Court Opinion

ID: 9735700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:28:11.700956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:00.987230
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting: Respondent’s conduct in this case is, it seems to me, simply indefensible. After securing probate court approval of his fees in connection with the wrongful death action and insurance policy claims, respondent demanded and received from the children substantial additional fees, usually in cash, with no written statements or explanations of the basis for the claims. Not only were these amounts never approved by the probate judge, but respondent also told the minor clients to lie to the judge if he asked them about fees other than those which had been approved. When told by a bank official that payment to him in cash of his final “fee” in the amount of $10,000 would require his name and address to be recorded, respondent reduced the amount of the requested fee. The inference to be drawn is clear, as the Review Board noted. Such gross abuse of the fiduciary position which respondent occupied is aggravated by the fact that he was dealing with unsophisticated minors. They apparently uncritically acquiesced in his demands until David, the youngest child who was about to reach his majority, suggested seeing another lawyer, and respondent’s misconduct came to light. Suspension is, in my judgment, simply an inadequate sanction for a lawyer who can so readily and completely abandon his professional responsibilities, and who, to conceal his own misconduct, urges his minor clients to lie to the court of which he is an officer. I would disbar. In re Nadler (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 326, 334 (Underwood and Moran, JJ., dissenting). JUSTICE MORAN joins in this dissent.