Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

An attorney already serving an indefinite suspension for failure to cooperate has been disbarred by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Attorney Elton Johnson was admitted in 2010.

Count One

“Client 1” pleaded guilty in federal court to transferring obscene materials to a minor. Upon his release from prison in 2011, Client 1 paid $10,000 to the Terani Law Firm (“Terani”) to evaluate his legal options regarding the requirement that he register as a sex offender. Terani forwarded the case to Respondent, paying him a few thousand dollars for a legal memorandum. Client 1 was not informed how the fee was split; in fact, the contract between Terani and Respondent forbade such disclosure.

Respondent, in turn, delegated the work to an individual who was either attending law school or a recent graduate. This individual drafted, and Respondent forwarded to Terani and Client 1, a four-and-one-half page legal memorandum recommending a three-part plan that had virtually no chance of providing any relief to Client 1. In fact, if the plan had worked as intended, Client 1 could have been retried and required to serve additional prison time.

Respondent did not inform Client 1 of this possibility, and Client 1 previously had told Respondent he did not want to pursue any legal avenue that potentially could result in additional prison time.

Client 1 hired Respondent to pursue the plan. Client 1 paid Respondent a total of $32,800 in several installments, not all of which were deposited into Respondent’s trust account. Respondent did no additional work on the case. Client 1 eventually fired Respondent and hired replacement counsel, who requested an accounting from Respondent of time spent and disbursements made on Client 1’s behalf. Respondent either could not or would not provide such an accounting.

Respondent billed Client 1 at attorney rates for clerical work, and even did so at a rate higher than the attorney rate specified in his fee agreement with Client 1. Respondent also invoiced Client 1 for services rendered after Client 1 fired Respondent, including for time spent responding to the disciplinary grievance filed against Respondent. Respondent made knowingly false statements to the Commission during its investigation, including that he had worked 425 hours on Client 1’s case and that the individual who drafted the memo was an attorney when he worked on the case. Respondent has not refunded any money to Client 1.

There were several other counts of misconduct.

The court

During his short-lived legal career Respondent has demonstrated a continuing pattern of serious misconduct, much of it predicated upon efforts to unjustly enrich himself at his clients’ expense. In exercising our disciplinary authority, we have an obligation to protect the public and the profession from the tactics of unscrupulous lawyers…Respondent’s neglect, incompetence, dishonesty, conversion of client funds, noncooperation with the Commission, and failure to meaningfully participate in these proceedings all persuade us that disbarment is the appropriate sanction here as well.

 (Mike Frisch)