“An Entrepreneur At Heart”

The Maryland Court of Appeals has disbarred an attorney who withdrew $270,000 from a deceased client’s bank account to pay for services not yet performed and testified falsely in the ensuing bar investigation.

The court’s opinion followed an order of disbarment entered after oral argument.

The court rejected the attorney’s contention that the ethical rules did not apply to his conduct

we have determined that attorneys, acting in a non-legal role, are subject to the purview of the Rules when the hearing judge has found that the attorney’s conduct was dishonest, fraudulent, deceitful or constituted a misrepresentation.

The court affirmed the finding that there was an attorney-client relationship here.

We agree with Judge Ballou-Watts that Respondent’s conduct in issuing unearned checks for $14,500.00 and $775.00 from Ms. Ominsky’s personal account for services that had not been rendered and his removal of $270,000.00 and $3,500.00 from the Trust account were acts of dishonesty. Hodes improperly removed funds from both Ms. Ominsky’s personal account and the Trust account and utilized those funds for his and his wife’s personal benefit. His conduct was dishonest and, thus, violated Rule 8.4(c).

The Baltimore Business Journal reported in May 2012 that the attorney had left the firm he had founded twenty-four years earlier

Hodes, who called himself “an entrepreneur at heart,” said he was looking to return to a smaller legal environment. He expects to grow his new firm to no more than five to seven lawyers.

“This is not about growth and getting big,” Hodes, 60, said in an interview Wednesday. “I’ve been there done that.”

Hodes said he is leaving his former firm on good terms.

“There is no acrimony whatsoever between me and the firm,” Hodes said. “I wish them well. They are my close and dear friends. This is me making a change in my life.”

Two other attorneys from Hodes, Pessin & Katz are joining Hodes at his new firm. M. Chad Malkus joins the firm as a partner. He was previously of counsel at Hodes, Pessin & Katz and managed the firm’s Cambridge office. Ryan McConnell, who joins as an associate, was an associate at Hodes, Pessin & Katz.

Hodes is one of the Baltimore area’s better-known elder care and estate lawyers. He teaches a course on elder law at the University of Baltimore’s law school and has hosted a radio program, “Financial Focus” on WCBM radio. Hodes said he is talking with WBAL Radio about hosting a program on estates, trusts and elder law.

The Maryland Daily Record reported here. (Mike Frisch)