Opinion ID: 1330482
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: allison matter

Text: McMillan represented Margaret Allison in a divorce action against her husband, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Some time after the divorce was final, Allison's husband died and Allison received $200,000 in life insurance. McMillan persuaded her to place the $200,000 in a trust account under his control at Lexington State Bank. Almost immediately after she was persuaded by McMillan to enter the trust arrangement, Allison became uncomfortable with McMillan's control and consulted Bob Wood, a Columbia attorney. Wood contacted McMillan, and McMillan released $192,968 to Allison. By agreement, he kept approximately $7,800 of the life insurance proceeds in his trust account. The $7,800 represented disputed attorneys fees. McMillan proceeded to spend much of the $7,800 before the fee dispute was resolved without informing Wood or Bob Thomas, one of Wood's law partners who was also working on the case. Only after Thomas demanded evidence that the disputed funds remained in a special trust account did McMillan admit he had spent much of the $7,800. All this conduct occurred after the effective date of South Carolina's Rules of Professional Conduct, so those rules govern as to this misconduct. The Panel and Committee found McMillan violated Rule 1.15, which requires attorneys to segregate their own funds from client funds. Additionally, the Panel and Committee found McMillan's several acts of misconduct violated Rule 8.4, which forbids, among other things, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice. The Record supports the Panel and Committee's findings of misconduct in this matter. Finally, McMillan failed to respond to initial Board inquiries into the Allison matter. Such a failure to respond is itself misconduct. See In re Treacy, 277 S.C. 514, 290 S.E.2d 240 (1982).