Indiana Supremes Yank Law License From Attorney For Playing Fast & Loose With Clients' Funds, Converting Cash For His Own Use, Failing To Maintain Adequate Trust Account Records

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Indiana Lawyer reports:

• A Fort Wayne attorney who repeatedly failed to cooperate in a disciplinary action has been disbarred for mismanagement of his trust account and converting client funds.(1)
  
  The justices of the Indiana Supreme Court disbarred Donald Edward James Tuesday [March 7] after previously suspending him in January for failing to respond to a September 2016 show cause order related to two disciplinary cases.
  
  In the per curiam opinion, the justices wrote that James’ disciplinary trouble began in July 2016 when the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission first filed a disciplinary complaint against him. The disciplinary complaint stemmed from James’ conduct in 2015, when he “significantly overdrew his attorney trust account on three occasions, regularly commingled personal funds with client funds, made unauthorized cash and check withdrawals from the trust account for his own personal purposes, and failed to maintain adequate trust account records.”
  
  James largely failed to cooperate with the investigation into his misconduct, the justices wrote, and did not participate in any of the disciplinary proceedings. As aggravating factors, the hearing officer cited James’ “dishonest and selfish motive,” his multiple offenses, the criminal nature of his misconduct, his deceptive practices during the investigation and his refusal to acknowledge the wrongfulness of his actions.

Source: Fort Wayne attorney disbarred for fund mismanagement.

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(1) The Clients’ Financial Assistance Fund of the Indiana State Bar Association provides compensation, as a matter of grace, and not as a right, to qualified applicants who have suffered a monetary loss as a result of dishonest acts of an Indiana lawyer, acting either as a lawyer or as a fiduciary. Go here for Claim Form.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that attempt to clean up the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (February 2017) (includes a listing for Canadian client protection funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.