People v. Thai Soo Kim. 17PDJ061. August 24, 2017. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ conditional admission of misconduct and publicly censured Thai Soo Kim (attorney registration number 16467), effective August 24, 2017.
In October 2010, Kim began defending a civil action lodged against him and his limited liability company law firm, of which he was the only member. In late November 2010, Kim’s law license was suspended for one year and one day, yet during the first half of 2011 Kim filed multiple motions, responses, and other documents pro se and on behalf of his law firm. Kim, as a suspended lawyer, was not permitted to represent his law firm in court under C.R.S. § 12-5-101(1). In summer 2011, Kim read the applicable statute and formed the belief that he could permissibly represent his law firm as its sole member. His opposing counsel later moved to strike all filings that the law firm had made; the court granted the motion, concluding that Respondent’s statutory interpretation was incorrect.
Through this misconduct, Kim violated Colo. RPC 1.1 (a lawyer shall competently represent a client) and Colo. RPC 5.5(a)(1) (a lawyer shall not practice law without a law license or other specific authorization).