Stealing From Firm Merits Disbarment
The South Carolina Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney who
stole thousands of dollars from his law firm (the Firm) by improperly billing clients.
The story
Respondent worked for the Firm, both as a summer clerk while in law school and as an attorney following his graduation in 1994, until he abruptly resigned in 2011. The Firm became suspicious of Respondent when a client contacted the Firm and claimed to have received a bill for $500 from Respondent asking the client to pay Respondent directly, which was in contravention of the Firm’s policies. Typically, clients paid the Firm, and the Firm then paid its lawyers a fixed salary, a percentage of profits, or a combination of both. When the chairman of the Firm’s executive committee (the Chairman) confronted Respondent on October 5, 2011, about the billing abnormality, Respondent initially feigned ignorance. The next day, Respondent emailed the Chairman and admitted sending the bill, which he termed a “local” statement, in response to the client’s request. Respondent said the fact that he may have accidentally deposited the check into his personal account “embarrassed and horrified” him, “caused [him] fits,” and kept him up at night. After “discovering” that he had in fact deposited the check, Respondent immediately agreed to repay the $500, plus interest. He reiterated that he was “extremely embarrassed and mortified” and “[could not] believe [he] made such an egregious error and [he was] just sick about it.
About a week later, Respondent met with the Firm’s executive committee to discuss his actions. He claimed the two local statements he mentioned to the Chairman were the only times he had billed clients directly and was adamant that those two occurrences were isolated mistakes. The Firm’s executive committee, however, remained suspicious and hired a computer forensics expert to examine Respondent’s laptop to ascertain whether there were other instances of improper billing
The firm’s suspicions were quite justified
The forensic examination uncovered approximately $77,000 in improper invoices, dated from August 2009 through September 2011. The computer expert also testified there had been two attempts to “scrub,” or completely erase, the computer’s hard drive. The expert said those attempts were largely successful, as there was evidence of other invoices that could not be recovered.
The firm reported the attorney to the Georgia and South Carolina Bars.
The attorney sought a six-month suspension
Respondent relies heavily on the absence of client harm from his misconduct in arguing for a shorter suspension, noting he stole money from the Firm, not clients.
Despite some mitigating factors, the court imposed disbarment.
Like Baldwin, Respondent converted client fees that were owed to his law firm to his personal use and took great measures to conceal his theft. When confronted and given the opportunity to come clean, Respondent repeatedly and emphatically denied any wrongdoing. Respondent thereby engaged in a serious pattern of theft and dishonesty over an extended period of time. When compared to Baldwin’s, Respondent’s conduct is certainly egregious enough to merit disbarment. Indeed, Baldwin only stole $4,000 from his firm, while Respondent stole well over $70,000.
(Mike Frisch)