Lawyer Disciplinary Actions Clerk that he needed to file a Motion for Rule on the Clerk, which he did on March 14, 2007. The Arkansas Supreme Court granted the motion in a Per Curiam order and referred the matter to the Office of Professional Conduct. BRYAN J. REIS, Bar No. 79239, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was cautioned, in CPC 2007-081, by Committee Findings & Order filed February 20, 2008, on a complaint by Clifford Block, Esq. for violation of Rules 1.7(a)(2) and 1.9(a). On April 4, 2007, the Garland County Circuit Court granted plaintiff’s Motion to Disqualify Mr. Reis, defendant’s counsel of record in Case No. CV 2006-841-III, Marian N. Howell, Nathan B. Howell, and Bear’s Pizza Co., Inc. v. F. Lee Beasley III and Deborah Hunter. The basis of the court’s disqualification was Mr. Reis’s joint representation of Nathan Howell and F. Lee Beasley in matters the court deemed the same or substantially related transactions to issues in the litigation. Likewise in Case No. CV 2006-852-III, F. Lee Beasley v. Marion N. Howell and Nathan B. Howell, the Garland County Circuit Court granted defendant’s Motion to Disqualify Reis as plaintiff’s counsel of record. The court found that (1) Reis had
previously engaged in joint representation of Nathan Howell and Beasley in the same or substantially related transactions at issue in the litigation, (2) that the men now had materially adverse interests, and (3) that, although there was no impropriety, the disqualification was necessary to avoid the appearance of such. Prior to a ruling in either of these cases, the court invited counsel to submit citations of any supporting case law. In his letter brief to the court, Reis denied that an attorney-client relationship ever existed as between Reis and Mr. Howell given that Howell hired other counsel to represent him. However, Reis testified at the hearing on March 13, 2007, that he at one time engaged in joint representation of Mr. Howell and Mr. Beasley. ■
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