Opinion ID: 1636859
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Inattention to Legal Work.

Text: Respondent admitted in responding to the committee's discovery requests, and again at trial, that he had received notice of probate delinquencies in twenty estates and one conservatorship that he had opened. Respondent was the designated attorney in those probate matters which date back to as early as 1972. All but four of those estates remained open at the time of the hearing before the commission. Respondent had been delinquent in performing his responsibilities on at least one occasion while handling each of those twenty-one files; in one probate estate he had received eighteen separate delinquency notices. At the hearing respondent attempted in several ways to explain his inattentiveness to these probate matters. Although he attributed the delay in several instances to difficulty in getting necessary information and the insufficiency of estate funds, he conceded that most of the estates remained open simply because he had not taken the time to complete and close them. He testified that several of the delinquent estates involved friends who had been longtime clients and also some family members, but he did not contend his relationship to those clients should make any real difference regarding his duty to handle the matters competently and expeditiously. Respondent suggested that in more than one situation uncertainty about the applicable law caused him to be dilatory in closing an estate. He acknowledged, however, that he had neither sought help from other attorneys nor requested that the court consider granting temporary relief from the problems which triggered the delinquency notices. Questioned about his failure to cure the delinquencies, respondent gave a candid though entirely unsatisfactory answer: I guess the idea never came to mind honestly. I thought I would try to do better as time would go by. Procrastination was apparently the fundamental disease that infected respondent's practice, as revealed in his closing statement to the commission: I would like to visit with the Commission just a little bit to say maybe how we get here, but I try day by day just to do whatever has to be done the most that day. I'm sure that's how the delay happens on these things. People come in, and they have to have the abstract continued or examined or deed prepared and that sort of thing. Obviously, why, then the estate proceedings do suffer because they can wait another day, and that goes from day-to-day too long. The public in general and respondent's clients in particular were entitled to diligent handling of these probate files, not postponement to another day while other clients were accommodated. In Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Bitter, 279 N.W.2d 521 (Iowa 1979), we explained the options available to lawyers who find themselves unable to keep up in their work: (1) they can decline additional legal matters if accepting them would result in neglecting pending matters; (2) they can seek assistance; or (3) they can disengage ... from these lingering matters and allow another lawyer to complete them. 279 N.W.2d at 524. Unfortunately respondent failed to heed those suggestions, apparently because his reach exceeded his grasp. Respondent insisted on continuing as the only attorney performing probate work for his friends and relatives even though he continually failed to perform the work in a prompt and satisfactory manner. A convincing preponderance of the evidence supports the commission's finding that respondent irresponsibly neglected these probate and conservatorship estates involving legal work entrusted to him by his clients. Respondent's conduct violated several ethical considerations and disciplinary rules set forth in the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers: EC 1-5 (lawyer must maintain high standards of professional conduct), EC 6-1 (lawyer must act with competence and proper care in representing clients), EC 6-4 (lawyer must prepare for and give attention to legal work), DR 6-101(A)(3) (lawyer must not neglect a legal matter entrusted to him), and DR 7-101(A)(2) (lawyer must not intentionally fail to carry out a contract of employment). See Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Stienstra, 395 N.W.2d 638, 640 (Iowa 1986); Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Free, 394 N.W.2d 373, 374 (Iowa 1986); Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Bromwell, 389 N.W.2d 854, 857 (Iowa 1986); Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Blomker, 379 N.W.2d 19, 22 (Iowa 1985); Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Steensland, 376 N.W.2d 615, 618 (Iowa 1985); Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Martin, 375 N.W.2d 235, 237-38 (Iowa 1985).