| Description: |
Gail Schwartz (WSBA No. 28994, admitted 1999), of Spokane, was disbarred, effective August 16, 2007, by order of the Washington State Supreme Court following a hearing. Between 2003 and 2005, Ms. Schwartz engaged in the following conduct giving rise to the discipline:
• Represented co-defendants in criminal cases without advising them about the risks of joint representation and without obtaining written conflict waivers;
• Communicated false information to a client and the client's subsequent lawyer;
• Failed to deposit funds into a client trust account, removed funds without the client's permission, failed to promptly return funds when requested to do so, failed to abide by the client's instructions to provide the funds to a third party to invest, and invested the funds with another entity without the client's knowledge or permission;
• Failed to keep accurate trust account records;
• Charged excessive fees for managing a client's trust account and removed the fees from the trust account to pay herself, even after she had been discharged; and
• Prepared and signed a loan agreement on her client's behalf that lacked a prepayment penalty, included a payoff provision that would result in a $10,000 windfall to the borrower, failed to state an interest rate, and was secured by a Deed of Trust listing Ms. Schwartz (and not the client) as the beneficiary.
Ms. Schwartz's conduct violated RPC 1.1, requiring a lawyer to provide competent representation to a client; RPC 1.2, requiring a lawyer to abide by a client's decisions about the objectives of representation and to consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued; RPC 1.4, requiring a lawyer to keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter, to promptly comply with reasonable requests for information, and to explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation; RPC 1.5(a), requiring a lawyer's fee to be reasonable; RPC 1.7, prohibiting a lawyer from representing two clients in the same matter whose interests are directly adverse; former RPC 1.14(b)(3), requiring a lawyer to maintain complete records of all funds, securities, or other properties of a client coming into the possession of the lawyer and render appropriate accounts to his or her client regarding them; RPC 1.15, governing the circumstances in which a lawyer may withdraw from representation; RPC 8.4(b), prohibiting a lawyer from committing a criminal act (here, theft) that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; RPC 8.4(c), prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; RPC 8.4(i), prohibiting a lawyer from committing any act involving moral turpitude, or corruption, or other act which reflects disregard for the rule of law; and RPC 8.4(l), prohibiting a lawyer from violating a duty imposed by or under the Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct.
Francesca D'Angelo represented the Bar Association. Gail Schwartz represented herself. Paul M. Larson was the hearing officer. |