Opinion ID: 2299310
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Representation of Tel-Art

Text: As the Hearing Committee found, Respondent's representation of Tel-Art Communications was not satisfactory to the client. Respondent propounded discovery requests in 1995, before he was admitted to the D.C. Bar. Serious difficulties began in 1996, when Mr. Luster's D.C. office mail and telephone services, which Respondent shared, were interrupted on a number of occasions for failure to pay the monthly rent. [5] These interruptions lasted for up to 10 days at a time. Opposing counsel attempted to communicate a settlement offer to Tel-Art via Respondent in early May 1996, by leaving a voice-mail message. Weeks later, Respondent wrote a letter rejecting the offer until discovery was answered. Not until August 1996, however, did Respondent receive the defendant's unexecuted and overdue discovery responses. Respondent never moved to compel discovery from CIGNA. Correspondence from opposing counsel, Jo Anna Schmidt, reflected that she had been unable to contact Respondent by phone in June 1996. On August 7, 1996, Tel-Art's Florida counsel, Howard J. Milchman, also wrote to Respondent at Mr. Luster's office, advising of his unsuccessful efforts to reach Respondent and requesting that Respondent contact this office immediately so that we may apprise the client of what is going on with this case. BX A-4 at 5. On October 28, 1996, Respondent accepted full-time employment as an attorney with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at the agency's office in the District of Columbia. Respondent did not inform Tel-Art of his new employment. Respondent's ability to contact opposing counsel for settlement talks during working hours also ceased at that point, because Respondent was precluded from using the telephone in his government office for personal use. On numerous occasions from August 1996 through January 1997, opposing counsel tried unsuccessfully to contact Respondent by phone and by mail regarding settlement. Milchman's numerous efforts to reach Respondent by phone, from December 1996 to August 1997, to ascertain the status of the Tel-Art suit also were unsuccessful. On February 20, 1997, Respondent telephoned Ms. Schmidt to say that soon he would make a counter-demand. Ms. Schmidt wrote to Respondent in late February 1997 and again in April 1997. Along with the April letter, Ms. Schmidt sent Respondent a $2,000 insurance draft in full settlement of Tel-Art's claim, plus a draft release form. The letter and draft were sent by certified mail to Luster's office mail drop address at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Although Respondent received this settlement offer, he did not convey it to his client. Sometime in the spring of 1997, Mr. Luster canceled his phone and mail services at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. On April 9, 1997, before Respondent received Ms. Schmidt's letter and check, Respondent wrote to Schmidt demanding $7,500 in settlement. Thereafter, Respondent ceased to do any more work for Tel-Art. He failed to communicate this fact to his client. In June 1997, Mr. Milchman wrote to Respondent at his home and at Luster's former business address, seeking a status report and expressing dissatisfaction with Respondent's failure to communicate with the client. Milchman's request for an immediate response went unanswered. In the summer of 1997, another CIGNA attorney, Thomas Bell, contacted Respondent about the Tel-Art matter. At that point, Respondent demanded $3,602.55 to settle the case, but he failed to follow up with promised supporting documentation. Ms. Schmidt's certified letter on September 17, 1997, to follow up on Bell's earlier efforts to reach Respondent also went unanswered. Respondent never received that letter, which was mailed to 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., because his mail service to that address had long since been canceled. Respondent had failed to provide a forwarding address or to notify opposing counsel of his change of address. On October 15, 1997, after Tel-Art had not heard from Respondent in nearly a year, Arthur Levinson, the President of Tel-Art, applied to the District of Columbia Bar's Clients' Security Fund for reimbursement of the $2,000 retainer paid to Respondent, indicating that Respondent had disappeared; whereabouts unknown; cannot be reached, regarding his representation in the Tel-Art suit. BX A-1. In early 1998, CIGNA representatives contacted Mr. Levinson directly to advise that it had been unable to reach Respondent and that it wished to reach a settlement. Once Tel-Art provided the information CIGNA had long sought, the parties were able to settle the case in two phone calls.