Opinion ID: 1689462
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Count VI: Cooper

Text: Jerry Cooper and his wife contacted Sullins to determine whether they should pursue litigation regarding the harassment of their daughter at school. Coopers gave Sullins a check for $2500 which Sullins promptly cashed. Though the Coopers asked Sullins to place this money into a trust account, he did not. The Coopers told Sullins to interview a list of people about the harassment. However, Sullins did not contact anyone on this list. Sullins maintains he earned the $2500 retainer but was unable to say how much time he spent on the case. The Commission found Sullins collected a clearly excessive fee from the Coopers and failed to return the unearned portion of the retainer. In November 1999, Sullins appeared before the Commission on charges of stonewalling the Board's inquiries. For this violation, we suspended Sullins' license to practice law beginning on June 1, 2000. The month of the hearing on this charge was the same month Sullins first met with the Coopers. His last meeting with the Coopers was May 24, 2000. Sullins did not tell the Coopers he had been suspended. Sullins left the Coopers' case open so they could decide whether they wanted to file a lawsuit. Finding the Coopers' matter was still pending on June 1, 2000, the Commission concluded Sullins violated Iowa Court Rule 35.21 (failure to inform client of suspension). The Commission also found Sullins violated DR 9-102 (all funds paid by client to lawyer shall be deposited into trust account), DR 2-106(A) (collect clearly excessive fee) and DR 1-102(A)(1) (violate a disciplinary rule), (4) (conduct involving dishonesty), (5) (conduct prejudicial to justice) and (6) (conduct adversely reflects on fitness to practice law).