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Seattle lawyer Jeremiah McCormick (WSBA No. 3802, admitted 1959) has been ordered censured by the Disciplinary Board after a hearing held December 19 and 20, 1995, and oral arguments on appeal to the Disciplinary Board held September 20, 1996. In three separate events involving a client McCormick represented in a dissolution/child support matter, he engaged in conduct involving a conflict of interest between his interests and those of his client.
In the first event, McCormick had his client assign to him judgments to be entered on her behalf in an upcoming presentment hearing for payment of his fees, in violation of RPC 1.7(b) and l.8(a). In the second event. McCormick directed his associate employee to represent the client in the presentment hearing despite the fact that at that point, McCormick owned the judgments to be presented for entry, in violation of RPC 1.7(b) and 8.4(a). In the third event, McCormick defended a subsequent post judgment a motion which sought to apply the judgments to back and future child support owed by the client, in violation of 1.7(b) and 8.4(a). The Hearing Officer recommended a sanction of reprimand for this misconduct. The Disciplinary Board reduced the sanction to a censure, without elaboration.
McCormick represented the wife in a dissolution action involving children of the marriage and few assets. The client had been a "special ed" student who read at a third-grade level. The client did not have the resources to pay legal fees. McCormick agreed to represent her and seek payment from her husband through an award of attorney fees in the divorce action. McCormick did not put in writing the fee agreement or an explanation of the fee and never billed the client for the fees, although he did generate billing statements to submit to the court to obtain a court award of fees.
Before trial, McCormick directed his employee/associate to represent the client at trial. McCormick remained personally active in the case. After trial, the Court placed the children with their father and ordered McCormick's client to pay support. The Court also ordered that the husband pay McCormick’s client half of the husband's pension and $7,000 in attorney fees. The presentment of the orders and judgment for half the pension and attorney fees was scheduled for December 17, 1992. Several days before presentment, McCormick called the client to his office and requested she sign an Assignment of Judgment he had prepared which would transfer to McCormick all of her interest in the pension and attorney fees to him. He did not explain the purpose of the Assignment in terms the client could understand, and she did not consent to the terms in the Assignment.
McCormick's associate presented the final orders and judgments regarding the pension and attorney fees to the Court on December 17, 1992, unaware that the judgments already had been assigned to the employer, McCormick. Two weeks later, the husband filed a post-dissolution motion seeking to use the judgments as setoff and security for back and future child support owed by McCormick's client. McCormick and his associate opposed the motion, ostensibly on the client's behalf, even though McCormick owned the judgments sought to be used for setoff and security. It would have been in the client's interest to have the judgments applied for that purpose because of her very limited income.
Disciplinary Counsel Lisa Crawford and Joy McLean represented the Bar Association; McCormick represented himself; Claire Cordon served as the Hearing Officer.
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