impressed.18 Curry then asked how the law clerk could have written the entire decision, as he claimed. According to the testimony of Curry and LaBonte, the law clerk told them that Judge Lopez was biased and predisposed to find for the plaintiffs, and that she had told him before the trial started who “the good guys and the bad guys” were, and who the “winner and losers” were going to be. Curry and LaBonte also testified that the law clerk made negative comments about Judge Lopez’s work habits and deliberately downplayed her contributions to the decision. The law clerk, in turn, testified that he had not made the statements attributed to him about Judge Lopez’s predisposition in the Demoulas case. The special hearing officer, who credited most of the law clerk’s testimony, did not credit his testimony on this issue. She concluded that he had indeed made statements to LaBonte and Curry about Judge Lopez’s alleged predisposition against the Telemachus Demoulas defendants. She also concluded that Curry exaggerated and misrepresented the nature of the law clerk’s statements about Judge Lopez, both to Arthur T. and in this bar discipline proceeding.

Curry and LaBonte concluded the sham interview by asking a series of questions about the law clerk’s personal life, among them, his wife’s ancestry and the extent of her college and law school debt; the occupations of his parents, brothers, and sisters; and whether he had ever done anything illegal or had any “skeletons in [his] closet.” These questions, the special hearing officer found, were designed to elicit “compromising information” to use against the law clerk.

e. The aftermath of the Halifax sham interview. Back in *515Boston, Curry relayed to Arthur T., “I think we got him.” On June 8, 1997, Arthur T., in turn, told Gary Crossen, one of the Telemachus Demoulas family defense counsel, about Curry and Reid and the Halifax sham. See Crossen, supra at 538-539. Crossen was unimpressed with the report that the law clerk claimed to have written the entire Demoulas decision. However, he believed that the information that Judge Lopez had prejudged the case to be both “troubling” and “significant.” See id.

The same day he met with Crossen, Arthur T. also met with Curry to suggest that Crossen draft Curry’s affidavit about the interview. Curry took offense at this suggestion and drafted his own affidavit. In his statement, Curry swore that the law clerk had declared four times during the course of the interview that Judge Lopez was “predisposed to find for the Plaintiffs,” and that she had told him who the “bad guys and the good guys were” and who the “winners were going to be before the case began.” Curry also averred that the law clerk claimed to have written the entire Demoulas decision, and that his bar application contained a letter of recommendation from an attorney who did not know him.19 Curry signed, but did not date, the affidavit, which he gave to Crossen.

LaBonte also drafted an affidavit, with the help of his own counsel. LaBonte’s affidavit indicates that the law clerk claimed “[o]n several occasions . . . that Judge Lopez was predisposed to find for the Plaintiff[s]” and that “before the start of the Trial . . . Judge Lopez told [the law clerk] that he will easily tell who was lying and that the Plaintiffs’] physical evidence will be overwhelming.” LaBonte signed and dated the affidavit and transmitted it by facsimile to Curry the next day.20

On June 9, 1997, Curry met in Crossen’s office with Arthur *516T. and Richard K. Donahue, another member of the defense team.21 The men discussed how best to make use of what Crossen considered the most important information from the Halifax sham interview, the information concerning Judge Lopez’s alleged predisposition. Among other options, they considered filing the affidavits with the Commission on Judicial Conduct and verifying or further pursuing the Halifax information by continuing the ruse in New York or Bermuda, both one-party consent jurisdictions in which they might secretly tape record the law clerk’s comments.

On or about June 11, 1997, Crossen determined that the best course of action would be to verify the Halifax information using his own investigators. See Crossen, supra at 539-540. He concluded that the best way to do this was to continue the job ruse and secretly tape record the law clerk’s statements in New York. At a subsequent planning meeting for the New York “interview” attended by Crossen, three of his investigators, and Arthur T, Curry spoke about how the second interview should be conducted based on Curry’s experiences with the law clerk.

The group ultimately decided that the law clerk would be told that the New York interview would be with a “decision maker” at British Pacific, a “Peter O’Hara.” O’Hara’s role was to be played by Peter Rush, a private investigator who previously had worked as a United States Secret Service special agent-in-charge in Boston. The planning group, which included Curry, also decided that LaBonte, whom the law clerk knew as “Richard LaBlanc” of British Pacific, should be present at the interview, and that Crossen and Stewart Henry, a private investigator, would go to New York to “monitor” the situation. We discuss the details of the New York interview in Crossen, supra at 542-545. Here it is sufficient to note that Curry was a *517reluctant supporter of the New York plan, arguing instead that his and LaBonte’s affidavits were sufficient to proceed with action to have Judge Lopez removed from the case.

On the day of the interview, June 17, 1997, Curry arrived unexpectedly at the New York hotel suite where the interview was to take place to reiterate his opposition to the plan. Crossen disagreed. Curry remained at the hotel suite for approximately fifteen minutes, during which time he made a call from his cellular telephone and was heard to say, “Everything looks okay to me. It’s all set. . . . Anything else you want .... Okay. I’m out of here.”22 He was not present for the interview. Curry’s fear of being displaced by the defendants’ regular counsel had come to pass. For purposes of this bar disciplinary proceeding, his role in the law clerk matter was over.

2. Bar disciplinary proceedings. In January, 2002, the Office of Bar Counsel (bar counsel) filed a three-count petition for discipline against Curry, Crossen, and Donahue in connection with the law clerk matter. Among other things, the petition alleged that Curry “devis[ed] and participat[ed] in a scheme to induce a former law clerk under false pretenses into disclosing confidential communications with a judge regarding the decision-making process in a case,” in violation of Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (2), (4)-(6), and Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (5) and (7)23; held out to the law clerk the false promise of lucrative employment, falsely represented his own identity and those of his associates, and lured the law clerk out of the Commonwealth on the false *518promise of a job interview for a lucrative position with a sham multinational corporation “for the purpose of inquiring into the deliberative process of a judge in a case tried before her,” in violation of Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (2) and (4)-(6), and Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (5) and (7); inquired into the details of the personal life of the law clerk and Judge Lopez “in order to gain potentially damaging personal information for use in a pending legal matter,” in violation of Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (5) and (6), and Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (1)24 and (7); “plann[ed], executed], and participated] in a scheme to induce [a] former law clerk to travel to New York under the pretext of a job interview in order to tape a conversation with him without his knowledge or consent,” in violation of Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (2) and (4)-(6) and Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (5) and (7); “plannfed], executed], and . . . participated] in a scheme to induce a former law clerk to make damaging or compromising statements about himself or about the judge for whom he clerked with the false inducement of a lucrative employment ... in order to force the judge’s recusal or undermine her decisions in an ongoing case,” in violation of Canon 1, DR 1-102 (A) (2) and (4)-(6), and Canon 7, DR 7-102 (A) (5) and (7).

Pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 3 (2), as amended, 430 Mass. 1314 (1999), and rule 3.19 (a) of the Rules of the Board of Bar Overseers (2007), the board designated a special hearing officer to take evidence and make findings of fact, conclusions, and recommendations. Over the next eighteen months, the special hearing officer heard twenty-four days of testimony involving twenty-one witnesses, accepted 177 documents in evidence, and made numerous evidentiary rulings. Her report issued on May 11, 2005, concluding that Curry’s actions in connection with the law clerk matter violated all of the disciplinary rules under which he was charged, with one minor exception.25 The board *519unanimously adopted the special hearing officer’s recommendation that Curry be disbarred.

3. Standard of review. We review this appeal from the board’s recommendation for disbarment through a familiar lens. We deem the special hearing officer “the sole judge of the credibility of the testimony presented at the hearing” on bar counsel’s petition for discipline. S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 8 (4), as appearing in 426 Mass. 1309 (1997). See Matter of Concemi, 422 Mass. 326, 328 (1996). Her credibility determinations will be upheld unless we are satisfied “with certainty” that a credibility finding was “wholly inconsistent with another implicit finding” (citation omitted). Matter of Barrett, 447 Mass. 453, 460 (2006). We accord great weight to the findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations of the board on its review of the special hearing officer’s report, upholding subsidiary facts found by the board that are supported by substantial evidence when the record is viewed in its entirety. See Matter of Driscoll, 447 Mass. 678, 683 (2006). See also Matter of Segal, 430 Mass. 359, 364 (1999) (“While we review the entire record and consider whatever detracts from the weight of the board’s conclusion, as long as there is substantial evidence, we do not disturb the board’s finding, even if we would have come to a different conclusion if considering the matter de nova”). Although we give great weight to the recommendations of the board, they are not binding on this court. Matter of Hilson, 448 Mass. 603, 611 (2007). Matter of Fordham, 423 Mass. 481, 487 (1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1149 (1997). We may reach our own conclusions. Matter of Anderson, 416 Mass. 521, 525 (1993). Ultimately, we must decide every case on its own merits, such that every offending attorney receives the disposition most appropriate in the circumstances. Matter of the Discipline of an Attorney, 392 Mass. 827, 837 (1984).

4. Challenged findings of fact. Curry accepts all of the special hearing officer’s findings of fact but one. In a footnote to his brief, he argues that there was clear error in her finding that he went to New York to try to stop the interview with the law *520clerk because he feared that the law clerk’s remarks in the New York interview would not support his accounts of Halifax, which would lead to an end to his lucrative engagement by Arthur T. See note 22, supra. Curry argues that the special hearing officer’s finding that his testimony was not credible on this point does not alone support her more damning interpretation of his motives. Even if Curry’s conclusory footnote rose to the level of proper appellate argument, which it does not, see Zora v. State Ethics Comm’n, 415 Mass. 640, 642 n.3 (1993) (noting that “bald assertions of error, lacking legal argument and authority,” do not “rise[] to the level of appellate argument”), we would not disturb that challenged finding. The special hearing officer’s conclusion was well-buttressed by substantial evidence of Curry’s mercenary motivations and many fabrications. Moreover, the distinction Curry urges makes little difference to the question of his culpability for creating and perpetuating the sham job scheme that was the basis of both the Halifax and New York incidents.

We now turn to Curry’s challenges to the board’s legal conclusions.

5. Violations of the code of professional responsibility. Curry claims that, contrary to the board’s conclusions, his conduct in setting up the first interview in Halifax to “secure admissions” about “improper conduct” by Judge Lopez in the stockholder derivative case was “proper and ethical.” The disciplinary rules, he says, do not prohibit “pretextual” interviews as a means of getting at the truth. Alternatively, Curry argues that, even if his conduct violated the rules, he acted reasonably and in good'faith in an area where the mies were unclear. He further contends that the testimony of his expert, which the special hearing officer excluded, would have supported his defense of good faith. Finally, Curry asserts that, “where highly responsible attorneys differ about whether [Curry’s] conduct was unethical, it is grossly unfair and unjust to disbar [him] in the case which announces a new rule.” We reject each of these arguments for the reasons explained below.

The purpose of the disciplinary roles and accompanying proceedings is to protect the public and maintain its confidence in the integrity of the bar and the fairness and impartiality of our *521legal system. See Matter of Alter, 389 Mass. 153, 156 (1983); Matter of Gordon, 385 Mass. 48, 55 (1982); Matter of Keenan, 314 Mass. 544, 547 (1943). Without the public’s trust that lawyers and judges act in good faith and strictly within the bounds of our laws and professional norms, the rule of law has little practical force. The record amply demonstrates that Curry violated the most basic ethical precepts of his profession and, in so doing, has harmed both the legal profession and the public’s perception of our justice system.

a. Dishonesty and false statements. The admonitions of the disciplinary rules against “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation,” DR 1-102 (A) (4), and “[kjnowingly mak[ing] a false statement of law or fact,” DR 7-102 (A) (5), both of which are central to this case, are not aspirational. They are not obscure. They harbor no implicit exception. Nor are they limited to statements made in court or to interactions between the lawyer and the client. Disciplinary Rule 1-102 (A) (4) applies, for example, to lawyers’ dealings with third parties. See, e.g., Matter of Hurley, 418 Mass. 649, 656-657 (1994) (conviction for conspiracy to defraud Internal Revenue Service); Matter of Hayeck, 13 Mass. Att’y Discipline Rep. 252 (1997) (impersonation of police officer); Matter of Glaser, 13 Mass Att’y Discipline Rep. 231 (1997) (conviction for conspiracy to commit larceny).26 Similarly, violations of DR 7-102 (A) (5) may involve making false oral or written representations of fact or law to third parties outside of court. See, e.g., Matter of Tierney, 13 Mass. Atty. Discipline Rep. 768, 769-770 (1997) (preparation and delivery to clients of purported court decree that attorney had fabricated); Matter of Kennedy, 13 Mass. Att’y Discipline Rep. 349, 350 (1997) (submission of falsified tax returns to lender).27

Curry’s conduct in this matter raised “dishonesty, fraud, *522deceit, or misrepresentation” and “false statements] of law or fact” to heady levels. His misconduct began with baseless insinuations to the Telemachus Demoulas family that he knew Judge Lopez was predisposed against them and that he could gather other evidence of the judge’s misconduct. His chicanery then blossomed into the creation of an entirely false universe, complete with sham executives and a sham multinational enterprise with a verifiable London telephone number. In this fabricated world, designed to ensnare a judge in a pending case through the words of her former law clerk, Curry compounded his deceit by appearing as Kevin Concave, spinning lies about a nonexistent job opportunity to the law clerk in the hopes of mining “admissions” from the young man. Curry misinformed Arthur T. that in the Halifax interview he “got” the law clerk, and he subsequently misrepresented the nature of the law clerk’s statements in Halifax about Judge Lopez’s personal and professional character. He participated in planning meetings to further the deception of the law clerk by means of another sham “job interview” in New York, which would be tape recorded without the law clerk’s knowledge or permission for purposes of coercing the law clerk’s sworn testimony against Judge Lopez in a motion to recuse in ongoing litigation. Curry’s actions were not on the boundaries of ethical conduct, “about which reasonable [attorneys] differ,” and the appraisal of which is “not . . . immediately apparent to any scrupulous citizen who confronts the question.” Matter of Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544, 556 (1968) (White, J., concurring). No “new rule” is needed to place the respondent’s action clearly within the ambit of behavior that DR 1-102 (A) (4) and DR 7-102 (A) (5) were intended to proscribe.

Curry argues, however, that his treatment of the law clerk was of a piece with instances in which lawyers employ undercover investigators to uncover discrimination in housing or employment or other violations of civil and criminal laws. It was not. The United States Supreme Court approved the use of *523testers to ferret out discrimination in housing in Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 373-375 (1982). “Testing” involves deception of a particular kind: investigators pose as members of the public interested in procuring housing or employment, in order to determine whether they are being treated differently based on their race or sex. Their aim is to reproduce an existing pattern of illegal conduct. Some private investigators whose aim is to uncover other civil wrongdoing, such as trademark infringement or breach of contract, similarly disguise their identity and purpose without running afoul of ethical rules. For example, in Gidatex, S.r.L. v. Campaniello Imports, Ltd., 82 F. Supp. 2d. 119, 120-121 (S.D.N.Y. 1999), an attorney for the plaintiff furniture manufacturer used undercover investigators to visit the showroom of the defendant, a retailer and former licensee, to note that the defendant was wrongfully continuing to use the plaintiffs trademarks and was falsely claiming to customers that the plaintiff was out of business. The investigators posed as customers. The court held that the investigation violated no ethical rule. “The presence of investigators posing as interior decorators did not cause the sales clerks to make any statements they otherwise would not have made. There is no evidence to indicate that the sales clerks were tricked or duped by the investigators’ simple questions . . . "Id. at 122.28

Curry’s scheme is different from such investigations not only in degree but in kind — as both the special hearing officer and *524the board rightly concluded.29 Unlike discrimination testers or investigators who pose as members of the public in order to reproduce pre-existing patterns of conduct, Curry built an elaborate fraudulent scheme whose purpose was to elicit or potentially threaten the law clerk into making statements that he otherwise would not have made. In particular, by leading the law clerk to believe that his “dream job” depended on the outcome of his interview, flying him to Nova Scotia, and paying him hundreds of dollars in cash, Curry created an artificial situation designed to cause the law clerk to make statements about Judge Lopez and the Demoulas decision that he would not have made absent such inducements. Curry further structured the ruse so as to elicit a particular set of answers to those questions: by emphasizing that the law clerk’s future was riding on his writing skills, Curry pressured him to give an account of the process of writing the Demoulas decision in which the láw clerk claimed Judge Lopez played little or no role. Finally, Curry engaged in an elaborate fishing expedition into the law clerk’s background aimed at discovering any “skeletons” or perceived vulnerabilities that Curry could use later to exert further coercive pressure on the law clerk. This coercive and deceptive process was designed to trick the law clerk, not to note or reproduce his usual behavior.

Curry also makes an analogy between his conduct and that of government prosecutors. This analogy is even less apt than the analogy to testers and other private investigators. As we discuss in Crossen, supra at 566-568, prosecutors are subject to a variety of powerful procedural and constitutional constraints on misleading and deceptive conduct to which private attorneys are not subject. See generally F.C. Zacharias & B.A. Green, The Uniqueness of Federal Prosecutors, 88 Geo. L.J. 207, 228-229 (Jan. *5252000). For the reasons we discuss in Crossen, supra, to suggest that government attorneys might engage in some forms of subterfuge and deception does nothing to excuse Curry’s conduct, which unambiguously violates the ethical rules.

b. Harm to the administration of justice. Curry’s conduct was self-evidently “prejudicial to the administration of justice,” in violation of DR 1-102 (A) (5), for at least two reasons. First, the purpose of Curry’s project, and the basis on which he sought to insinuate himself into the Demoulas legal team, was to discredit and thereby disqualify Judge Lopez in an ongoing matter, even though he had no credible evidence of any kind to suspect Judge Lopez of a scintilla of bias against the defendants, or of any other judicial misconduct.30 He presented himself to the losing Demoulas side armed only with the belief — which turned out to be correct — that he could persuade them to pay him substantial legal fees by stoking their doubts about whether they had been fairly treated by the court. Put another way, Curry, who as an attorney is “an officer of the court,” Matter of Cobb, 445 Mass. 452, 468 (2005), quoting Gentile v. State Bar of Nev., 501 U.S. 1030, 1072 (1991), was willing to sacrifice the reputation of the court for his own personal financial gain. Because the administration of justice depends on a baseline of confidence in the integrity of the judicial system, Curry’s self-generated, duplicitous project was “prejudicial to the administration of justice.” See Matter of Cobb, supra (“Statements by an attorney critical of a judge in a pending case in which the attorney is engaged are especially disfavored,” particularly when those statements are “unfounded”). See also Bradley v. Fisher, *52680 U.S. (13 Wall.) 335, 355 (1871) (attorneys must “maintain at all times the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers. This obligation is not discharged by merely noting the rules of courteous demeanor in open court, but it includes abstaining out of court from all insulting language and offensive conduct toward the judges personally for their judicial acts”). At the time of Curry’s conduct in this matter, Judge Lopez continued to preside over ongoing litigation in the Demoulas family disputes. “A system that permits an attorney without objective basis to challenge the integrity, and thereby the authority, of a judge presiding over a case elevates brazen and irresponsible conduct above competence and diligence, hallmarks of professional conduct.” Matter of Cobb, supra at 472.

Second, Curry’s efforts to pierce the confidential communications of a former law clerk and a judge in a pending matter to benefit one of the litigants also constitute “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.” Curry insists that his contact with the law clerk was proper because “[tjhere is no privilege in Massachusetts protecting communications between a judge and her law clerk.”31 Here Curry targets the wrong mark. Curry is correct that we have not explicitly recognized a privilege regarding communications between a judge and her law clerk, a matter we need not address here, for Curry’s logic is flawed. That such a privilege has not been explicitly recognized does not mean that an attorney (or anyone else, for that matter) is free to induce or coerce a law clerk into revealing confidential communications between the clerk and the judge about an ongoing matter to benefit one of the litigants, in particular confidential communications that the law clerk otherwise would not have revealed. The administration of