A Florida divorce lawyer engaged in sex with a client. The ex-husband-to-be found out
Sex with a client — and texts or old-fashioned written notes discussing them — has a Jacksonville divorce lawyer serving a 60-day suspension that started April 1.
Zisser Family Law’s Jonathan Zisser maintained a clean discipline record from his Florida Bar admission in November 2001 until January 2021. That’s when Zisser began representing a woman who was divorcing a Jacksonville area doctor. Attorney-client became representation-with-benefits.
“This relationship included explicit sexual communications between (Zisser and his client),” his guilty plea for consent judgment said. “In February 2021, (the client’s husband) became aware of the explicit communications.”
And, the husband got hold of them and passed them to one of his attorneys. Zisser learned this on April 13, 2021. He and his client halted their sexual relationship, and Zisser withdrew from all representation of her. The estranged husband filed a Bar complaint against Zisser on June 24, 2021.
Looking at Zisser’s record, the referee in this case, Florida Seventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Michael Orfinger, suggested a 60-day suspension and a professionalism workshop for Zisser. The state Supreme Court agreed on March 2 and ordered the suspension to start 30 days later.
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 2:20 PM.
