On November 21, 2001, the Florida Supreme Court issued a decision
upholding the permanent disbarment of Bailey (that is, he was stricken
from the roll of lawyers admitted to practice before the state's
courts) for his misconduct in the 1994 DuBoc case specifically, for
misappropriating client funds. In 1994, Bailey and
Robert Shapiro represented
Claude DuBoc, characterized by the federal government as a marijuana
trafficking kingpin, eventually negotiating a verbal plea bargain deal
with the U.S. Attorney in Florida in which DuBoc agreed to turn over
his assets to the federal government. His assets included shares of the
company BioChem worth approximately $6 million at the time of the plea
bargain but which had appreciated by an additional $14 million by the
year 2000, when the government sought to collect the stock, which had
been deposited with Bailey as a caretaker. Pleading poverty to the
press, Bailey refused to turn over the stock to the federal government,
claiming in court that he was entitled to the appreciation of the stock
in lieu of payment of his legal fees. In 2000, he was sent to prison
for 44 days for contempt of court. After Shapiro testified for the
federal government that it was entitled to the appreciated value of the
stock, Bailey eventually quit his claim and surrendered the stock and
was let out of prison. His conduct in this case led to his permanent
disbarment in Florida. In a reciprocal disciplinary ruling, Bailey was
disbarred by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2003. The
Masschusetts disbarment was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
First Circuit in a decision issued on June 9, 2006. Bailey earlier had
been disbarred by the state of New Jersey for one year, in 1971. Bailey
also had been censured in 1970 when a Massachusetts judge said his
attitude showed "a self-esteem of such proportions as to challenge
description" and recommended disbarment. By the dawn of the 21st
Century, Bailey -- one of the most famous and sought-after trial
attorneys in the 1960s and '70s -- was essentially ruined.
