People v. Kerry P. Rohweder. 21PDJ078. November 8, 2021.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Kerry P. Rohweder (attorney registration number 17031) for nine months, all to be stayed upon the successful completion of a two-year period of probation, with conditions. The probation took effect November 8, 2021.
Beginning in 2012, Rohweder represented two clients in separate domestic relations cases. During the representations, the clients married each other but soon began having disputes. Rohweder, as a friend, agreed to help them work through their conflicts. In 2015, Rohweder withdrew from their respective cases. In 2016, one of the former clients filed for divorce. During the divorce proceeding, Rohweder prepared and signed an affidavit as an exhibit to a pleading. The affidavit described an altercation that Rohweder had observed between his former clients when he was still their lawyer. Rohweder also described in the affidavit the abusive nature of one of the former clients, including divulging details about the former client’s conduct that Rohweder observed during the representation. Rohweder later provided the same information to the parental responsibilities evaluator assigned to the divorce case. The evaluator included the information in a confidential report prepared for the case.
Through this conduct, Rohweder violated Colo. RPC 1.9(c)(1) and Colo. RPC 1.9(c)(2) (providing that a lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not reveal information related to the representation or use information relating to the representation to the disadvantage of the former client).
The case file is public per C.R.C.P. 242.41(a)(2).