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Lori S. Haskell (WSBA No. 15779, admitted 1986), of Seattle, received a censure pursuant to a stipulation approved by the Disciplinary Board on May 18, 2001. This discipline is based on her failure to comply with lawyer trust account requirements between 1996 and 2000.
In May 2000, when disciplinary counsel discovered that Ms. Haskell had withdrawn more funds from her trust account than she had deposited on behalf of her clients, the WSBA conducted an audit of Ms. Haskell’s trust account. The audit found that Ms. Haskell did not keep client ledgers or track individual client balances. She did maintain settlement sheets for each client, but they did not always accurately reflect the transactions. This lack of recordkeeping prevented Ms. Haskell from performing meaningful reconciliation of her trust account.
The audit manager discovered that Ms. Haskell had distributed more to one client than the client had deposited, creating a shortage in the trust account. Ms. Haskell used other client funds when she made this mistakenly large distribution, creating several negative client balances in her trust account. Ms. Haskell commingled her own funds in the trust account and failed to properly pay her clients; several had a positive balance that should have been returned to them. Ms. Haskell also failed to withdraw her fees from the trust account.
In December 2000, the audit manager returned to Ms. Haskell’s office. Although not all suggestions had been implemented, Ms. Haskell had deposited funds to cover the shortage, and was waiting for advice of counsel to fully comply with other recommendations.
Ms. Haskell’s conduct violated RPC 1.14, requiring lawyers to maintain adequate records of receipt, deposit and disbursement of client funds; promptly pay client funds that are owed; and promptly remove the lawyer’s funds from the trust account.
Becky Neal represented the Bar Association. Kurt M. Bulmer represented Ms. Haskell.
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