Opinion ID: 2590331
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Mazili Matter 08PDJ004

Text: On April 21, 2006, Christine Mazili retained Respondent to represent her personally and as the personal representative of her father's estate in litigation related to the repayment of certain loans. Ms. Mazili paid Respondent a $3000.00 retainer fee that day and an additional $2000.00 on April 27, 2006. Respondent deposited both checks into COLTAF accounts. On May 1, 2006, Respondent transferred the $3000.00 into his operating account even though he had only performed a total of $1060.00 worth of work up to that point. Respondent then wrote a number of sizeable checks from this account. On May 11, 2006, Respondent transferred the $2000.00 into his operating account even though he had only performed a total of $2580.00 worth of work up to that point. On May 16, 2006, Respondent filed a two-sentence response to a motion for summary judgment filed in the litigation. On July 5, 2006, the court granted the motion for summary judgment and found no dispute as to the facts and law based on the response filed by Respondent. Respondent thereafter failed to notify Ms. Mazili for over two months that summary judgment had been entered against her. He never sought reconsideration of the court's order. Ms. Mazili had also retained Respondent to commence a legal matter against her sister on April 28, 2006. Ms. Mazili informed Respondent that time was of the essence in the matter. Respondent failed to take any action in this matter over a period of five months. Pursuant to the fee agreement, Respondent earned the entire $5000.00 retainer fee by July 29, 2006. Nevertheless, Respondent violated Colo. RPC 8.4(c) when he transferred Ms. Mazili's entire retainer fee to his operating accounts before he fully earned it and violated Colo. RPC 1.15(a) and (f)(1) when he failed to hold the unearned funds separate from his own. Respondent also violated Colo. RPC 1.3 when he neglected Ms. Mazili with regard to the dispute with her sister. Finally, Respondent violated Colo. RPC 1.4(a) and (b) when he failed to inform Ms. Mazili about the district court's entry of summary judgment until several months later, failed to provide Ms. Mazili with a copy of the order granting summary judgment, and failed to adequately communicate with Ms. Mazili concerning the dispute with her sister.