Preface
Rule Text
The Supreme Court has the inherent power and the duty to prescribe the qualifications that shall be required for admission to practice law; to admit persons to practice law; to prescribe standards of conduct for lawyers; to determine what constitutes grounds for the discipline of lawyers; to discipline, for cause, persons admitted to practice law in this state; and to revoke the license of every lawyer whose unfitness to practice law has been duly established.
The purpose of discipline of lawyers is the protection of the public, the profession and the administration of justice, and not the punishment of the person disciplined.
Only persons of integrity and good character should be permitted to practice law.
Persons admitted to practice law in this state are a part of the judicial system of the state and officers of its courts.
A license to practice law confers no vested right, but is a conditional privilege, revocable for cause.
An attorney who has been suspended and who seeks readmission has the burden of establishing by clear and convincing proof that he possesses the qualifications for readmission, which should not be less than those required for original admission.
It is the obligation of the organized bar and the individual lawyer to give unstinted cooperation and assistance to the Supreme Court, and its agency the disciplinary board, in discharging its function and duty with respect to discipline and in purging the profession of the unworthy.
In the exercise of its inherent jurisdiction to admit persons to practice law and to discipline, for cause, all such persons, the Supreme Court adopts and promulgates the following rules which shall govern disciplinary proceedings against members of the New Mexico bar and all attorneys within this court's jurisdiction.