The panel, in its per curiam opinion, noted that Gallagher had been being served with the 2019 petition laying the charges, but he never filed any answer to them with the Third Department court. Similarly, the panel said, he never answered the grievance committee's later-filed motion for default judgment.

Gallagher's "failure to properly answer the petition or appear in response to this motion 'is tantamount to an admission of the charges,'" the panel wrote, quoting Matter of Courtney.

The panel said that the Third Department court, in December 2013, had suspended Gallagher from practicing law after sustaining "allegations of client neglect, conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, failing to pay an arbitration award to a client and other conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice." It did not detail the wrongdoing in its opinion Thursday.

But in the 2013 opinion suspending the attorney, a Third Department panel wrote then, while listing the Rules of Professional Conduct that had been violated, that he was "guilty of having failed to keep a client reasonably informed as to the status of his divorce matter and a client reasonably informed as to the status of her medical malpractice matter … ; of having engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation in a second divorce matter … ; of having failed to pay an arbitration award to a client promptly and as requested …; of having failed to promptly comply with the medical malpractice client's reasonable request for information … ; of having neglected the first divorce client's matter and the medical malpractice matter (except insofar as the charge refers to retaining an expert witness in the medical malpractice matter) …; and of having engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the medical malpractice matter."

In deciding what current punishment should be handed down Thursday, in consideration of Gallagher's default on the seven new misconduct charges levied against him, the panel first noted that due to his "failure to appear in this proceeding, there are no mitigating factors for our consideration."

"In contrast, we have considered the numerous aggravating factors presented by [the grievance committee], including, among other things, respondent's [Gallagher's] past discipline imposed by this court and current extant suspension from the practice of law," wrote the panel. The grievance committee "also references respondent's extensive private disciplinary history, which includes five letters of admonition and a letter of caution."

Continuing, the panel wrote that "inasmuch as a majority of this past misconduct involves similarly egregious instances of client neglect and deceitful misrepresentations, we agree with [the grievance committee] that an unacceptable pattern of professional misconduct has been demonstrated.

"Accordingly, upon our review of all the circumstances, and in order to protect the public, maintain the honor and integrity of the profession and deter others from committing similar misconduct, we find that respondent must be disbarred," it said.

Efforts to reach Gallagher on Thursday were not successful.

An Avvo web page biography for Gallagher lists him as "disciplined by a state licensing authority in 2013." It gives no business phone number for him.

The same web page lists a Glens Falls business address for him at a law firm called Toomey & Gallagher.

Upon opening a website for a firm called Toomey & Gallagher in Glens Falls, the site shows the name as The Toomey Law Firm. And according to the information on the site, it appears the firm today is a solo practitioner firm that does not include Gallagher on staff.

A phone call to the law firm Thursday was not returned.