Misplaced Trust

A stayed six-month suspension was ordered by the Indiana Supreme Court on these facts

Respondent employed L.G. from 2002 until 2013 as a paralegal, secretary, and office manager for his private practice. Respondent delegated to L.G. authority for establishing attorney-client relationships. On several occasions, L.G. collected client filing fees and converted those fees for her own personal use, and on at least two occasions L.G. provided clients with fabricated notices of automatic stay in order to conceal her conversion of bankruptcy filing fees. L.G. also stole client funds from Respondent’s trust account. In sum, L.G. misappropriated about $103,000 from Respondent’s clients. L.G.’s improper actions were caused, in part, by Respondent’s failure to appropriately supervise her and by Respondent’s improper delegation of authority to her.

Respondent has made restitution payments of about $67,000 directly to some affected clients and has made payments of about $36,000 to other attorneys so that other affected clients could secure successor counsel to have their bankruptcy matters completed.

The stayed suspension requires two years of probation.

Details here from Kokomoperspective. com.

I’m not certain why the court order refers to the paralegal by her initials. I see no reason to protect her identity.

She is identified as Lacee Garber in the press report. (Mike Frisch)