Social Insecurity

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has imposed a reprimand and other sanctions on an attorney for ethical violations relating to a fee dispute with his law firm.

The court agreed with its Lawyer Disciplinary Board that only two of the six rule violation charges were proven.

The background

Lawyer White was admitted to the West Virginia Bar in 2005. In 2008, he joined the Hendrickson and Long (“H&L”) law firm in Charleston, West Virginia, as an associate handling social security disability cases. White’s annual compensation of $160,000 from the firm was to be paid half in salary and half in the form of a loan. At the time of his hiring, White understood the fees generated by his social security disability cases would be credited against the loan. However, his employment agreement was silent on this issue.

White later learned that H&L was not crediting the social security disability fees he earned against his loan, and from February 2009 to May 2009, he withheld his incoming social security disability fees from H&L by keeping them in his desk drawer. H&L filed a complaint with the ODC from which this case originated.

The court agreed with the board that Rule 1.15(a) and dishonesty violations were not established

H&L created an ambiguous employment letter that was unclear as to the application of the social security disability fees from White’s cases against his loan. The fact that H&L caused the ambiguity as to whether these fees would be credited against White’s loan is one reason we are not convinced that White violated Rule 1.15(a)…

This Court is satisfied with the Board’s findings that White did not violate Rules 8.4(c) or (d) because he did not convert funds belonging solely to H&L and because he reasonably believed that he had a legitimate claim to the social security disability fees.

A sanction was imposed for Rule 1.15(b) and (c) violations that the court stressed did not involve conversion

This case is fundamentally different from those in which a lawyer knowingly misappropriated a third person’s property…

We agree that the following facts should mitigate White’s punishment: the application of social security disability fees against the loan was the subject of a bona fide contract dispute, White had no prior disciplinary record, he lacked experience in the legal profession, and White lacked a dishonest or selfish motive.

(Mike Frisch)