From Fiction To Reinstatement

The Ohio Supreme Court reinstated an attorney suspended in 2009 for misconduct described in the suspension order

The Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline recommends that we suspend respondent for two years with one year stayed upon conditions for creating a fictional law firm and for misconduct involving legal fees.We agree that respondent committed these acts of misconduct, and we also find that respondent acted improperly in failing to pay a disputed expert-witness deposition fee and failing to pay child support while contesting that amount through the legal process. In view of these serious ethical violations, we do not accept the board’s recommended two-year suspension with one year stayed and instead indefinitely suspend respondent from the practice of law.

The fictitious firm

Under this count, relator claims that respondent improperly held himself out as a member of entities named “McCord, Pryor & Associates,” “McCord, Pryor & Associates Co., L.P.A.,” and “McCord & Associates.” Respondent’s actions related to these purported entities raise three questions: (1) Was respondent ever a law partner with David E. Pryor? (2) Did respondent act inappropriately in forming an entity named “McCord, Pryor & Associates Co., L.P.A.”? and (3) Did respondent have any associates that would justify using the term “and associates” in firm names?

Pryor was admitted to the practice of law in 1982. In 2002, Pryor and his wife were killed in a plane crash. At the time of Pryor’s death, he and respondent co-owned a building in Columbus where the two men maintained their law practices.

Although respondent claims that he and Pryor held themselves out as a firm under the name “McCord, Pryor & Associates” for numerous years, they did not operate under any recognizable legal structure. They had separate clients, separate IOLTA accounts, separate fee income, and separate law-related business expenses during Pryor’s life. Moreover, they did not have an agreement to share profits and losses; respondent readily admits that they shared attorney fees only on cases they worked on together, never on their separate cases. Given these facts, it was improper for respondent to hold himself out as “McCord, Pryor & Associates.”

The attorney must pay costs or face suspension again

if costs are not paid in full on or before 90 days from the date of this order, the matter may be referred to the Attorney General for collection and respondent may be found in contempt and suspended until all costs and accrued interest are paid in full.

(Mike Frisch)