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NEW FILINGS,
HEARING SCHEDULES AND CLERK'S OFFICE Recent Disciplinary Decisions from Supreme Court | Recently Filed Complaints and Reports | Announcements | Schedule of Hearings | Clerk’s Office Services
ANNOUNCEMENT OF DISCIPLINARY DECISIONS Wednesday, March 27, 2002 10:00 A.M. The Supreme Court of Illinois on Friday, March 22, 2002 and on Tuesday, March 26, 2002 announced the filing of disciplinary orders involving a number of licensed lawyers. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law. Discipline ranged from censure to disbarment. The name of each disciplined lawyer, the address at which the lawyer last practiced, and a brief summary of the misconduct that led to the sanction, can be found in the attached material. The announcement of the orders may be reviewed at the Supreme Court website: www.state.il.us/court. The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), an Illinois Supreme Court agency, investigates alleged wrongdoing by Illinois attorneys, holds hearings on specific charges, and recommends discipline where warranted. The Supreme Court is, however, the only authority that can discipline lawyers for misconduct. The Supreme Court generally announces lawyer sanction orders during each formal term of Court. The Court convenes in term every January, March, May, September and November. There are more than 75,000 registered attorneys in Illinois. A yearly fee of $180 that all lawyers must pay to practice in Illinois funds ARDC. There are no tax dollars used to fund the disciplinary system. The ARDC is composed of seven members, three of whom are non-lawyers. Attorney Benedict Schwarz II is the Commission Chairman. The ARDC Administrator is Mary Robinson. For a copy of any of these disciplinary orders contact the Clerk's Office in Chicago at 312-565-2600 or 1-800-826-8625. In
re JAMES M. ALLEN, Attorney Number 33545 File
information: M.R. 17930, 01 CH 25 Mr. Allen, who was licensed in 1967, was suspended for ninety days and ordered to complete the professionalism seminar of the Illinois Professional Responsibility Institute. He failed to preserve the identity of approximately $900 in client funds, failed to reduce a contingent fee agreement to writing, and did not respond to inquiries from his client. In
re PETER L. BENJAMIN, Attorney Number 6220899 File Information: M.R. 17929, 01 RC 1522
Mr. Benjamin was
licensed to practice law in Indiana in 1978 and was admitted in
Illinois in 1994. He voluntarily resigned from the Indiana bar after
acknowledging that charges were pending against him for failing to
attend required continuing legal education seminars in their entirety
and claiming full credit for them, converting client funds, making
misrepresentations to a client, and failing to be cooperative with and
candid to the Indiana Disciplinary Commission. As reciprocal
discipline, he was suspended in Illinois until he is reinstated in
Indiana.
In
re CATHERINE J. BERGER, Attorney Number 6187419 File
information: M.R. 17957, 01 CH 79
Ms. Berger, who was licensed in 1984, was censured. Beginning in the late 1980s, she neglected the personal injury claims of her client and her client’s two children, allowing the limitations period on the claims to expire. She also failed to communicate with her client and misrepresented the status of the matter to both her client and the referring attorney. In re
MALCOLM PHILIP BROWN, Attorney Number 316814 File
Information: M.R. 18010, 01 CH 30
Mr.
Brown, who was licensed to practice law in 1958, converted more than
$82,000 in funds belonging to ten of his clients from settlements of
their personal injury or workers’ compensation claims. He also
neglected the legal matters of seven other clients, failed to
communicate with those clients, and failed to timely refund unearned
fees to two of those clients. He was suspended from the practice of
law for five years and until further order of Court.
In
re DAVID KENNETH BUOSCIO, Attorney Number 6206208 File
information: M.R. 17979, 00 CH 69
Mr.
Buoscio, who was licensed in 1991, was suspended for sixty days for
his neglect and misrepresentations in two foreclosure matters that he
was handling for a bank.
In
re JAMES FREDERICK CARLSON, Attorney Number 392375 File
Information: M.R. 17999, 01 CH 47
Mr.
Carlson, who was licensed in 1971, was censured after he neglected a
personal injury matter, causing his client’s case to be dismissed
for want of prosecution.
In re ALBERT CUELLER III,
Attorney Number 6185102 File
Information: M.R. 18003, 01 CH 89
Mr.
Cueller, who was licensed in 1983, was disbarred on consent after he
created, backdated and filed a fraudulent real estate deed purporting
to transfer ownership of a deceased client’s home to himself and the
client in joint tenancy. He
later made false statements concerning the fraudulent deed to a court
and to third parties and sold the home notwithstanding a pending
challenge to his right to the property in the probate court.
In re FRANCIS WILLIAM GOLDEN, Attorney
Number 988758 File
Information: M.R. 17964, 99 CH 65
Mr. Golden, who was licensed in
1976, was suspended for nine months for neglecting two personal injury
matters and engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in the State
of Michigan. Both
personal injury matters were dismissed for want of prosecution and
both clients lost their rights to pursue their claims.
In
re MARTIN R. GREENSTEIN, Attorney Number 1052829 File
Information: M.R. 17978, 02 RC 1501
Mr.
Greenstein was licensed in Illinois in 1971 and in California in 1982.
He received a public reproval with conditions in California for
sexually harassing several female employees while he was a partner in
a large law firm. Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and censured
him.
In
re GENE DOUGLAS GRIMES, Attorney Number 1061941 File
information: M.R. 17984, 01CH 56
Mr.
Grimes, who was licensed in 1973, was suspended for 60 days and
required to attend the professionalism seminar of the Illinois
Professional Responsibility Institute. As a result of poor
record-keeping, he mismanaged escrow funds relating to two different
clients.
In
re THOMAS MURPHY HESTER, Attorney Number 6207078 File
information: M.R. 17956, 01 CH 37
Mr. Hester, who was licensed to practice in 1991, was suspended for three
years, with the suspension stayed after eighteen months by a period of
probation with conditions, for mishandling approximately $72,000 in
client funds from eight different clients due to his failure to
maintain a separate and identifiable client trust fund account.
In re RICHARD
L. HOFFMAN, Attorney Number 1239066 File
Information: M.R. 18006, Commission No. 98 CH 122
Mr.
Hoffman, who was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 1973, was
suspended for one year and until further order of Court. He shared
legal fees with Mediated Claim Services, a company that processed and
settled personal injury claims in his name.
He also failed to pay promptly the lienholder of a personal
injury client and misrepresented that payment had been made by
attaching a copy of an altered check as proof of payment.
In re GEORGE C. HOWARD, JR., Attorney
Number 1269534 File information:
M.R. 17928, 99 CH 34
Mr. Howard, who was licensed in 1962, was suspended for
one year and until further order of Court for neglecting a client’s
criminal appeal and failing to promptly refund the unearned portion of
his fee after the client discharged him.
He has been previously disciplined for neglecting other clients’
appeals and for other misconduct.
In
re JOHN R. KUKNYO, Attorney Number 6182025 File
Information: M.R 17926, 01 SH 49
Mr.
Kuknyo, who was licensed to practice law in 1982, was disbarred. He
engaged in a pattern of neglecting client cases, made
misrepresentations to his clients, and failed to return unearned fees.
He also failed to participate in the disciplinary proceedings.
In
re JOHN EDWARD LaPINE, Attorney Number 6207252 File
Information: M.R. 17891, 00 CH 47
Mr.
LaPine, who was licensed in 1991, was suspended for thirty days, with
the suspension stayed in its entirety by one year of probation with
conditions. He neglected
a legal matter, failed to communicate with his client and entered into
a settlement with the client limiting his potential liability without
advising the client in writing to seek independent counsel.
In
re ROBERT I. LUTZ, Attorney Number 6182885 File
Information: M.R. 17955, 01 CH 40
Mr.
Lutz, who was licensed in 1982, was suspended for a period of one year
and until further order of Court. He pleaded guilty to resisting
arrest after police were called to his home in response to a domestic
relations dispute. In the criminal case, he was sentenced to one-year
of non-reporting, conditional discharge.
In
re TIMOTHY ROBERT McAVOY, Attorney Number 1808486 File
Information: M.R. 17866, 00 CH 4
Mr.
McAvoy, who was licensed in 1975, was suspended for two years. He
misappropriated life insurance proceeds that he was holding on a
client’s behalf, breached his fiduciary duties to a disabled client,
assisted a living trust marketer in the unauthorized practice of law,
and failed to cooperate with the disciplinary investigation.
In
re NICK JOHN MLADE, Attorney Number 1935453 File
information: M.R. 17977, 99 CH 18
Mr.
Mlade, who was licensed in 1970, was suspended for one year for
engaging in multiple conflicts of interest, overreaching the
attorney-client relationship and breaching his fiduciary duties to a
client on a number of occasions. He also delegated representation of
the client to another attorney without his client’s consent, engaged
in an improper business transaction with a client and offered false
evidence to quasi-judicial bodies.
In re RICHARD R. ROTHMAN, Attorney Number
6209899 File
information: M.R. 17963, 00 CH 52
Mr. Rothman, who was licensed in 1992, was suspended from
the practice of law for nine months.
He attempted to collect an
unreasonable and fraudulent fee from a real estate client who had
discharged him, and he submitted a false disciplinary charge against
an Assistant State’s Attorney.
In re JOEL CLARK RUNKLE, Attorney Number
6211513 File
information: M.R. 17958, 00 CH 64
Mr. Runkle, who was licensed in 1992, was suspended from
the practice of law for thirty days, required to make restitution with
interest, and ordered to attend the professionalism seminar of the
Illinois Professional Responsibility Institute. He mishandled
client funds, neglected a client’s matter, failed to communicate
with the client, and failed to communicate the basis or rate of his
fee to the client within a reasonable time after commencing
representation.
In re GARY STERNBERG, Attorney
Number 2728680 File
Information: M.R. 17907, 98 CH 117
Mr.
Sternberg, who was licensed in 1971, was suspended for four months.
While representing a client who was a minor, he failed to place
settlement funds in trust to await the client's age of majority.
He also failed to promptly deliver the funds to the client and
failed to advise her to seek independent counsel after it became
apparent that his conduct following his client's demand for her
settlement funds was inconsistent with the interests of the client.
In
re JAMES LESLIE THOMAS, Attorney Number 2819384 File
Information: M.R. 18020;
02 RC 1502
Mr. Thomas
was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1975 and to the Illinois bar in
1976. On October 31, 2000, the Supreme Court of Missouri suspended
Mr. Thomas, with no right to petition for reinstatement for six
months, for bringing a frivolous proceeding based on false
allegations, failing to properly supervise his trust account, and
failing to act with reasonable diligence in representing a client.
The Illinois Supreme Court suspended Mr. Thomas for six months.
In re FEDERICO NOEL TRIGO, Attorney Number
2856700 File
information: M.R. 18002, 99 CH 101
Mr. Trigo, who was licensed in 1976, was censured after
he provided incompetent representation to a client in a criminal
appeal and collected an unreasonable fee for the work.
In
re RODNEY DAVID WELLINGTON, Attorney Number 6191698 File
Information: M.R. 17953, 01 CH 29
Mr.
Wellington, who was licensed in 1985, was suspended for one year and
until further order of Court. He neglected tax deed matters for two
clients and practiced law while not registered.
He was previously disciplined for similar misconduct.
THE
FOLLOWING DISCIPLINARY ORDERS WERE ENTERED BY THE COURT BEFORE MARCH
BUT NOT INCLUDED IN ANY PREVIOUS INFORMATION RELEASE:
In re JOHN ROBERT MEYER, Attorney Number
1895982 File
information: M.R. 17932, 95 CH 948 Order
entered on March 5, 2002
Mr. Meyer, who was licensed in 1971, was suspended on an
interim basis and until further order of Court.
He fraudulently obtained more than $2.0 million worth of real and
personal property originally owned by his clients, pursued frivolous
and false claims in an attempt to circumvent a judicial ruling
restoring those clients’ rights to the property and, in a separate
scheme, attempted to create and exploit confusion between courts by
taking inconsistent positions, creating facts to support his claims,
or withholding facts in order to initiate subsequent litigation.
In
re MARTIN E. LITWIN, Attorney Number 1677411 File
Information: M.R. 17910, 01 CH 123 Order
entered on February 20, 2002 Mr. Litwin, who was licensed in 1963, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court. He was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit tax fraud, two counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and one count of aiding and abetting perjury. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
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