Facts
The appellant X. is a lawyer and a notary public in the canton of Zug. In 2006, he submitted a document to the Commercial Register Office of Zug in which a person involved had not signed it by hand, but with a stamp, and it was falsely stated that the person concerned had participated in the founders' meeting. The Supervisory Commission for Lawyers of the Canton of Zug saw this as a violation of the Zug Law on Public Certification and revoked X.'s certification authority for three months. On appeal, the High Court of the Canton of Zug reduced the duration of the revocation to two months.
Based on a notification from the Supervisory Commission, the Office of the Investigating Magistrate of the Canton of Zug opened a criminal investigation against X. With a judgment dated August 25, 2008, the single judge at the Criminal Court of the Canton of Zug found X. guilty of forgery of documents in office and sentenced him to a fine. X.'s appeal against this judgment was dismissed on April 28, 2009.
After taking note of this judgment, the Supervisory Commission for Lawyers, by decision of September 16, 2009, deleted X. from the register of lawyers and determined that his certification authority had also lapsed as a result. His appeal against this decision was dismissed by the High Court of the Canton of Zug on December 17, 2009.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court notes that, according to the Federal Act on the Freedom of Movement for Lawyers (BGFA), a criminal conviction for acts incompatible with the legal profession can lead to exclusion from the register of lawyers. The supervisory authority has a wide margin of discretion, but must observe the principle of proportionality.
In the present case,…