Opinion ID: 1742730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: O'Rourke Matter

Text: D'Angelo met with Beverly O'Rourke on December 15, 2000, a full month after his license to practice law had been suspended. O'Rourke retained D'Angelo to handle her bankruptcy proceeding and gave him a check for a $450 retainer. When O'Rourke asked how to spell D'Angelo, he told her to just leave the payable to line blank. D'Angelo's wife, serving as the firm's office manager, later wrote the name John Leed on the check and deposited the check in a regular (non-trust) account she had set up in Leed's name. Shortly thereafter, she closed the Leed account and transferred the funds to the office account for her business  D'Angelo Tax Service and Accounting. O'Rourke never met with Leed, never knew of Leed, and was never told any attorney besides D'Angelo would be working on her bankruptcy. Leed was a different attorney that D'Angelo claims was helping with pending cases after his license was suspended. D'Angelo was unable to locate Leed and therefore he did not testify before the Commission. [1] In February and March of 2001, O'Rourke sent checks to D'Angelo for $75 and $325 respectively. These two payments were deposited directly into D'Angelo's office account. O'Rourke spoke with D'Angelo on more than seven different occasions about the status of the bankruptcy proceedings. At no time did D'Angelo tell her that his license had been suspended. O'Rourke eventually learned from another attorney that D'Angelo had been suspended, so she filed a complaint with the Attorney Disciplinary Board. She immediately received a refund of $850 from D'Angelo. D'Angelo responded to the Board's complaint nearly two years later.