Opinion ID: 2499757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Client Conference

Text: The page in the Disciplinary Administrator's Exhibit 5 cited to support this panel conclusion is a statement For Services Rendered Through 8/5/2008 containing a $300 charge for a 2-hour client conference on July 26, 2008. It also records that payment of the $300 charge was made by Mrs. [H.] on August 4, 2008. The live testimony at the panel hearing on the occurrence of this client conference was, by Respondent's own admissions in his brief to this court and in oral argument, conflicting. Mrs. [H.] testified that she and her sister went to Respondent's office on that date, waited more than an hour for him in the firm's parking lot, called Respondent and was told that he needed to reschedule, and then left. Mr. Knox, the firm's managing partner and the person who first reported suspicions about Respondent's inflated or fraudulent billing to the Disciplinary Administrator, testified that he was in the office all day on July 26, 2008, a Saturday, and saw neither Mrs. [H.] nor Respondent there. Respondent, on the other hand, testified that he met with Mrs. [H.] and her sister on July 26, 2008, as previously scheduled. According to Respondent, Mrs. [H.] and her sister arrived at the office first, and then Mr. Knox called Respondent in. Respondent takes the position in his brief that the evidence of the nonoccurrence of the July 26, 2008, client conference must be undisputed to meet the Disciplinary Administrator's clear and convincing burden of persuasion. He is incorrect. The fact that there is contrary evidence on a point does not automatically or as a matter of law render proof of one side of the story less than clear and convincing. See B.D.-Y., 286 Kan. at 699, 187 P.3d 594. Were the legal rule as suggested by Respondent, any unscrupulous lawyer could insulate himself or herself from all disciplinary sanction merely by adopting a deny, deny, deny strategy. In this case, by Respondent's own admission, the Disciplinary Administrator sponsored two witnesses who testified clearly that Respondent never appeared at his office for a meeting with Mrs. [H.] and her sister on July 26, 2008. Disciplinary Administrator's Exhibit 5 completed the necessary proof on the KRPC violation, plainly demonstrating that Respondent nevertheless billed for a 2-hour meeting with Mrs. [H.] and that she paid his $300 fee for the client conference that never was. On this record, we adopt the panel's conclusion that Respondent violated KRPC 8.4(c) by billing for a nonexistent July 26, 2008, client conference.