Editor’s Note: Law Week Colorado edits court opinion summaries for style and, when necessary, length.
From 2019 to 2022, Ahad Ali Khilji practiced law in Grand Junction as a public defender. In mid-May 2023, a blog, which is maintained by a former deputy district attorney for the 21st Judicial District, posted a screenshot displaying two comments made in response to a blog post.
The comments were attributed to a Mesa County judge and to a former deputy district attorney for the 21st Judicial District. The comment attributed to the judge read, “DA GOT THAT DOPE.” The comment attributed to the former district attorney read,” Shut the [f—] up.”
According to the opinion, Khilji authored the comments, posing as the judge and the former deputy district attorney. When Khilji authored the comments, he was no longer employed as a public defender.
Khilji didn’t post the comments to the blog but submitted them to the blog’s moderator. To submit the comments, Khilji had to associate each one with an email address. Khilji created the email addresses, but one of the addresses happened to be an actual address used by the former deputy district attorney.
Through this conduct, Khilji violated Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c).
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Khilji for 60 days, to be stayed upon Khilji’s successful completion of a two-year period of probation, with conditions. The probation took effect Aug. 22.
Andrew Wichern served as founder, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of a software startup. Wichern violated Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 1.4(b) when he failed to inform the company that it had issued stock in excess of what was authorized in its certificate of incorporation.
Wichern also failed to inform the company that he filed a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission more than seven months late. Wichern also altered the filings of three company founders without informing them that he did so. Those filings give the founders an ability to pay taxes on the total fair market value of restricted stock on the day of its grant, rather than the day it vests.
Wichern also failed to inform the company of the outside counsel’s concerns about the company’s corporate documents and stock issuance.
In addition, Wichern violated Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7(a)(2) when the startup company hired Wichern’s wife. He advocated that the company compensate her using a minimal strike price for her stock options. He also argued that her vesting schedule should be accelerated, and he coordinated others’ purchase of her newly vested stock. He also attempted to add his teenage children as investors on a company patent and directed the finance department to increase his own salary.
Wichern violated Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5(a) because he practiced law for more than a year while he was administratively suspended for nonpayment of registration fees.
He also violated Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c). Wichern made inaccurate representations to potential stockholders regarding outstanding shares and shares held by the founders. He made misrepresentations to the state of Delaware by filing a backdated amended certificate of incorporation and other backdated corporate documents.
Wichern misrepresented his salary to another co-founder who was ultimately terminated from the company, and he improperly used and/or received thousands of dollars in corporate funds between 2013 and 2021 without authorization, converting them to his own use.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and disbarred Wichern. The disbarment took effect Aug. 22.
This reciprocal discipline case arose out of discipline imposed on Kamille Dean in Arizona. In June, the Arizona President Disciplinary Judge accepted a stipulation to Dean’s suspension, which was premised on her misconduct in revealing client confidences in a pending divorce matter.
According to the opinion, Dean engaged in conduct constituting grounds for reciprocal discipline, which calls for the imposition of the same discipline as that imposed in Arizona.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation and suspended Dean from the practice of law in Colorado for 60 days, with the requirement Dean comply with the probationary conditions of her discipline imposed in Arizona. Her suspension took effect on Aug. 23.
This reciprocal discipline case arose out of a discipline imposed on John Crosby by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Nov. 2, 2023. Crosby’s suspension was premised on his failure to act with reasonable diligence and promptness, failure to keep his clients informed about the status of their matters, failure to promptly comply with his clients’ reasonable requests for information about their matters, failure to explain matters to the extent reasonably necessary to permit his clients to make informed decisions about the representation, failure to promptly deliver to a third person the funds the third person was entitled to receive and failure to protect a client’s interests upon his withdrawal from the representation.
He was also separately publicly censured by the Supreme Court of Nevada.
Through this conduct, Crosby engaged in conduct constituting grounds for reciprocal discipline, which calls for imposition of the same discipline as that imposed by the USPTO.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation and suspended Crosby from the practice of law in Colorado for two years, with nine months to be served and the remainder to be stayed on the successful completion of a two-year period of probation, with conditions. His suspension took effect on Aug. 23.