Top court disbars Rockville solo practitioner

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Maryland’s top court on Tuesday unanimously voted to disbar a Rockville lawyer who overbilled his client, failed to pay her any of the $10,000 settlement from her employment-discrimination lawsuit, and failed to respond to her telephone calls or cooperate with bar counsel’s investigators.

The Court of Appeals, in stripping Adrian Van Nelson II of his law license, noted that Latania Maise discovered the settlement check had been paid to Nelson only after speaking with her employer’s attorney.

The settlement check, made out to Nelson alone, had been seized by the U.S. Department of Education to satisfy his student loans, which were in default, the court added.

The high court said Nelson violated Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct regarding competence, communication, fees, safekeeping client property, terminating representation and bar disciplinary matters.

“We have previously held that cases involving improper retention of fees, failure to communicate promptly with clients, and failure to respond to Bar Counsel’s lawful demands for information during an investigation warrant the imposition of disbarment,” Judge Lynne A. Battaglia wrote for the court. The ultimate professional sanction was warranted in Nelson’s case “in the interest of protecting the public,” she added.

Nelson, a solo practitioner, was admitted to the Maryland Bar in December 1992.

The Court of Appeals ordered his disbarment after reviewing findings of fact submitted by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg, following a disciplinary motion by Bar Counsel Glenn M. Grossman for the Attorney Grievance Commission.

Maise, the client, had sparked the investigation by filing a complaint against Nelson with the commission on May 11, 2010.

In the complaint, Maise said she had been told by an attorney for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for whom she worked, that the agency’s settlement check had been paid to Nelson in July 2009. Maise added that Nelson, had not returned any of her telephone calls seeking recovery of her settlement money and a $9,825 refund of the more than $11,500 she had paid him as a retainer.

Maise had also sued Nelson in Maryland District Court in Prince George’s County, winning a $19,825 judgment last September that has not been satisfied, according to bar counsel.

Greenberg said Nelson’s failure to pay Maise the settlement money and refusal to reimburse the $9,825 in unearned fees violated Maryland rules requiring the safekeeping of client funds and prohibiting the charging of an unreasonable fee.”

Greenberg also found that Nelson, who did not attend the hearing on the allegations, had “ignored” bar counsel investigators by not returning their letters of inquiry in June and July 2010 and canceling an interview with an investigator in August 2010.

Nelson, though he missed the circuit court hearing, did appear before the Court of Appeals on Feb. 3 and urged the judges to impose the lesser sanction of suspension in light of his previously clean disciplinary record.

“I stand before you quite humbled,” Nelson said. “It was unfortunate. It was not intentional.”

The high court was not moved.

“Lack of prior offenses is relevant,” Battaglia wrote. “Multiple violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct in the present case, however, clearly outweigh the mitigating effect of his lack of disciplinary history.”

WHAT THE COURT HELD

Case:

Attorney Grievance Commission v. Nelson, CA Misc. Docket No. 9, Sept. Term 2011. Reported. Opinion by Battaglia, J. Argued Feb. 3, 2012. Filed March 27, 2012.

Issue:

Is disbarment warranted in cases involving the improper retention of fees, failure to return client phone calls and lack of cooperation with bar-counsel investigators even in the absence of prior disciplinary action against the attorney.

Holding:

Yes; disbarment is warranted as the serious offenses “clearly outweigh” an otherwise clean record.

Counsel:

JaCina N. Stanton for petitioner; Adrian Van Nelson II for respondent.

RecordFax # 12-0327-20 (24 pages).