Opinion ID: 1292667
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Petitioner's Misconduct.

Text: From July 1983 through January 1986, petitioner committed professional and ethical violations in at least 34 separate matters. In all, petitioner misappropriated between $20,000 and $30,000, and abandoned over 20 clients.
Petitioner obtained the names of seven clients from various attorneys' answering services, [1] contacted the clients and falsely represented that he was associated with these attorneys. He collected advance fees from the clients. He then failed to render services to the clients, failed to communicate with them to refund unearned fees and misappropriated the funds in an amount totaling $2,035 for his own use and purpose.
Petitioner collected advance fees from 16 of his own clients but failed to perform or failed to complete the services for which he was retained. He failed to communicate with his clients, failed to return unearned fees and misappropriated a total of $7,173. Petitioner negotiated settlements on behalf of four of his clients, received the settlement funds from the insurance companies, forged the signatures of his clients on the settlement checks and cashed the checks. He did not notify his clients of any of these matters. In this manner he misappropriated funds totaling $6,513. In one matter petitioner falsely advised the opposing party from whom he had received a settlement check that the check had been lost. In fact, petitioner had already cashed the check. Petitioner thereafter collected a replacement check, forged his client's signature on the check, negotiated the check and again misappropriated the funds for his own use. Petitioner issued checks drawn on insufficient funds from his client trust account and general office account in amounts totaling almost $7,000. At the time petitioner issued the checks, he knew that the accounts either contained insufficient funds to support the checks or had been previously closed. Additionally, petitioner failed to render an accounting to his clients of funds received on their behalf and failed to make timely restitution to the recipients who were entitled to the funds.
Petitioner abandoned and failed to communicate with over 20 clients. Petitioner's acts of abandonment caused significant harm to his clients and to the administration of justice. The record demonstrates, for example, that in one matter, the Tarakilish matter, petitioner was paid $1,500 to bail a client out of jail. Petitioner took the money, but failed to perform any services to obtain his client's release. Consequently the client, who was released the next day when charges were dismissed, had to spend the night in custody. In the Goldberg matter, petitioner was paid a fee to represent the client in an unlawful detainer matter. Although petitioner took the fee, he failed to perform any services and the client was evicted from his residence. In the Hurd, Searls and Berrientos matters, petitioner was paid to represent his clients in their respective criminal matters. Petitioner took the fees but thereafter failed to appear at the scheduled court hearings. As a result, bench warrants were issued for the arrest of his clients. In at least one of these matters, Berrientos, the client, was arrested on the authority of the bench warrant. In the Fleshman matter, petitioner failed to appear at a scheduled court hearing, and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. The court, however, had to continue the matter to allow Fleshman to obtain new counsel. The State Bar Court concluded that the facts and circumstances surrounding the instances of misconduct involved moral turpitude and constituted a violation of petitioner's oath and duties as an attorney.