Bar's lawyer comes to Pasco

After prosecuting F. Lee Bailey in a misconduct case for the Florida Bar, David Ristoff is adjusting to private practice in New Port Richey.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 18, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- David Ristoff remembers long ago reading F. Lee Bailey's The Defense Never Rests, the famed criminal defense lawyer's account of some of his most famous cases. As a boy, it fueled Ristoff's interest in the law. It made Bailey a personal hero.

But in recent years, as branch counsel for the Florida Bar's Tampa office, Ristoff has been working tirelessly to prepare evidence against Bailey for a misconduct trial that could result in Bailey being disbarred.

A judge is expected to decide this week whether to issue a recommendation to the Florida Supreme Court for Bailey's disbarment on charges he misappropriated millions of dollars of stocks belonging to a drug-trafficking client.

Ristoff, 44, who prosecuted Bailey during the trial in Naples early last month, thinks of the case as the culmination of his 16-year stint in the Tampa office of the Florida Bar, which handles complaints against lawyers.

But as the case wraps up, Ristoff, a well-known name in legal circles across the state, is adjusting to private practice in New Port Richey.

In June, his name was added to the Little Road firm of Kaltenbach and Williams, where his work will include criminal defense, wills, trusts and personal injury cases. Working for the Bar supplied him with a knowledge of law in many areas, he said, as well as an understanding of how often the sheer volume of work makes lawyers cut corners.

After that work, he added, "Hopefully, you think of (the law) in a more ethical way. . . . Now I have to practice what I preached for all these years."

Twice, Ristoff has made the short-list for a judge's appointment in Pasco-Pinellas. He worked as a prosecutor in Ohio and in Sebring before going to work for the Bar, so joining the Little Road firm represents his first time in private practice. It was his friendship with Stephen Williams, one of the partners, that brought him there.

"He had a lot of opportunities, where he could have gone," Williams said. "He's going to bring a strong presence to this office that a lot of other firms don't have."

said his other partner, Donald Kaltenbach, who is well-known for the book he wrote about surviving prostate cancer. He is working on a second book.

Taking in Ristoff as a partner "will permit me to spend less time in the courtroom and concentrate more on the cancer side of my life," he said.

Ristoff will watch the conclusion of the Bailey case with interest, though it is now out of his hands. He called it "the most intensive case I've ever been in," involving mountains of paperwork, complex financial details and very little sleep for the lawyers. To recuperate, Ristoff took his wife and two teenage sons to Cancun, Mexico.

"I promised the Bar I would stay and finish the case," he said. "(Would) I take pride in seeing him lose his license? No." But, he added: "Anybody who misappropriates funds, I don't feel should be practicing."

- Staff writer Christopher Goffard covers courts in west Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6236. His e-mail address is goffard@sptimes.com.

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