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Gregory S. Zoro (WSBA No. 8212, admitted 1978), of Des Moines was disbarred, effective July 9, 2008, by order of the Washington State Supreme Court following approval of a stipulation. This discipline resulted from conduct in four matters involving failure to communicate; lack of diligence; trust account irregularities; forgery; and conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation.
Between approximately October 2002 and May 2007, Mr. Zoro engaged in the following conduct:
• Failure to respond to repeated requests for information from a client and from a third party involved in a personal-injury matter, and failed to respond to messages left by a client in a second personal injury matter;
• Failure to timely pay amounts due to third-party insurers after cases were settled and funds received by Mr. Zoro, for two-and-a-half years in one matter and for six months in a second matter;
• Failure to maintain current trust account records for approximately 40 clients in 2006 and 2007 by failing to maintain complete and accurate client ledgers, failing to maintain accurate check registers, failing to regularly reconcile his trust account bank statements with his check register and client ledgers, failing to withdraw fees from his trust account promptly as they were earned, and disbursing funds from his trust account for clients when there were insufficient funds on deposit for those clients or before the corresponding deposits for that client had been collected by the bank; and
• Mr. Zoro also admitted that there is a substantial likelihood the Association could prove, by a clear preponderance of the evidence, that he intentionally misrepresented to a Bar Association auditor, in connection with a disciplinary matter, the source and circumstances of a payment deposited in his trust account by submitting a fabricated deposit record to the auditor, in violation of RCW 9A.60.020.
Mr. Zoro’s conduct violated RPC 1.3, requiring a lawyer to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client; former RPC 1.4, requiring a lawyer to keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter, promptly comply with reasonable requests for information, and explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation; former RPC 1.14(b)(3) and current RPC 1.15A(h)(2), requiring a lawyer to maintain complete records of all funds, securities, and other properties of a client coming into the possession of the lawyer and render appropriate accounts to his or her client regarding them; current RPC 1.15A(c)(2), requiring a lawyer to hold property of clients and third persons separate from the lawyer’s own property and to identify, label, and appropriately safeguard any property of clients or third persons other than funds; current RPC 1.15A(h)(1), prohibiting a lawyer from depositing funds belonging to the lawyer in a trust account; current RPC 1.15A(h)(6), requiring that trust records be reconciled as often as bank statements are generated or at least quarterly; current RPC 1.15A(h)(7), prohibiting a lawyer from disbursing funds from a trust account until deposits have cleared the banking process and have been collected, unless the lawyer and the bank have a written agreement by which the lawyer personally guarantees all disbursements from the account without recourse to the trust account; current RPC 1.15A(h)(8), prohibiting disbursements on behalf of a client or third person from exceeding the funds of that person on deposit and prohibiting funds of a client or third person to be used on behalf of anyone else; current RPC 1.15B(a)(1) and (8), requiring that a lawyer maintain current trust account records and including a checkbook register or equivalent for each trust account and copies of all trust account client ledger reconciliations; RPC 8.4(b), prohibiting a lawyer from committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; and RPC 8.4(c), prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation.
Natalea Skvir represented the Bar Association. Mr. Zoro represented himself. |