BALTIMORE — Charles Barkley once called him “the best fan in the NBA.”
Robin Ficker, the then Washington Bullets die-hard known for his incessant taunting, was so good at getting in other people’s heads from his spot behind the visiting bench, teams would move their huddles to the court just to get away.
No longer a super-fan, Ficker has become a perpetual political candidate, running for offices on libertarian, anti-tax platforms only to lose each time.
As a lawyer, the courts accused him in 1998 of running his firm like a “taxi-cab company,” picking up cases as indiscriminately as a yellow cab picks up riders.
Forty years ago, when he was a Maryland Delegate, the Washington Post ran a story under the headline “Robin Ficker: Attention Getter” devoted to how annoying and ineffective his legislative colleagues found him, even if they liked him personally.
Now, Ficker, who is also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, is getting attention again, this time for getting banned from practicing law in Maryland.
The Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously ruled last week to disbar Ficker for professional incompetence and misconduct.
Representing a Prince George’s County man in a traffic case, Ficker in 2019 failed to properly file a continuance motion with the court, causing headaches for the judge and prosecutors while leaving his client on the ropes, according to the Court of Appeals’ ruling. When Ficker showed up in court, he showed up late and without his client.
“My clients haven’t complained,” Ficker said. “It’s always judges or lawyers who complain and they have an ax to grind.”
Normally, a missed court date by an over-scheduled attorney or an accidental filing fumble would not result in disbarment, recently retired appellate Judge Robert McDonald wrote in the order to disbar. But this was different. This was Ficker.
McDonald, quoting William Shakespeare, wrote in the opinion that “what’s past is prologue,” and Ficker’s most recent example of professional incompetence can’t be viewed in a vacuum.
“His lengthy disciplinary history since his admission may be unique in the annals of the bar,” McDonald wrote.
A member of the Maryland Bar since 1973, Ficker has been disciplined for professional misconduct eight times under three iterations of Maryland’s rules of conduct for lawyers, according to the court’s opinion.
Ficker sees it differently, convinced the powers that be are out to make him look bad.
“This case and my candidacy are inexplicably intertwined and it’s very political,” Ficker told The Sun. “And that’s fine with me.”
For the most recent episode of misconduct, the one that led to his disbarring, Ficker said everything was an honest misunderstanding, if only the court could have understood.
Ficker’s office assistant, Jason Kobin, who himself was disbarred in 2013, was supposed to file a motion to continue the traffic case in February 2019. Ficker had given Kobin authority to sign motions on his behalf, according to the Court of Appeals’ ruling, and Kobin signed and filed the motion on his behalf.
Typically, prosecutors are given a heads up when the defense plans to seek a continuance, and Ficker’s motion said it had the state’s attorney’s blessing, even naming the assistant state’s attorney who agreed to it.
There was only one problem: The attorney he named, Michael Palisano, had not worked in the state’s attorney’s office since 2018 and was never involved in the case at hand.
According to the Court of Appeals ruling, Kobin said he filed the continuance motion after leaving the hospital against the advice of a doctor who wanted him to undergo emergency amputation surgery. Attempts to reach Kobin were unsuccessful.
“He was in the hospital having part of his foot cut off and he made a mistake in how he filed that,” Ficker said.
Despite concerns, a judge granted the motion to continue and the case is still active, according to online court records.
Asked if losing the ability to practice law dampened his spirits or his finances, Ficker, who is also a licensed real estate broker, seemed unconcerned.
“It’s a hot market,” he said.
More pressing, Ficker said, is his bid to be Maryland’s next governor. Ficker had a TV interview Monday evening and is speaking Tuesday and Wednesday at gubernatorial climate forums sponsored by Maryland Matters. He’s the only Republican candidate slated to attend the forums.
Ficker is competing for the Republican nomination against Gov. Larry Hogan’s former commerce secretary Kelly Schulz and Del. Dan Cox, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
A perennial losing candidate and supporter of anti-tax ballot initiatives, Ficker is certain this is the year Marylanders put him in Annapolis.
“I’m just getting warmed up.”
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