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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 Tuesday, May 28, 2002 10:00 A.M. The Supreme Court of Illinois on Friday, May 24, 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 COLETTE C. ANDERSON, Attorney Number 6193168 File
Information: M.R. 18107, 02 IA 2001
Ms. Anderson, who was licensed to
practice in 1986, was placed on disability inactive status by
agreement.
In re ROBERT P. AULSTON, III, Attorney
Number 6230608 File
Information: M.R. 18122, 98 CH 101
Mr. Aulston, who was licensed to
practice in 1995, was suspended for ninety days, with the suspension
stayed in its entirety by a 180-day period of conditional probation.
He failed to communicate with a pair of clients, neglected
another client’s case, and created a fictitious settlement of that
client’s case.
In
re EDWARD B. BARTOLI, Attorney Number 127507 File
information: M.R. 18021, 96 CH 739
Mr. Bartoli, who was licensed in 1958, was disbarred. While working with an organization that marketed and sold living trusts and other estate planning documents, he shared fees with non-lawyers and aided in the unauthorized practice of law. He also sold an estate-planning device called a “Multi-Trust System” to clients in Illinois and Oklahoma for $12,000 and $25,000, respectively. He falsely represented to them that this system would allow them to avoid probate and all estate taxes, would afford them complete privacy as to their financial affairs, including from the IRS, would shield their assets from creditors, and would allow them to pay income tax only on whatever income they chose to pay themselves as trustees.
In re THOMAS MATTHEW BREEN,
Attorney Number 287431 File
Information: M.R. 18100, 97 CH 21
Mr.
Breen, who was licensed in 1972, was
suspended for one year. He failed to supervise properly his
bookkeeper, who was also his wife. As a result, approximately $100,000
in client funds was commingled and converted. He also neglected a
client's mechanic's liens and solicited a loan from a client without
providing proper disclosures.
In re
ROGER L. BROWN, Attorney Number 6189304 File
information: M.R. 18116, 01 CH 62
Mr.
Brown, who was licensed in 1985, was suspended for sixty days and
until he successfully completes the professionalism seminar of the
Illinois Professional Responsibility Institute. He placed an
advertisement in a telephone book stating that he practiced medical
malpractice law and had more than ten years of litigation and trial
experience when, in fact, he had never handled any medical malpractice
matter. A client hired him based on his advertisement. He later
neglected the claim, and it is now time-barred.
In
re EDWIN HERBERT CABEY, Attorney Number 6180484 File
information: M.R. 18140, 02 DC 1002
Mr. Cabey, who was licensed in 1981, was disbarred on
consent after he was convicted in federal court of wire fraud. He was
involved in a scheme to defraud various banks and mortgage
companies, in order to obtain money and property, by providing false
and fraudulent information to the lenders related to seven different
properties. He assisted
in the scheme by preparing the closing documents related to the sales
of the properties and structuring multiple sales related to the same
property on or near the same day, so that the fraudulent mortgages
could be obtained.
In
re ROBERT LEO COYNE, Attorney Number 533505 File
Information: M.R. 18023, 01 CH 34
Mr.
Coyne, who was licensed in 1971, was suspended on an interim basis and
until further order of Court. He misappropriated over $400,000 from an
elderly and disabled woman’s trust funds for his own business and
personal purposes. In addition, he converted $365,720.64 of another
elderly client’s funds and failed to pay that client’s nursing
home bills. In re THOMAS MICHAEL DOYLE,
Attorney Number 672777 File information:
M.R. 18071, 99 CH 100
Mr.
Doyle, who was licensed in 1970, was suspended for one year and until
he pays restitution of $7,070.12 interest. He converted the money from
the heirs of a deceased client after he was retained by the estate
executor.
In re ANNE SPENCER ELLIS, Attorney Number
3129092 File
information: M.R. 18053, 01 CH 107
Ms.
Ellis, who was licensed in 1981, was suspended for five months and
until she completes payment of restitution. She obtained $3060 from
her employer, the American Bar Association, by submitting requests for
work that she falsely claimed had been performed by an independent
contractor.
In
re THOMAS MICHAEL GIACOBBE, Attorney Number 3126700 File
information: M.R. 18105, 00 CH 88
Mr. Giacobbe, who was licensed in 1979, was suspended for thirty days and required to attend a legal ethics course. He mismanaged a client’s personal injury settlement proceeds. He also signed and notarized his client’s name on an answer to a divorce petition after the client terminated his representation.
In
re CHARLES W. HAHN, Attorney Number 1099086 File
information: M.R. 18099, 01 CH 39
Mr. Hahn, who was licensed in 1975, was
disbarred. He misappropriated over $240,000 belonging to clients and
others.
In
re ALAN ARTHUR LOIBEN, Attorney Number 1685236 File
Information: M.R. 18030, 01 CH 66 Mr.
Loiben, who was licensed in 1973, was suspended for five months. He
converted $3,113 that an insurance company paid to settle his client’s
personal injury claim and delayed making restitution for several
years.
In re LARRY S. MAYSTER, Attorney
Number 1804340 File
Information: M.R. 18008, 99 CH 59 Mr.
Mayster, who was licensed in 1955, was censured. He mismanaged the
settlement funds of two different clients. At the time, he did not
have a client trust account and routinely commingled client funds and
his own funds in a single business operating account.
In
re NANCY A. McKEATING, Attorney Number 3122910 File
Information: M.R. 18104, 00 CH 62 Ms.
McKeating, who was licensed in 1978, was censured for entering into
prohibited business transactions with a client whom she was
representing in a divorce. She accepted a $15,000 loan from the client
and persuaded the client to allow her to use one of the client's
credit cards to make purchases and cash advances totaling
approximately $18,500, including interest and fees.
In
re DAVID RUSSELL NOTT, Attorney Number 6212291 File
Information: M.R. 18082, 00 CH 45
Mr. Nott, who was licensed in 1992, was placed on disability inactive status by agreement. In re ERICK SCOTT PARKER,
Attorney Number 6256497 File
Information: M.R. 18152, 01 SH 103
Mr. Parker, who was licensed to practice law in 1998, was
disbarred on consent. He
made false and incomplete statements on his application for admission
to the bar, submitted false resumes and altered law school transcripts
to various law firms in the hope of getting a job, and made numerous
misrepresentations to an employer.
In
re WILLIAM PATRICK PRENDERGAST, File
information: M.R. 18106, 01 CH 63 Mr. Prendergast, who was licensed in 1971, was suspended
for six months. While serving as a judge in the Circuit Court
of Cook County, he initiated various improper conversations with
supervisors in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office regarding
the pending court case of a social friend of his. In addition, he gave
false statements under oath during a discovery deposition in a civil
case.
In re GEORGE JAMES
WILLIAM SMITH, File
information: M.R. 18123, 02 DC 1001
Mr. Smith, who was licensed in 1981, was disbarred on
consent. On March 5, 2002, he pled
guilty to two counts of a superseding federal indictment
He admitted to unlawfully structuring the withdrawal of United States
currency for the purpose of evading cash transaction reporting
requirements, concealing his early withdrawal of pension funds, filing
false federal and state income tax returns for various years,
converting funds belonging to the estate of his deceased brother, and
providing false statements to the FBI.
THE FOLLOWING
DISCIPLINARY ORDER WAS ENTERED BY THE COURT BEFORE MAY TERM BUT WAS
NOT INCLUDED IN ANY PREVIOUS INFORMATION RELEASE:
In re PHILIP MAKSYMONKO,
Attorney Number 3127406 File
information: M.R. 18063, 00 CH 44 (Order
entered May 10, 2002)
Mr. Maksymonko, who was licensed in 1980, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court. He was found to have neglected several matters and converted client funds. |
