Case Title: STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BRASWELL

Citation: 

Docket Number: 60313

State: oklahoma

Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Date: 1998-06-09T00:00:00Z

Document:
STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BRASWELL  STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BRASWELL 1998 OK 49 975 P.2d 401 69 OBJ 2101 Case Number: SCBD #4117 Decided: 06/09/1998 Mandate Issued: 01/22/1999 Supreme Court of Oklahoma STATE OF OKLAHOMA ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Association, Complainant, vs. MICHAEL T. BRASWELL, Respondent. ¶ 0 [975 P.2d 402] In this disciplinary proceeding against a lawyer, the complaint alleges, in four counts, multiple instances of unprofessional conduct deemed to warrant sanctions. Upon de novo review of the evidence presented to the trial panel of the Professional Responsibility Tribunal, RESPONDENT IS DISBARRED AND ORDERED TO PAY THE COSTS OF THIS PROCEEDING, WHICH SHALL BE DUE WHEN THIS OPINION BECOMES FINAL. Mike Speegle, Assistant General Counsel, Oklahoma Bar Ass'n, Oklahoma City, for Complainant. Frederick W. Southern, Oklahoma City, for Respondent. OPALA, J. ¶ 1 In this disciplinary proceeding against a lawyer, the issues to be decided are, (1) Does the record submitted for our examination provide sufficient evidence for a meaningful de novo consideration of the complaint's disposition? ¶ 2 [975 P.2d 403] The Oklahoma Bar Association (the "Bar") charged Michael T. Braswell ("Braswell" or "respondent"), a licensed lawyer, with four counts of professional misconduct. After a hearing, a trial panel of the Professional Responsibility Tribunal (the "trial panel" and the "PRT," respectively) issued a report containing its findings of fact and conclusions of law together with a recommendation of discipline. The PRT found that respondent had violated numerous provisions of the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct (the "ORPC") I INTRODUCTION TO THE RECORD IN THIS DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDING ¶ 3 This bar disciplinary proceeding was commenced on October 18, 1995, by the filing of the Bar's formal complaint in accordance with the provisions of RGDP Rule 6. ¶ 4 Our decision in this case has required the careful examination of a voluminous record of proceedings, in which respondent vigorously contested every charge of wrongdoing. The transcript of the formal PRT hearing alone contains over six hundred pages of testimony and in excess of eighty exhibits. ¶ 5 Upon the conclusion of the formal hearing, the trial panel found clear and convincing evidence with respect to each of the four counts charging that respondent had engaged in numerous acts of unprofessional conduct. II THE RECORD BEFORE THIS COURT PROVIDES SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE FOR A MEANINGFUL DE NOVO CONSIDERATION OF ALL FACTS RELEVANT TO THIS PROCEEDING ¶ 6 In a bar disciplinary proceeding this court functions in the role of adjudicative licensing authority exercising exclusive original jurisdiction. ¶ 7 The court's duty can only be discharged if the trial panel submits to us a complete record of the proceedings. ¶ 8 [975 P.2d 405] We have carefully scrutinized the extensive record submitted to us in this proceeding and conclude that it is adequate for our de novo consideration of respondent's alleged professional misconduct. III COUNT ONE ¶ 9 Count One of the complaint arises from a grievance filed by Judge David L. Russell of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. On September 22, 1989, Judge Russell entered an order requiring respondent and another attorney to pay sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit. This order was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on April 23, 1990. The case was remanded to the district court for the imposition of an attorney's fee related to the appeal. Prior to the events resulting in the filing of this grievance by Judge Russell, neither the amount of imposed sanctions nor the appeal-related attorney's fee was paid by Braswell. ¶ 10 On April 28, 1994, approximately four and one-half years after the issuance of the sanctions order, the attorneys for the parties to whom the sanctions were owed held a hearing on Braswell's assets, in which Braswell testified that (1) he had "never had any income from the practice of law," ¶ 11 When Braswell still had not paid the sanctions by August, 1994, Judge Russell held a hearing to determine whether Braswell should be held in contempt for failure to comply with the sanctions order and for failure to pay the appeal-related counsel-fee award. ¶ 12 The attorneys for the parties to whom the sanctions were owed had by this time obtained through subpoena two financial documents which Braswell had submitted to Lincoln National Bank in Oklahoma City. The first document was a "confidential financial statement for individual only" signed by Michael T. Braswell dated June 30, 1992, showing assets of $325,000 in real estate and $750,000 in "other personal assets." The second document was a personal loan application signed by Michael Braswell dated February 9, 1994, just two months before the hearing on assets, stating that Braswell had been engaged as an attorney for eighteen years, and that his monthly income was $5,700, $2,700 of which was disability income and $3,000 of which came from "Law Practice." ¶ 13 At the contempt hearing before Judge Russell, Braswell was questioned about his income and assets without first being told that his two financial documents from Lincoln National Bank were in hand. Again Braswell testified that he was a practising lawyer, but that he received no compensation for his work. ¶ 14 When confronted with the personal loan application, Braswell explained that he had not disclosed its existence because, despite its name, it was not an application for a personal loan, but rather an application to obtain a loan for Braswell and Associates, Inc., the professional corporation through which he practiced law. Therefore, since it did not apply to him personally, he was not required to disclose it in response to questions about his personal income and assets. ¶ 15 As for his wife's income, respondent testified that even though he had given the bank that figure, his wife was not actually earning $3,000 per month at that time because the law firm was not making a sufficient amount of money to pay her. ¶ 16 Judge Russell noted that between Braswell's $2700 per month disability income and the $27,000 per year that his tax returns showed his wife earned, Braswell's family income was over $54,000 per year. Despite what appeared to be a simple arithmetic calculation, Braswell denied that he had that amount of family income: "THE COURT: But at least between the two of you, you and your wife, you have at least family income a year of over 50,000 a year; would that be right? MR. BRASWELL: That is not correct, Your Honor, because this year [1994], for instance, she has not received a check, because no funds - - not enough funds have been coming in. . . . So as of this year, she has not received any payroll checks . . . ." ¶ 17 The existence of the "confidential financial statement for individual only" also contradicted Braswell's testimony at the hearing on assets that he had not prepared or presented any financial statements subsequent to the date of the sanctions order. Braswell explained that he had simply forgotten about the document because he had long since lost all the property he had owned at the time he prepared it. ¶ 18 The other problem the financial statement presented for Braswell was the fact that this document, prepared in 1992, listed property that he had testified at the hearing on assets had been taken by the IRS two to four years earlier. At the contempt hearing, Braswell first tried to explain this by stating that the IRS had not taken all the [975 P.2d 407] property at one time, but this failed to explain the fact that the dates he had given for the property seizures still antedated the financial statement. ¶ 19 At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Russell found Braswell in contempt for failure to comply with his original sanctions order. ¶ 20 At the PRT hearing, the Bar presented evidence that (1) Braswell had failed to comply with Judge Russell's sanction order for almost five years, (2) Braswell had committed perjury in the hearing on assets and in the contempt hearing before Judge Russell with respect to his and his wife's income and assets, and (3) Braswell had provided false information to Lincoln National Bank in the submission of financial documents relating to his income and assets. ¶ 21 In addition to re-offering the evidence outlined above, the Bar, having subpoenaed Braswell's trust account records, produced proof of checks written out of the trust account to Braswell's wife beginning in February, 1994, contrary to Braswell's testimony before Judge Russell that she had not been paid between September 1993 and the date of the contempt hearing, August 25, 1994. The Bar also produced evidence from Braswell's trust account records that after he was found in contempt by Judge Russell, he had paid at least a portion of the sanctions out of his trust account. ¶ 22 At the PRT hearing, Braswell continued to deny any wrongdoing in any aspect of this matter, expanding upon, but not substantively changing, his explanations for his failure to pay the sanctions order and for the discrepancies between his testimony and the financial documents. ¶ 23 In explaining his use of his trust account to pay the sanctions after he was found in contempt by Judge Russell, Braswell claims that only the first few such checks were written on his trust account. He maintained that this was not a misuse of his trust account because, although the checks came from his trust account, the funds themselves were not trust account funds. Rather they were funds representing fees earned that were in his trust account awaiting transfer into his professional corporation's operating account. When the sanctions payments came due, instead of taking the intermediate step of transferring the funds into the operating account and then paying the sanctions, he simply wrote the checks directly out of the trust account. ¶ 24 The trial panel concluded that Braswell's failure to comply with Judge Russell's order to pay sanctions and the resulting contempt citation violated ORPC Rule 3.4 (c), which states that "[a] lawyer shall not knowingly disobey an obligation under the rules of a tribunal . . . ." ¶ 25 Braswell's attempts to reconcile his testimony with his financial documents and his trust account records fail to persuade us. His testimony that he did not prepare or present any financial statements after September 22, 1989, is contradicted on its face by the existence of a personal loan application and confidential financial statement for individual only, both containing information relating to him as an individual and both signed by him with no indication that his signature was provided in other than his individual capacity. As a legal practitioner, Braswell is presumed to know how to execute documents on behalf of a corporate entity. This was not done. In order to believe his after-the-fact testimony we would have to reject what we plainly discern on the face of the documents. Nothing Braswell has said convinces us to do so. ¶ 26 In considering the impact of the personal financial statement on the Bar's contention that Braswell committed perjury when he claimed to have no income, it is important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees and become mired in speculating whether this particular representation of income was accurate or not. On its face, of course, the representation of income on the personal loan application supports the Bar's contention on this point, and we are inclined to hold [975 P.2d 409] him to it. But it is not a necessary condition for our conclusion that Braswell's statement - - that he never earned any income for his work as an attorney - - is untrue because we believe that respondent's contention is simply ludicrous. It flies in the face of common experience. With the exception of volunteer work, people do not give away their labor for free unless under compulsion. Thus, even if income from the practice of law in the amount of $3,000 came to appear on his personal loan application in the manner respondent described, we would not be convinced that he testified truthfully that he had no income. The record provides ample evidence of funds from the law practice being paid to Braswell or related entities. Whether he considered this income or not is irrelevant. That he received funds from the law practice is clear, and his denial of any "income" is rejected. ¶ 27 We note that respondent's explanation of the genesis of the personal loan application, were we to accept it as true, would indicate that Braswell was unable to take care of his own personal financial transactions at a level expected of an average layperson. A lawyer certainly should know better than to permit another person to fill out a loan application for him and then sign it either before it is completed or without verifying its contents. ¶ 28 Finally, even if we were to accept respondent's claim that the $3,000 per month represented his wife's income, his position would not be substantively improved. Instead of finding him in violation of one rule, we would find him in violation of another. Providing information to a bank in a loan application indicating that his wife had a certain level of income, knowing that she did not regularly earn that amount and that he had been unable to pay her at all for several months for lack of sufficient income, can only be described as dishonest and deceitful. ¶ 29 We turn now to the "confidential financial statement for individual only." The problem it presents for respondent is whether it accurately reflects his financial condition at the time he provided it to the bank. At one hearing he testified that he did not know whether he still owned the property at the time he listed it on the financial statement; at another he says he must have owned it since he listed it. His testimony about the various seizures of the property is vague and he offered no documentation to assist in determining whether he still owned the property at the time he prepared the financial statement. ¶ 30 Nothing more charitable can be said regarding his testimony about checks made out to his wife in 1994. Braswell claimed at the PRT hearing that his response to Judge Russell that his wife had no income in 1994 had been truthful because the checks he paid her in 1994 were not for 1994 payroll, but for work done in 1993. Judge Russell asked Braswell about his and his wife's combined annual income, and Braswell's response was that his wife had not received a check in 1994 [975 P.2d 410] ". . . because no funds - - not enough funds have been coming in. . . . So as of this year, she has not received any payroll checks. And even last year, she only received payroll checks up until August - - I'm sorry - - September." The clear implication of this statement is that his wife had not been paid anything from the law practice up to the date Braswell was testifying before Judge Russell, August 25, 1994. To claim, as Braswell does, that this testimony is true even though he was paying his wife in 1994 for work done in 1993, is duplicitous. Furthermore, at least one other check was made out to Braswell's wife prior to his appearance before Judge Russell, and Braswell's contention that Judge Russell's question went only to payroll checks is unsupported by the record. ¶ 31 The trial panel concluded that Braswell violated ORPC Rule 3.3 (a) (1), which states that a lawyer shall not knowingly make to a tribunal a false statement of fact or law; Rule 8.4 (a), which makes it professional misconduct for a lawyer to violate or attempt to violate the ORPC; Rule 8.4 (c), which states that it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; and Rule 8.4 (d), which makes it professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. We find that each of these violations has been established by clear and convincing evidence. IV COUNT TWO ¶ 32 Count Two of the complaint arises from a grievance filed by a man named William Henry Dixon. The grievance addresses itself to certain real estate transactions. The following facts are either undisputed or documented in the record: (1) Dixon purchased a house in 1986 from Braswell Enterprises, Inc., a corporation in which respondent owned a ninety percent interest and of which respondent was president at the time Dixon purchased the house. (2) Dixon financed the purchase of the house with an $85,000 loan from the Veterans Administration. (3) The Real Estate Purchase Contract on the house, dated September 17, 1986, contains the following typewritten notation initialed by Dixon and Braswell at paragraph 9: "9. SPECIAL PROVISIONS: seller to pay VA funding fee and closing costs." (4) On November 6, 1986, Dixon signed a document entitled "VA Application for Home Loan Guaranty," which contains the following borrower's certification: "I now occupy the above-described property as my home or intend to move into and occupy said property as my home within a reasonable period of time." (5) On November 14, 1986, the date the house sale was closed, Dixon signed a Veterans Administration document entitled "Report of Home Loan Processed on Automatic Basis", in which he made the following certification: "I now actually occupy the above-described property as my home or intend to move into and occupy said property as my home within a reasonable period of time." (6) On November 14, 1986, Dixon also signed a document stating that he intended to retain his then current residence for "rental purposes." (7) Within a few months of the purchase of the house, Dixon also purchased six townhouses from Braswell Enterprises, Inc. (8) Dixon borrowed approximately $300,000 to finance the purchase of the townhouses. ¶ 33 The remaining facts, those giving rise to the charges of professional misconduct, are contested. Dixon claims that he entered into these real estate transactions based upon Braswell's misrepresentations as to his obligations and liabilities. He testified that Braswell induced him to buy these properties by telling him that he, Braswell, would "take care of the mortgages." Dixon testified that as a result, he did not really understand that he would be liable for payments on two mortgages totaling $385,000. ¶ 34 Dixon says that at some point he told Braswell that he wanted the house "out of my name." Shortly thereafter he received a letter from Braswell, which he no longer has, stating that the house had been sold to Gregory Glover, one of Braswell's stepsons. Still later he claimed Braswell told him that he had sold it to another of his stepsons, Michael. ¶ 35 In explanation of why he would sign documents without reading them, believe that he was not obligated on mortgages he signed, and throw away all the documents relating to these real estate transactions, Dixon testified that he thought of Braswell not only as his friend, but also as his attorney whom he could trust to take care of things for him. ¶ 36 Later, after Braswell had filed on Dixon's behalf the lawsuit against the United States in connection with the deficiency on the VA loan, Dixon appeared at a deposition taken by the U.S. Attorney on behalf of the United States. His testimony in that deposition acknowledged understanding of the transaction resulting in the purchase of the house and confirming that it had been his intent to live in the house. Dixon's explanation for this testimony, which contradicts the [975 P.2d 412] essential allegations of his grievance, is that Braswell instructed him to lie at the deposition. ¶ 37 Braswell's version of events is quite different. He testified that Dixon came over to his house one night and inquired about buying some property from him. He agreed, as president of Braswell Enterprises, Inc., to sell him the seven properties involved here. According to Braswell, that is the full extent of his involvement in Dixon's real estate purchases. Braswell testified that he had never acted as Dixon's attorney up to that time and was not acting as his attorney in these real estate transactions. The purchases by Dixon were arms-length transactions between two businessmen. Braswell insisted that the paperwork, except perhaps for the Real Estate Purchase Contract, was handled by a real estate company and the mortgage lenders, and he had nothing to do with any of it. He denied making any representations to Dixon that would have caused Dixon to believe that he was not liable for making mortgage payments or that he, Braswell, would be taking care of the payments. He denied using information about Dixon to obtain the VA loan, and further denied knowing Dixon's intentions with respect to occupying the house. He denied that he had any responsibility to determine whether Dixon had the ability to pay the monthly mortgage payments, saying that it was the lenders' responsibility to make that determination. He further denied any obligation to provide legal advice to Dixon on any aspect of these transactions. ¶ 38 In addition, Braswell asserted in his response to the Bar's complaint and in his brief to this court that the Bar's complaint contained certain defects. First, he denies the applicability of the ORPC because they were not in effect at the time of the alleged acts. Second, he asserts that with respect to these real estate transactions, he and Dixon did not have an attorney-client relationship, and that his conduct as president of Braswell Enterprises, Inc. lies outside the scope of the Bar's authority for imposition of discipline. Third, he claims that the Bar is precluded by the statute of limitations from disciplining him for acts which took place in 1986 and 1987. ¶ 39 We agree with Braswell that the ORPC is not applicable to the real estate transactions which occurred in 1986 or 1987. The Code of Professional Responsibility was in effect at that time, and its provisions govern acts which occurred while it was in effect. The PRT in its report incorrectly applied the ORPC, but in its brief to this court, the Bar properly refers the court to The Code of Professional Responsibility with respect to those acts occurring in 1986 and 1987. ¶ 40 We reject Braswell's other two assertions. The fact that he may not have had an attorney-client relationship before or at the time of the real estate transactions with Dixon is not fatal to the Bar's authority to investigate alleged unethical conduct. Discipline is not limited by the Code of Professional Responsibility to conduct which occurs in the course of the attorney-client relationship. ¶ 41 This court has not considered whether a statute of limitations can be invoked in a disciplinary proceeding. Neither the ORPC nor its predecessor, the Code of Professional Responsibility, contains an express statute of limitations governing disciplinary proceedings, and we decline to create one. This court's responsibility to protect the interests of the public and of the legal profession require flexibility. A hard-and-fast rule establishing a time limitation on investigating attorney misconduct and on [975 P.2d 413] imposing discipline where warranted would interfere with this responsibility. Unless from the circumstances of the particular case it appears that it would be unjust or unreasonable to require a lawyer to respond to a grievance, we hold that no time period will per se bar a proceeding against a lawyer. ¶ 42 Turning to the substance of the allegations against Braswell, we begin by stating that we do not find clear and convincing evidence that Braswell was Dixon's attorney for purposes of the initial real estate transactions. ¶ 43 Dixon claims that Braswell was instrumental in obtaining financing, preparing documents, causing him to sign documents, and generally pushing the transactions forward, thereby giving Dixon, an individual unsophisticated in such matters, the reasonable impression that he was acting as his attorney. Were the evidence clear and convincing that Braswell in fact did all of these things, we might agree, but on these points the record is far from clear and convincing. Dixon apparently has thrown away any documents that might have supported his claim of reliance on Braswell as an attorney, and the documents in the record do not demonstrate that Braswell's participation in the property sales was anything other than that of a seller. We must hence reject the Bar's complaint that, with respect to the initial sales of the real estate, Braswell violated the disciplinary rule governing business relations with a client. ¶ 44 Even if Braswell was not acting as Dixon's attorney at the time of the initial sales, if he misled Dixon into believing that he would take care of all the mortgage payments on the seven properties in order to induce Dixon to buy them, if he used information Dixon gave him to secure a VA loan without Dixon's knowledge and consent, or if he participated in fraudulent statements by Dixon to the lenders or to the Veterans Administration, he would still be subject to discipline for dishonest conduct, regardless of the capacity in which he was acting. In none of these aspects is the record proof clear and convincing. ¶ 45 As for his liability on the mortgages, Dixon, whatever his level of education or sophistication, does not appear from the record to be incapable of understanding that most basic fact of real estate lending: if you borrow money, you are legally obligated to pay it back. Dixon had obtained at least one previous mortgage, he ran a business, and he had spent years in the military. It is simply not believable that a man of his age and life experience would not have known that he was responsible for the payment of mortgages he signed. In the absence of any evidence other than Dixon's testimony, we cannot find that Braswell misled him into a reasonable [975 P.2d 414] belief that he was not going to have to pay the mortgages. ¶ 46 It is equally unlikely, based upon the record, that Dixon was not aware he was applying for a VA loan. Looking at the Real Estate Purchase Contract, one's attention is immediately drawn to the center of the page, to the only material that is not boilerplate: the typed-in provision referring to a VA loan. Nothing in that contract could be more visually plain. Other documents signed by Dixon also make this apparent. We cannot find clear and convincing evidence here that Braswell misled Dixon or perpetrated any chicanery in the use of Dixon's veterans' benefits. ¶ 47 Dixon and Braswell provided conflicting testimony about whether Dixon ever intended to move into the house or whether it was always his intent to rent it. Dixon testified that Braswell knew he never had any intention of moving into the house, but nevertheless caused him falsely to certify to the VA that he would be moving into it. Braswell claims Dixon indicated to him that he was interested in moving, but insists that it was not of any concern to him because he had no knowledge of the representations Dixon made to the mortgage company financing the purchase or to the Veterans' Administration about his intentions. Again, while it is possible Braswell advised Dixon to misrepresent his intentions to the VA, the evidence that it happened in this way is not clear and convincing. The documents do not support Dixon's version. Although he claims never to have read them and to have had no knowledge of their contents at the time he signed them, Dixon cannot deny that he did in fact sign them and they do in fact say what he now claims was untrue. Whether he made this misrepresentation on his own initiative or at Braswell's suggestion was not established to the degree necessary for us to subject Braswell to professional discipline. ¶ 48 The record does reveal that sometime after the initial purchases, Braswell began to represent Dixon in his capacity as legal practitioner. The record reflects that Braswell represented Dixon with respect to some property in Arkansas sometime after Dixon retired in 1986, but a specific date was not made clear. The next time it appears in the record that Braswell represented Dixon is in the foreclosures of the townhouses sometime in 1987. ¶ 49 It was at this time that Dixon testified he approached Braswell about getting out of his obligation on the house. ¶ 50 [975 P.2d 415] Braswell emphatically denied that he was acting as Dixon's attorney in selling the house, and he did not remember whether he explained to Dixon any of the legal ramifications of the sale. Braswell claims that everything Dixon needed to know was in the paperwork completed through the mortgage company. ¶ 51 We find that at the time Dixon approached Braswell for assistance with his financial obligation on the house, Braswell had already acted on one or more occasions as Dixon's attorney, and Dixon was justified in expecting Braswell to treat this matter as one involving him in his relationship to Braswell as Braswell's client, and not just as another aspect of their business relationship. Having found that Braswell was in an attorney-client relationship with Dixon, we conclude that Braswell, in failing to inform Dixon of the legal ramifications of the sale of the house on his financial obligation to the lender, failed to meet his professional obligation to Dixon in violation of ORPC Rule 1.4 (a). That rule requires a lawyer to keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter. Moreover, we also conclude that Braswell violated Rule 1.4 (b), which requires a lawyer to explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation. ¶ 52 The PRT found clear and convincing evidence that Braswell either prepared or allowed Dixon to commit perjury at the deposition before the U.S. Attorney. Braswell denied shaping Dixon's testimony or improperly coaching him on his testimony. Dixon began by testifying with certainty that Braswell had told him to lie in response to certain questions, but on cross examination, he admitted that he could not remember any particular questions on which Braswell had coached him to lie. As he was asked about specific questions and answers, he was forced to admit that he also lied on his own initiative, concluding with the well known adage, [975 P.2d 416] ". . . once you tell one lie, then you've got to tell another one." V COUNT THREE ¶ ¶ 54 In this second bankruptcy, Bonney filed a motion under 11 U.S.C. §329 to require Braswell to turn over the $880 attorney fee the debtor had paid Braswell to file the first bankruptcy case, claiming that Braswell's services had been without value. Braswell did not file a timely response to the trustee's motion, and on April 26, 1994, the bankruptcy court entered a default order requiring Braswell to turn over the $880 fee within ten (10) days. Bonney provided a copy of the order to Braswell and over the next two months had at least one telephone conversation with him and one written communication requesting compliance with the court's order. The fee was not forthcoming. ¶ 55 On July 19, 1994, when Braswell had still not complied with the court's order, Bonney sent Braswell a second letter demanding payment, copying the letter and the order to the Bar. Braswell failed to respond to this letter as well, but instead wrote a letter to the judge who had issued the order, asking him to "reevaluate" the situation. ¶ 56 Bonney tried periodically over the next several months to obtain the money from Braswell to no avail. He spoke to a representative of the Bar who informed him that Braswell was taking the position that the court's order was interlocutory and he did not have to pay it at this time. The Bar indicated that it could take no action. Finally, on January 19, 1995, almost nine months after the turnover order had been entered, the trustee filed an Application for Contempt. On February 13, 1995, two days before the scheduled contempt hearing, Braswell finally sent a check to the trustee for the amount of the fee. ¶ 57 Braswell testified that the schedules were handwritten and incomplete because the debtor did not come to him until the day the bankruptcy had to be filed. He also testified that he appeared at two §341 hearings, the first one being continued because the debtor failed to appear. He explained his failure to respond to the creditor's motion to transfer the case to the Eastern District by claiming that the motion, mailed from the bankruptcy court for the Western District of Oklahoma, did not arrive at his office until after the time to respond had run. ¶ 58 The trial panel concluded that Braswell had violated ORPC Rule 3.4 (c), which states that "[a] lawyer shall not knowingly disobey an obligation under the rules of a tribunal. . . ." We agree. We also find that Braswell's failure to comply for almost ten months with the court's order violates Rule 8.4 (a), which makes it professional misconduct to violate or attempt to violate the ORPC. The bankruptcy court's turnover order was a valid order requiring compliance within the time stated. Braswell presented no credible evidence that he took the proper procedural steps to have the court reconsider its order, to stay its effect, or to appeal it. He simply ignored it. ¶ 59 Braswell's contention that he did not have to take any action with respect to the order for up to a year is utterly groundless. He testified that he had two possible avenues of appeal. While not identifying the statutes on which he was ostensibly relying, he testified that he had thirty days to appeal under one statute and one year under another. In his response brief to this court, Braswell cites 28 U.S.C. §2107 for the thirty-day appeal time and Rule 60 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for the one-year time limit. We assume that this statute and this rule were also the basis of Braswell's testimony. ¶ 60 Title 28 U.S.C. §2107 is the federal statute setting the time within which a notice of appeal from the district court must be filed. Section 2107(d) states unambiguously: "This section shall not apply to bankruptcy matters or other proceedings under Title 11." ¶ 61 Respondent's reliance on Rule 60 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is equally groundless. Rule 60 provides a method of seeking relief from a judgment or order. It is not a substitute for an appeal. ¶ 62 Moreover, Rule 60 does not automatically give a litigant a full year to make a motion for relief. A Rule 60 motion on any of the grounds upon which Braswell might reasonably believe he could rely requires that the motion be made in a reasonable time within the one-year period. Assuming that Braswell had grounds to make a Rule 60 motion under these circumstances, there is absolutely no authority under Rule 60 for the position he has taken that he can delay compliance with a court order for an entire year while sitting upon his right to file a Rule 60 (b) motion until the entire year has expired. ¶ 63 In our view, Braswell's contention that Section 2107 and Rule 60 support his disobedience to and disregard of a valid court order is frivolous, serving only as an attempt to mislead the court that there is a legal justification for his inexcusable failure to comply with a court order until he was threatened with contempt. No such justification can be discerned from the invoked statute or from the rule. It is painfully obvious that respondent made no effort to determine the applicability of the law he cited in his testimony and in his brief. Citing authority without a reasonable basis for believing it to be applicable wastes valuable judicial time and resources. We find such conduct to be sanctionable as a violation of ORPC Rule 3.3 (a). VI COUNT FOUR ¶ ¶ 65 Braswell was deposed in the Bowen matter for the first time on December 8, 1994, a year and a half after he had first deposited the settlement check in his trust account. At this deposition, Braswell testified that when he wrote Bowen the check for $7,000 on August 27, 1993, the settlement check had still not cleared and he had to "advance" her the money. ¶ 66 The Bar subsequently subpoenaed the trust account records, from which it was impossible to verify Braswell's testimony. The trust account records did show that by August 31, 1993, none of Bowen's $15,000 remained in the trust account, the balance of which had by then been reduced to $26.99. ¶ 67 A second deposition of Braswell was taken on April 12, 1995. ¶ 68 Braswell also testified that he had called Bowen an unspecified number of times to request that she come in and retrieve her money. He claimed that a person who sounded to him like an adult answered the phone and he left a message, but Bowen never called him back. When she finally came in on December 7, 1994 to get her money, Braswell claims that she told him that her ten-year-old daughter (sic) often answered the phone and did not reliably give her messages. ¶ 69 At the PRT hearing, Bowen offered a few additional details. She testified that prior to the settlement, Braswell had never told her that he was going to take fifty percent of the recovery as his fee. ¶ 70 Mrs. Bowen went into additional detail about her attempts to obtain her money from Braswell, including numerous phone calls between August, 1993 and January 1994, in which she talked directly to Braswell, who, she testified, gave her various excuses why her money was not available. ¶ 71 Braswell's testimony at the PRT hearing was consistent with his testimony in the April 12, 1995, deposition that he had borrowed money from a bail bondsman and had segregated $8,000 out of that cash, putting it in an envelope in a safe waiting for Bowen to come in and get it. Braswell agreed that by the end of August 1993, Bowen's remaining $8,000 was no longer in his trust account, the balance having been reduced to $26.99. ¶ 72 Undermining Braswell's "cash-in-the-safe" version of the Bowen settlement funds was the discovery from his trust account records that on December 7, 1994, the [975 P.2d 421] very day he finally gave Bowen her money, he had written a check to himself for exactly $8,000. ¶ 73 When the PRT received its second day of testimony seven months later, Braswell presented a witness whose testimony was supposed to prove that the $8,000 check made out to himself from his trust account on the day he paid Bowen was not written to provide him the cash to pay her. This witness testified that sometime in December 1994, Braswell had paid him $7,500 in cash as repayment of a cash loan the witness had made to Braswell earlier in the year. ¶ 74 The undisputed evidence is that Bowen did not receive the balance of her funds until six months after filing a grievance with the Bar. The documented evidence shows that Braswell wrote out a check payable to himself from his trust account on December 7, 1994, in the amount of $8,000 and on that very day paid Bowen $8,000 in cash. He provided nothing to show that he had documented the unorthodox method he claimed he had chosen to hold Bowen's funds for her. He had no phone records and produced no employee from his office to substantiate his attempts to contact Bowen, nor challenge Bowen's claims that she repeatedly called his office. Finally, his witness in support of his claim that the December 7, 1994, check for $8,000 was to obtain cash to repay a loan was unable to credibly pinpoint when Braswell had actually repaid him. Again, no documentation of any aspect of this purported transaction was presented. ¶ 75 The PRT found Braswell's testimony as to Bowen's settlement funds convoluted and contradictory. We would add that it strikes us as highly improbable. We do not believe that a woman of limited means raising five grandchildren would voluntarily leave $8,000 in her attorney's office, never inquire about it for eighteen months, go to the trouble of composing a lengthy handwritten account of her attempts to recover her money, and then commit perjury claiming that she had repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to get it. We do not believe that Braswell had $8,000 in cash set aside in his safe waiting for Bowen to come and get it, wanted to give it to her for a year and a half, but had been unsuccessful in contacting her despite many efforts. Finally, we do not believe that the $8,000 check Braswell wrote to himself on December 7, 1994, was to repay a loan to a friend, rather than to obtain the cash to pay to Bowen that very day. ¶ 76 The trial panel concluded that Braswell had violated (1) ORPC Rule 1.5 (a), which requires a lawyer to "hold property of clients or third persons that is in a lawyer's possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer's own property;" (2) ORPC Rule 1.5 (b), which requires a lawyer to "promptly deliver to the client or third person any funds or other property that the client or third person is entitled to receive;" (3) ORPC Rule 1.5 (b) by failing to "promptly render a full accounting" of the client's property upon request; (4) ORPC Rule 1.4, by failing to keep his client reasonably informed about the status of her settlement funds and failing to promptly comply with his client's reasonable requests for information; (5) ORPC Rule 1.5 (c) by failing to comply with the requirement that a contingent fee arrangement be reduced to a writing which includes specified information, including how reimbursement of litigation and other expenses is to be handled, and by failing, upon conclusion of the contingent fee [975 P.2d 422] matter, to "provide the client with a written statement stating the outcome of the matter, and, if there is a recovery showing the remittance to the client and the method of determination;" (6) ORPC Rule 8.4 (c) prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation; and (7) RGDP Rule 1.4 for failing to use funds entrusted to him for the purpose they were so entrusted, and for intentionally and fraudulently converting funds of a client to his own use. We find that each of these violations has been established by clear and convincing evidence. VII RESPONDENT EGREGIOUSLY MISUSED HIS TRUST ACCOUNT ¶ 77 We next discuss the Bar's evidence that respondent misused his trust account on numerous occasions and in a highly egregious manner. The Bar did not present this evidence as a separate count and much of the proof of Braswell's misuse of his trust account came to light in connection with Bowen's grievance. A comprehensive recital of the evidence of Braswell's misuse of his trust account would encompass far too many pages and serve no useful purpose. We limit our discussion to a summary of the PRT's findings, which we adopt on de novo review. ¶ 78 The PRT found that Braswell used his trust account as a general operating account for his law practice as well as for the deposit and withdrawal of funds for personal and business purposes. Despite requests from the panel, Braswell was unwilling or unable to provide plausible explanations or documentation that could lead the panel or this court to any other conclusion. Among the many improper uses Braswell made of his client trust fund are: (1) commingling his own personal funds with client funds in the trust account, (2) failing to keep adequate records of frequent cash deposits into his trust account, (3) repeated insufficient funds charges levied against the trust account, (4) cashing checks for his brother by running them through his trust account, (5) repaying himself from the trust account for undocumented "loans" he claims to have made from his personal funds for operating and other law practice expenses, and (6) failure to keep adequate records to explain frequent checks from the trust account made out to himself, his wife, his family members, and his business interests. Other irregularities have already been mentioned in connection with Judge Russell's grievance. These are the payment of personal sanctions and "payroll checks" to his wife out of his trust account. The court finds that this conduct constitutes a pattern of abuse of respondent's trust account in violation of ORPC Rule 1.5 and RGDP Rule 1.4. ¶ 79 We note that respondent's abysmal record-keeping VIII BRASWELL'S LACK OF COOPERATION IN THE DISCIPLINARY PROCESS CONSTITUTES MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS OF RGDP RULE 5.2 AND ALSO VIOLATES ORPC RULES 8.1(B) AND 8.4(C) ¶ 80 The procedural history of this disciplinary proceeding is extraordinary. The [975 P.2d 402] degree of Braswell's defiance of legitimate Bar requests, as well as of those by the trial panel, for information and documents is unprecedented. His testimony at the many depositions to which he had to be subpoenaed was often incoherent, self-contradictory, unresponsive, and contentious. To the extent possible within the limitations of this format, we set out the evidence which, as much as the substantive violations of professional ethics established by the Bar, convinces us to adopt the PRT's recommendation of discipline to be imposed in this case. ¶ 81 Contact between the Bar and respondent with respect to the Bowen grievance began with the Bar's letter of August 24, 1994, informing Braswell that Louise Bowen had filed a grievance against him and providing him with the text of Rule 5.2 of the RGDP, which requires a lawyer against whom a grievance has been filed to make a written response to the grievance. ¶ 82 Only after the issuance of the subpoena, approximately three and one-half months after the Bar first notified him that a grievance had been filed, did Braswell finally provide a written response to the Bar on Bowen's grievance. ¶ 83 The subject came up again later the same day, and Braswell's testimony became self-contradictory; in one response he stated that he had definitely read a portion of the grievance prior to responding to it, and in another that he had no argument with his prior testimony at the December 8, 1994, deposition to the effect that he had not read the grievance. He reconciled this testimony by claiming that when he said he had not read the grievance, he only meant that his visual impairment prevented him from physically reading it himself, but his answer did not mean that someone else had not read it to him. ¶ 84 In addition to failing to read all or part of the grievance before responding to it, Braswell also failed to read the subpoena ordering him to appear at the first deposition. "Q. Mr. Braswell, let me clear this up: Did you or did you not read the subpoena before you came to the deposition? A. I don't really know whether I read it or I didn't read it. My testimony was that I didn't read it before and I did not read it." ¶ 85 In reviewing the history of the investigation of this grievance, we are struck by respondent's disregard for his professional duty to cooperate in the investigation. He gave the lowest priority to his duty to provide a written response to the Bar. His initial requests for extensions, innocent standing alone, can only be seen as a delaying tactic when viewed in the context of his subsequent conduct and testimony. The gravamen of Bowen's grievance was simple and required only a simple response if in fact Braswell had her money waiting for her as he testified he did. But even when a response was submitted, it failed to deal with the issue under review because Braswell had not read the grievance, either at all or at least adequately to frame a competent answer. Nor had he bothered to read the subpoena requiring him to testify and to bring records responsive to Bowen's grievance. While respondent was refusing to exert the slightest effort to resolve the matter, lawyers for the Bar and members of the PRT were required to expend valuable time and resources simply trying to get a reasonable response from him. It is difficult to conceive of conduct more indicative of disdain for the duty of a lawyer to assist in the self-regulatory disciplinary system of our profession. ¶ 86 Braswell demonstrated a similar pattern of disregard for the investigatory process in relation to the inquiry into Judge Russell's grievance. In response to the Bar's [975 P.2d 425] initial letter to him, Braswell did not provide a written response to the Bar concerning Judge Russell's grievance. After thirty-five days had gone by, the Bar sent him a letter by certified mail demanding a response and informing him that failure to contact the Bar within five days would result in the immediate issuance of a subpoena. At this point, Braswell finally responded. In a rambling four-page "response," Braswell reduced Judge Russell's letter to a racially motivated attack against him. He dismissed the charge of perjury in a single sentence and failed to address the falsification of loan documents, except to emphatically state that he would not under any circumstances permit the Bar to review any of his personal assets. He was equally unresponsive to the Bar's subsequent attempt to elicit from him a written response. ¶ 87 Having received no adequate written response, the Bar was forced to issue a subpoena to compel Braswell's testimony. Braswell's response to the subpoena is indicative of the dilatory tactics he employed throughout this proceeding. The subpoena identified the Russell grievance by its Disciplinary Case Number, the same number which had appeared on all previous Bar correspondence concerning this grievance and the same number that Braswell had himself utilized as a reference in his own correspondence to the Bar. Despite this, Braswell sent a letter to the Bar asking the Bar to identify the grievance covered by the subpoena. His explanation of this request for information fails to convince us that it was other than a crude delaying tactic. ¶ 88 Also after receiving the subpoena, Braswell sent the Bar copies of two IRS documents entitled Notice of Seizure and two entitled Release of Levy. In an accompanying letter, he stated that in his opinion his original response had been complete and that a request by the Bar for additional information would have to be "identified in detail." These items were clearly not responsive to all of the concerns expressed in Judge Russell's grievance letter, and were a patent and flagrant misreading of the Bar's post-grievance letter asking Braswell to provide a detailed response to all the potential violations. ¶ 89 The deposition, covering the Russell, Bowen, and Dixon grievances, did not take place on the scheduled day. ¶ 90 In summary, it took Braswell approximately forty days to provide his first written response to the Bar regarding Judge Russell's grievance. This response, like that in the Bowen matter, failed fully and fairly to disclose the information necessary for the Bar properly to investigate the grievance. In addition, he had to be subpoenaed twice before the Bar was able to obtain information from him that should have been forthcoming voluntarily. The entire tenor of his conduct in the investigation of this grievance was one of disregard for his professional obligation to cooperate with the Bar in resolving accusations of misconduct. ¶ 91 Respondent displayed the same pattern of noncooperation with the Bar investigatory process in responding to the Dixon grievance. For nine months, the Bar received no substantive response to the Dixon grievance. Braswell's initial response was limited to a statement that he did not understand the nature of Dixon's grievance and that on all legal matters in which he represented Dixon, everything had been "completed and done timely and within the law." ¶ 92 Unable to obtain any information from Braswell about this grievance, the Bar obtained a subpoena. ¶ 93 As Bar Counsel began to question him about specific transactions with Dixon, Braswell took the position that those transactions had not been done in his capacity as a lawyer, and that he was under no obligation to answer any questions relating to his business relationship with Dixon. ¶ 94 As a result of Braswell's refusal to testify, the Bar had to obtain authority to compel Braswell's testimony concerning the Dixon grievance. Having done so, the Bar again deposed Braswell on the Dixon grievance. ¶ 95 As uncooperative as Braswell was in the investigation of the grievances making up the four counts of the complaint, perhaps his most egregious lack of cooperation occurred in connection with the Bar's attempts to document his handling of his law office trust account. It is not an exaggeration to say that he "stonewalled" the Bar and the PRT with his resistance to providing responsive testimony or supplying requested documents both before and during the PRT hearing. ¶ 96 The trust account records tug-o'-war began at the first deposition in the Bowen matter when respondent refused to sign a release of his trust account records so that the Bar could verify his testimony. His agreement to voluntarily supply records relating to the Bowen grievance produced nothing pertinent to the gravamen of Bowen's complaint that she could not obtain from him her settlement funds. ¶ 97 Unable to obtain records from Braswell voluntarily, the Bar subpoenaed his trust account records, which not only provided previously unknown information on the Bowen and Russell grievances, but also opened up the related problem of Braswell's misuse of his trust account. The revelation of a number of suspicious trust account transactions prompted the Bar and the PRT panel at various points during the investigation and hearing to request from Braswell additional records and documentation. These requests were generally met with respondent's verbal assent to produce them, but the records and documentation that had been expected never came forth. He maintained throughout that he had not made any improper use of his trust account. ¶ 98 The PRT wanted documentation, for example, showing the source of the many cash deposits into Braswell's trust account. When trust account deposit tickets did not provide that information, respondent indicated that he kept a receipt book which contained notations as to the purpose for which he received and deposited cash. The PRT Master asked Braswell to call his office and have someone bring over that receipt book and any other documentation which would show the source of cash deposits he made into his trust account as well as withdrawals for 1993 and 1994. Nothing was delivered until the third day of testimony when a deposit book was produced in which all entries for cash deposits were tabbed, but none identified the source of the cash as the PRT Master had requested. Braswell now informed the panel that the information requested could only be retrieved by going through every client file. ¶ 99 The PRT's effort to obtain documentation of the purpose for which checks were written out of Braswell's trust account met with the same result. The records obtained by the Bar pursuant to subpoena covered an eighteen-month period, and showed many unexplained checks written out to Braswell himself, as well as to his family members and his construction company. "Q. Why then did you not go and pull those checks that were made out to you personally or the records on those occasions to show the trial panel what those were for? A. I could not find the ones that were made to me. Q. Couldn't find any of those that were made out to you? A. There wasn't but one that I recall. I went through them and I could not find that and I went to my stack that I had for 1994. Q. Okay, Mr. Braswell, do you want me to go back through these checking account records on Complainant's Exhibit 34 and point out the checks that were made out to you as evidenced in your exhibit prepared by me? Checks to you on 3-28-94, 5-24-94, 6-9-94, 6-8-94, 8-4-94, 11-22-94, 12-1-94 and the $8,000 check made out 12-7-94. You couldn't find records on any of those? A. When I went through my records, I couldn't find any. The one for the 8,000, I thought I had pulled it out and - - no, I'm sorry. It wasn't - - because I had an audit going on. I went through all of them and pulled out everything that was in my original stack that I - - that I keep of the one that I have, so no, I did not find - -" ¶ 100 Reacting to Braswell's failure to turn over any documentation, the PRT, at the end of the first day's testimony, directed him to provide copies of all exhibits he [975 P.2d 429] intended to introduce at the next day's hearing to the Bar by January 24, 1995, concluding with this show of irritation, ". . . that any response by the respondent at the conclusion of this hearing - at the continuation of this hearing, that he has documentation that he just needs to go look for it, that he needs to find it, that he - he knows it exists, but it's not here, are going to be disregarded and so if he has documentation in his defense on these four counts, that documentation needs to be retrieved from wherever it is and copied to Mr. Speegle by the 24 Despite this admonishment, Braswell failed to provide the Bar with copies of the checks introduced on the third day of testimony prior to that day's hearing, resulting in a serious rebuke by the PRT Master. ¶ 101 In addition to his failure to provide requested documents and records, Braswell had to be repeatedly admonished by panel members to respond to the questions asked. This occurred frequently when the question called for a yes or no response or when Braswell began to give an involved, non-responsive answer. Q. How about the checks that you write to yourself out of your trust account? How would you classify those? A. That would depend on what they were written for, Mr. Speegle. Q. How would we determine that? A. Determine at the time what the check was. Q. Would you note that on any kind of a stub or a record anywhere what this check was for that you wrote out for yourself or the checks that you write out for yourself out of the trust account? A. I - - I would think it would. I don't know. I can't speculate. I can't speculate, Mr. Speegle. Q. You're the only one that signs checks out of that trust account; is that right? A. That's correct. Q. And you keep the balance, you put in the money and you sign all the checks that go out and you don't know whether there's any notation anywhere about what these checks are for that you write yourself out of the trust account? A. I didn't state that, Mr. Speegle. Q. I'm - - A. My statement is - - Q. Correct me then. A. - - I do not know, try and speculate, where anything like that would be found and I can't speculate as to when I took it out and what. I can only look at the document and try to go back and see what it was written for. ¶ 102 [975 P.2d 430] Throughout his testimony, Braswell denied or unreasonably resisted admitting his own prior testimony or documented facts. We cite only a few instances to illustrate the difficulty of obtaining straightforward answers to even the simplest of questions. He would not acknowledge that he had refused to sign a release of his trust account records at the time of his first deposition until his deposition was read back to him, and even then his response was argumentative. ¶ 103 Braswell's described conduct displays an attitude of utter disregard for the disciplinary process. RGDP Rule 5.2 states that after being served with a copy of a grievance, a lawyer shall respond with "full and fair disclosure of all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the respondent lawyer's alleged misconduct. . . ." IX RESPONDENT SHOULD BE DISBARRED ¶ 104 The preamble to the ORPC states, "[a] lawyer is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice." These relationships entail responsibilities, many of which are prescribed by the Rules of Professional Conduct. A lawyer's misconduct adversely reflects on the entire legal profession, evidencing a lack of commitment to the lawyer's client and a disregard for the court's expectations and the ideals of the profession. ¶ 105 The object of a disciplinary proceeding is not to punish, but to evaluate a lawyer's continued fitness to practice law in light of this court's obligation to safeguard the interest of the public, of the judiciary, and of the legal profession. ¶ 106 Braswell's conduct warrants discipline not for punishment's sake, but in the interest of assuring the integrity of the legal profession and to deter others from engaging in similar acts of grave misconduct. The seriousness of the derelictions, respondent's failure to assume responsibility for his wrongdoing, and our duty to protect the courts and the public from substandard legal practitioners require that respondent be disbarred. X SUMMARY ¶107 This disciplinary proceeding yielded clear and convincing evidence that respondent committed multiple serious violations of the ORPC and the RGDP. The record is abundantly clear that respondent had little regard for the disciplinary process itself or for the resolution of the charges in dispute. The severity of the sanction for professional misconduct depends upon all the circumstances, including the wilfulness and seriousness of the violations, the respondent's willingness to acknowledge the seriousness of the wrongdoing and take responsibility for it, and the degree of cooperation demonstrated by the respondent in the investigation and resolution of the grievances. Respondent has refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing with respect to any of the grievances under review. His record of cooperation is disgraceful. Upon de novo review, this court finds clear and convincing evidence that respondent is professionally unfit to practice law, warranting his disbarment and an order for him to pay the costs of this proceeding in the sum of $5,985.08. ¶ 108 RESPONDENT IS DISBARRED AND ORDERED TO PAY THE COSTS OF THIS PROCEEDING, WHICH SHALL BE DUE WHEN THIS OPINION BECOMES FINAL.¶ 109 [975 P.2d 432] KAUGER, C.J., SUMMERS, V.C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, SIMMS, HARGRAVE, OPALA, and WILSON, JJ., concur; ¶ 110 WATT, J., concurs in result. FOOT