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Arthur Colby Parks (WSBA No. 22508, admitted 1993) of Tacoma, resigned in lieu of discipline, effective 06/27/2023. Parks is aware of the alleged misconduct in disciplinary counsel’s Statement of Alleged Misconduct and rather than defend against the allegations, wishes to permanently resign from membership in the Association. Per his resignation form, Parks vehemently denies the allegations but is resigning to avoid having to litigate the issues. The Statement of Alleged Misconduct reflects the following violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct: 1.4 (Communication), 1.5 (Fees), 1.8 (Conflict of Interest: Current Clients: Specific Rules), 1.15A (Safeguarding Property), 1.15B (Required Trust Account Records), 8.4(b) (Criminal Act), 8.4(c) (Dishonesty, Fraud, Deceit or Misrepresentation), 8.4(i) (Moral Turpitude, Corruption or Disregard of Rule of Law).
Parks’ alleged conduct, as stated in disciplinary counsel’s Statement of Alleged Misconduct, related to his representation of two clients’ unrelated trust and estate matters. Parks’ alleged misconduct includes: 1) converting Client A’s funds to his own use without being entitled to those funds; 2) charging Client A fees at lawyer rates for work that could have been performed by a nonlawyer; 3) renegotiating a fee agreement with Client B without obtaining Client B’s informed consent in writing, without advising Client B of the desirability of seeking advice from an independent lawyer, and on terms that were not fair and reasonable to Client B; 4) removing funds belonging to Client B and/or the estate from Parks’ IOLTA account without being entitled to collect those funds and converting the funds to Parks’ own use; 5) failing to provide Client B with written notice before withdrawing funds from the IOLTA account; 6) failing to adequately communicate the basis and/or rate of the fee for which Client B was responsible and failing to communicate to Client B the basis for fees charged during the representation; 7) failing to promptly provide a written accounting to Client B despite written requests for such an accounting; 8) failing to maintain a checkbook register or equivalent for Parks’ client trust account; and 9) failing to maintain a client trust ledger for Client B that listed all receipts, disbursements, and transfers, along with the purpose for which funds were received or disbursed, the payee for each transaction, and the new client fund balance after each transaction.
Francisco Rodriguez acted as disciplinary counsel. Anne I. Seidel represented Respondent. The online version of Washington State Bar News contains a link to the following document: Resignation Form of Arthur Colby Parks (ELC 9.3(b)).
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