Opinion ID: 2056733
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: thomas towle

Text: In June of 2000, Thomas Towle (Towle) retained respondent to represent him in various matters relating to his employment with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. They agreed Towle would pay respondent an hourly rate of $150 for legal services rendered, and Towle paid an initial retainer of $1,000. The respondent did not submit periodic billings or invoices to Towle. During the course of the representation, Towle paid a total of $17,000 to respondent for his representation. Towle always made these payments in response to respondent's unsubstantiated verbal requests. In September of 2005, the parties reached an agreement resolving all of Towle's pending employment issues. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the Department of Corrections would make two payments to Towle in return for his resignation; the first payment of $25,000 would be payable to Towle, and the second payment of $5,000 would be payable to respondent as attorney fees. Shortly after the settlement agreement was signed, respondent agreed to give Towle a complete itemization of fees and costs incurred, and then he and Towle would decide how to disburse the gross settlement proceeds. On July 18, 2006, respondent received the settlement checks. He endorsed the $5,000 check made payable to himself and deposited the proceeds into his business account. The respondent also endorsed the $25,000 settlement check payable to Towle marking it for deposit only Thomas P. Towle (SJC) and deposited those funds into his clients' account. He did not inform Towle that he had received these settlement proceeds until September 6, 2006, when after having already paid himself $7,000 from those funds, he forwarded Towle $15,000 along with a written assurance that his accounting would follow. The respondent did not inform Towle that he had already taken the $7,000 as an additional fee. On January 17, 2007, respondent withdrew the remaining funds from his client's account as fees without providing any accounting to Towle, in violation of Article V, Rule 1.15(c) of the Supreme Court Rules of Professional Conduct. [7] The respondent finally provided an accounting in October of 2007 in response to the disciplinary complaint Towle filed. This accounting contained many errors and duplications, and failed to properly credit Towle's payments. Despite numerous requests from disciplinary counsel, the respondent did not submit a final corrected bill until June 2, 2009, in violation of Article V, Rule 8.1(b) [8] . A review of this new itemization revealed respondent had charged unreasonable fees for the performance of ministerial tasks in violation of Article V, Rule 1.5(a) [9] .