The client security fund fee has been in the news a lot lately and now a Connecticut politician has been administratively suspended from the practice of law because he failed to pay the fee.
But Merrick Alpert says he made a decision not to pay the fee because he hasn’t practiced law for years and has no desire to do so any time soon.
“The practice of law is not something I do,” says Alpert, who holds a law degree from Georgetown.
“To be blunt, I don’t enjoy it. To a great extent its about lawsuits and litigation and creating problems…I prefer business because its constructive and enjoyable and you build something.”
Should we read that last comment as a slam on his Democratic senate opponent, Richard Blumenthal, who is known in some circles for his penchant for filing lawsuits?
Nope, says Alpert. “I have friends who are lawyers, who enjoy it. I don’t. The notion of spending your day suing people is not what I’m about.”
Alpert says he hasn’t practiced law for about a decade, when he was military prosecutor, first in the U.S. Army and later in the Air Force. He enjoyed that, but adds, “the notion of doing that in the civilian world is something I have no desire to do.”
According to Judicial Branch records, Alpert is “administratively suspended from the practice of law pursuant to Practice Book Section 2-79(a) for non-payment of the client security fund fee due June 15, 2008,” branch spokeswoman Rhonda Stearley-Hebert said in an email.
The order of administrative suspension took effect on June 16, 2009, she added.