A Louisiana Hearing Committee has blessed the reinstatement petition of an attorney who was suspended for three years.

Law360 reported on the suspension

Louisiana’s highest court has handed down a three-year suspension to lawyer Randy J. Ungar for misconduct related to his alleged failure to share with two clients the details of a $15 million settlement agreement in a putative class action accusing an insurer of breach of contract and fraud.

Judges Benjamin Jones, Jeannette Theriot Knoll, Jeffrey Victory and Bernette Joshua Johnson of the Supreme Court of Louisiana on Friday agreed with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel’s findings that Ungar’s interactions with his clients and his attempt to collect an unreasonable fee violated multiple sections of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

“The misconduct in this case, which involves elements of dishonesty and self-interest, is clearly serious in nature,” Judge Jones wrote in explaining how the judges reached their determination. “However, we recognize Ungar eventually took some steps (admittedly belated) to minimize the harm of his actions.”

In imposing the three-year suspension, the judges weighed aggravating factors, which included Ungar’s three prior admonishments for related misconduct and his “dishonest and selfish” motive, with several mitigating factors, including Ungar’s “timely good faith effort to rectify the consequences of the misconduct” and his “cooperative attitude,” according to the ruling.

Judge Knoll dissented to the ruling in part, disagreeing with the decision to impose a sanction less than disbarment for actions that she called “deliberate, dishonest, deceitful and motivated by self-interest.”

“A three-year suspension makes light of the severity of this attorney’s conduct and sends the wrong message to members of the bar and the public to whom attorneys owe a sacred trust,” she wrote. “Moreover, Ungar’s conduct causes the public to harbor a real disdain for the legal profession and forever tarnishes the legal profession.”

In 1997 Kim Bullock Cutrera and John Meehan retained Ungar, who was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1975, to represent them in a putative class action in Orleans Civil District Court accusing The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States of breach of contract, fraud and deceptive practices in its marketing and sale of “vanishing premium” life insurance policies, according to the ruling.

After the trial court denied the plaintiffs’ bid for class certification in December 1999, Ungar without his clients’ knowledge attempted to negotiate a settlement with Equitable’s local counsel while the appeal of the class certification denial was pending in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, the ruling said.

When those efforts were unsuccessful, Milberg LLP, a firm also working on the case, picked up the negotiations in New York, according to the ruling.

In October 2000, the parties reached a “global settlement” in which Equitable agreed to pay $15 million to settle the Louisiana suit as well as two similar pending cases in New York. Under the terms of the agreement, $4 million of the settlement would be allocated for the client’s claims, while the remaining $11 million was to be divided among the lawyers, the ruling said.

Cutrera and Meehan both received copies of a “general release” form, but Ungar refused on multiple occasions to provide them with a copy of the settlement agreement, according to the ruling.

Ungar also falsely assured his clients that “no additional attorneys’ fee will be charged to you out of your settlement as my fees will be paid directly by the defendant,” the ruling said.

Meehan eventually obtained a copy of the settlement agreement from an attorney at the Houston law firm O’Quinn & Laminack, another counsel for the case, and settled his claims for $170,000, the ruling said.

Cutrera hired attorney Thomas Cortazzo to represent her in connection with the settlement. Although Ungar had offered her $100,000 to settle her claims, Cutrera eventually obtained $550,000 with Cortazzo’s assistance, according to the ruling.

Cutrera and Meehan filed legal malpractice suits against Ungar as well as O’Quinn and Milberg Weiss in 2002. Cutrera subsequently received $400,000 and Meehan obtained a $335,000 settlement, with Ungar denying any liability in connection with the settlements, the ruling said.

Ungar and his firm Randy J. Ungar & Associates could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.

The case is In re: Randy J. Ungar, case number 09-0573, in the Supreme Court of Louisiana.

(Mike Frisch)