Fourth Department suspends attorney for two years

Erie County attorney Jason A. Shear has been suspended from practicing law for two years.

Shear was admitted to practice in February 2007. In August 2025, the Grievance Committee of the Eighth Judicial District filed a petition accusing Shear of professional misconduct.

The allegations include failing to communicate with a client, engaging in sexual relations with a client, and making false statements to the Grievance Committee.

Shear, who has an office in Lackawanna, denied the allegations, and the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, appointed a referee to conduct a hearing.

After the hearing, the referee filed a report sustaining the charge of misconduct, finding that Shear gave false testimony, and resorted to ad hominem attacks against the client and the attorney for the Grievance Committee.

The referee found that, in the summer of 2023, Shear respondent accepted a $200 fee to represent a client in a foreclosure case. The referee found that, in the fall of 2023, Shear’s relationship with the client became more personal, based on thousands of text messages between them, along with security camera video, which showed Shear at the client’s home.

The Referee found that Shear had sexual relations with the client on several occasions in October 2023.

The client testified that she was “shocked” to learn that Shear was married, and she “subsequently became worried that the outcome of her legal matter might suffer if she discontinued the intimate relationship,” according to the Fourth Department decision.

After the intimate relationship soured, Shear “went silent” for several months in early 2024. During that period, Shear failed to inform the client about a court conference in April 2024.

Afterward, the client ended the legal representation, filed a grievance complaint, and resolved the foreclosure case on her own.

The referee noted that Shear tried to discredit the client “by making unsupported and incredible assertions, including that the she was violent, mentally ill, and stalking respondent,” the court wrote.

The Fourth Department confirmed the referee’s findings and ruled that Shear violated several provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

Shear had no disciplinary history, and the misconduct involved a single client matter, the court noted.

“However, we conclude that respondent failed to offer any persuasive mitigating factors,” the court wrote.

Shear “made false statements during the investigation, gave false testimony during the hearing, and resorted to frivolous ad hominem attacks against … the client and grievance counsel,” the court found.

“We note that respondent reiterated many of those false and frivolous assertions when he appeared before this Court,” the Fourth Department panel wrote.

“In our view, respondent’s tactics evince a lack of remorse for the misconduct, an inability to acknowledge his own wrongdoing, and a disregard for the authority of the Grievance Committee and this Court. Accordingly, after consideration of all the factors in this matter, we conclude that respondent should be suspended from the practice of law for a period of two years,” the court ruled.

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