Bookkeeper’s Theft Leads To Attorney’s Resignation

We are seeing a trend of cases involving discipline for failure to supervise non-lawyer employees.

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has accepted an attorney’s resignation on these facts:

In respondent’s affidavit of resignation, sworn to on January 31, 2013, he acknowledges that there is a pending investigation by the Committee into allegations that he engaged in professional misconduct due to his failure to monitor his escrow account. He admits that he failed to realize that his bookkeeper had misappropriated approximately $46,000 from that account, and that the loss rendered him unable to pay approximately $42,000 in settlement funds owed to a client. He further admits that he did not report his bookkeeper’s misfeasance to law enforcement, because he feared the collateral consequences to himself. Additionally, respondent acknowledges in his affidavit that he knowingly assisted his client in concealing the amount of settlement funds due her to protect against her disqualification from various benefits.

The court also ordered restitution. (Mike Frisch)