| Case Digest |
The Respondent failed to respond appropriately to the PA Lawyers Fund for
Client Security when the Fund contacted him about having received notice of an overdraft on his IOLTA trust account related to a check for approximately $2,500. The Fund then referred the matter to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. It was determined that the overdraft was related to the Respondent’s having commingled $30,584.73 in estate funds in his office account, his having improperly personally used $14,354.62 of those funds in payments which included for personal taxes, a daughter’s college expenses, and in payment of a yearly attorney registration fee. After being contacted by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel about possible improprieties in his handling of entrusted funds, the Respondent in two other instances improperly deposited trust funds to his general office account instead of his IOLTA account.
Restitution to the estate was made from funds the Respondent held for another client who later became his employer. At the disciplinary hearing the employer ratified the Respondent’s uses of the funds, which funds were then considered as loans to the Respondent, which remained unpaid. The Respondent’s contention that these funds were available to him at the time of his misuse of the estate funds was refuted by his bank records reflecting the other funds were not in his possession until after the conversions of the estate funds. The Respondent’s contention that he used his office account for the estate funds because he was out of checks for his IOLTA trust account was refuted by evidence of his having used the IOLTA account for other matters at the times in question. The Respondent’s reason for not complying with subpoenas issued to by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel for financial records he was required to maintain was that he did not maintain those records.
The Respondent requested that private, non-public, discipline be imposed. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel requested a suspension for three years.
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