Attorney Grievance Commission v. Bocchino

BARBERA, C.J. Petitioner, the Attorney Grievance Commission, acting through Bar Counsel, filed with this Court a Petition for Disciplinary or Remedial Action against Respondent, attorney David Eugene Bocchino, 1 on September 27, 2012, pursuant to Maryland Rule 16-751(a). The Petition alleged that Respondent engaged in professional misconduct, in violation of the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct (“MLRPC”), in two separate client matters: his representation of Lisa and Montgomery Embrey in an automobile warranty action, and his representation of Lily Cleaves in a credit card debt collection matter. Specifically, the Petition alleged that Respondent violated MLRPC 1.1 (competence) 2 ; 1.3 (diligence) 3 ; 1.4(a) and (b) (communication) 4 ; and 8.4(a), (c), and (d) (misconduct) 5 with respect to the Embreys, and 1.1; ⁵¹¹ 1.3; 1.4(a) and (b); 1.15(a) (safekeeping property) 6 ; 5.5(a) (assistance in the unauthorized practice of law) 7 ; and 8.4(a), (c), and (d) with respect to Ms. Cleaves. On October 1, 2012, this Court designated the Honorable M. Elizabeth Bowen of the Circuit Court for Howard County (“the hearing judge”) to conduct an evidentiary hearing and file written findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Maryland Rules 16-752(a) and 16-757(c).

Judge Bowen held the hearing on January 29, 2013. She then filed her Statement of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law with this Court on April 10, 2013, concluding by clear and convincing evidence that Respondent violated MLRPC 1.1; 1.3; 1.4(a) and (b); and 8.4(a), (c), and (d) with respect to the Embreys, and MLRPC 1.1; 1.3; 5.5(a); and 8.4(a) and (d) with respect to Ms. Cleaves. ⁵¹² I. Based on the evidence accepted at the January 29, 2013, hearing, the hearing judge set forth the following findings of fact: Respondent has been a member of the Bar of this Court since December 16, 1997. He practiced for a short time at a small private law firm before joining the Office of the Attorney General, where he worked for seven years until he took medical retirement. He established his own practice in 2008.

Representation of the Embreys In 2009, Respondent assumed an “of counsel” position at the Ohio law firm of Kahn & Associates (“Kahn”), in which he represented the firm’s clients in “lemon lawsuits” 8 in Maryland. Another Kahn attorney, Christal Edwards, had filed suit on behalf of Lisa and Montgomery Embrey against General Motors (“GM”) in the Circuit Court for Frederick County on August 6, 2009, alleging that the Embreys’ Chevrolet malfunctioned. Kahn re-assigned the case to Respondent in September 2009, but Respondent did not enter his appearance until October 27, 2009. On October 5, 2009, the Circuit Court issued a Scheduling Order and Order for Civil Mediation setting deadlines for discovery, designation of expert witnesses, motions, and mediation.

On October 27, 2009, the same day he entered his appearance, Respondent filed a Line to Enter Change of Address from Kahn’s Ohio mailing address to 205 E. 28th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Within a month of entering his appearance, Respondent moved his office from the 28th Street location in Baltimore to his home in Abingdon. As a result, he began to employ P.O. Box 347, Abingdon, MD 21009 as his professional mailing address. ⁵¹³ Respondent had not filed a second Line to Enter Change of Address with the Circuit Court. The attorney for GM in this matter, Barbara Duvall, acted as opposing counsel on numerous other unrelated cases with Respondent during this period and, as a consequence, was aware of his new mailing address.

She thus addressed all correspondence in the Embreys’ case to the Abingdon address and had all filings served there. On November 13, 2009, Duvall mailed to Respondent interrogatories, a request for production of documents, and a request for admissions of fact. On December 16, 2009, the day on which responses were due, Respondent sent Duvall an email requesting an extension. Duvall consented to that request.

Respondent, however, did not provide discovery by the date to which they had agreed. On January 12, 2010, Duvall sent to Respondent via email and regular mail a reminder that the extended deadline had passed, informing him that she would file a Motion to Compel Discovery if he did not provide responses by January 26, 2010. Respondent did not provide discovery, and on January 29, 2010, Duvall filed her Motion to Compel. Respondent filed no response to Duvall’s motion.

The Circuit Court granted the Motion to Compel on March 3, 2010, entering an order requiring an answer to discovery by March 8, 2010. Respondent never filed any discovery in the matter. The October 5 Scheduling Order set December 12, 2009, as the deadline by which Respondent was to designate an expert witness in the Embreys’ case. In a February 2, 2010, email to Duvall, Respondent admitted that he had failed to designate an expert witness in compliance with the Order.

He requested an extension, to which Duvall did not acquiesce. On March 1, 2010, citing Respondent’s failures to provide discovery and to designate an expert witness, GM filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. Respondent filed no opposition to the motion. The October 5 Scheduling Order also mandated that the parties participate in mediation.

Respondent and a paralegal at Duvall’s law firm had corresponded over email in November ⁵¹⁴ 2009 and designated two mutually agreeable dates on which to schedule the mediation: March 2 and 3, 2010. The mediator sent his letter confirming March 3, 2010, as the chosen date to Christal Edwards. Respondent did not notify the Embreys of the two potential dates for the mediation and failed to confirm with Duvall’s paralegal which date the mediator had selected. Neither Respondent nor the Embreys appeared at the mediation.

On March 12, 2010, Duvall filed a Motion for Sanctions, to which Respondent filed no opposition. On April 1, 2010, the Circuit Court granted the motion, dismissed the Embreys’ case with prejudice, and assessed against the Embreys GM’s attorney’s fees and costs. On June 7, 2010, Respondent filed a Motion to Vacate Judgment Due to Fraud, Mistake, or Irregularity. In the motion, Respondent stated that, because of his change of address, he “never received documentation of any kind from the court and only a few of Defendant’s filings,” and he cited this as the reason the court should vacate the dismissal. 9 He also stated in the motion that he had filed a Line to Enter Change of Address on October 27, 2010, though he filed this Line on October 27, 2009, and the address he submitted at that time was his Baltimore address.

On June 24, 2010, the Circuit Court denied the motion. When Kahn re-assigned the Embreys’ case to Respondent, the firm informed Ms. Embrey and gave her Respondent’s contact information. Respondent and Ms. Embrey communicated over email on October 13, 2009, regarding whether Ms. Embrey should take her car to an automobile mechanic for service, but Respondent did not contact her again until the end of January 2010. Although Ms. Embrey offered contradictory testimony about the extent of her attempts to contact Respondent during this period, Respondent testified that there was no great need for communication over those months. ⁵¹⁵ The hearing judge, however, found this three-month period to be a critical one, requiring client input for the purposes of responding to discovery, scheduling the court-ordered mediation, and giving an expert the opportunity to inspect the Embreys’ car.

After the depositions on February 15, 2010, at which she learned that Respondent had failed to provide responses to GM’s interrogatories, Ms. Embrey contacted Respondent frequently via telephone and email to request information about the status of her case. The hearing judge found that Respondent did not respond to these requests to his client’s satisfaction. Respondent admitted that he did not inform the Embreys of his failure to designate an expert witness or provide discovery, nor of GM’s Motions to Compel Discovery, for Summary Judgment, and for Sanctions. He did inform Ms. Embrey that they had missed the court-ordered mediation, but later told her, incorrectly, that this was the reason her case had been dismissed.

After the Circuit Court denied the Motion to Vacate, Respondent assured Ms. Embrey that he would file a Motion for Reconsideration, but he never did so. Respondent also failed to communicate to the Embreys GM’s repeated requests for a settlement demand. The hearing judge found this failure of communication to be incompetent given Respondent’s acknowledgment that he did not believe the Embreys were entitled to the remedy they desired (replacement of their vehicle), and that Respondent’s failure to comply with GM’s discovery demands rendered his clients’ case susceptible to dismissal. Based upon these factual findings, the hearing judge concluded that Respondent violated MLRPC 1.1 (competence); 1.3 (diligence); 1.4(a) and (b) (communication); and 8.4(a), (c), and (d) (misconduct).

The hearing judge explained her conclusions, as follows: Rule 1.1 Competence ⁵¹⁶ Respondent failed to provide competent representation to the Embreys. He failed to file any answers to GM’s requests for discovery, despite reminders and extensions from opposing counsel and an additional five days for compliance given by the court in the order to compel. He failed to designate an expert in compliance with the deadline in the scheduling order, despite a clear understanding that this failure would prove fatal to his clients’ lemon law case. Although opposing counsel took responsibility for coordinating a mutually agreeable mediation date, Respondent failed to verify and calendar the chosen date.

As a result, he and his client failed to appear for mediation. Respondent failed to answer the motions to compel, for summary judgment and for sanctions which were the inevitable result of his inaction. Respondent’s failures caused the dismissal of his clients’ case and the entry of an order for sanctions against them. Respondent’s conduct was in violation of Rule 1.1.

Rule 1.3 Diligence Respondent failed to act with any diligence or promptness in his representation of the Embreys. Rather, his conduct was characterized by a self-defeating ineptitude and procrastination bordering on paralysis. He failed to notify the court of his current mailing address when he moved his office to Abingdon. He missed every discovery due date and court-ordered deadline.

He allowed the date for designation of experts to pass without any action on his part to select or designate this crucial witness. Although the notice of the mediation session was mistakenly sent to Respondent’s predecessor, a modicum of attention on Respondent’s part could have avoided the failure to appear for the mediation. The Scheduling Order and Order for Civil Mediation was signed on October 5, 2009. Respondent and his opponent’s paralegal narrowed the possible dates for the mediation session to two in their email exchange on November 18, 2009.

The date chosen by the mediator for the mediation session was March 3, 2010. Had Respondent been working diligently to insure compliance with the October 5th Sched ⁵¹⁷ uling Order and Order for Mediation, he would have noticed that he had never received the mediation date in the ensuing three months and would have inquired of the court, the mediator, or his opponent’s paralegal what date had been chosen. Given the mediator’s error in misdirecting the notice, were this Respondent’s only failure in the Embreys’ case, it would have been excusable. In light of all the other failures to take any meaningful action on his clients’ behalf, the failure to calendar and appear at the mediation session can only be regarded as another example of Respondent’s neglect of the Embreys’ case.

Further, Respondent failed to respond to Ms. Duvall’s repeated requests for a settlement demand in November and December of 2009 and January of 2010, a request that she repeated even after Respondent’s fatal failure to designate an expert to support his clients’ claim. Certainly, at that juncture, settlement was Respondent’s only hope to salvage any recovery for his clients, yet he failed to respond. In addition to his failure to comply with discovery, he failed to respond to GM’s Motion to Compel and for Sanctions, Motion for Summary Judgment, or the second Motion for Sanctions. Even when at last he took the belated action of filing the Motion to Vacate Judgment, by waiting to file until more than thirty days after the entry of the judgment, he significantly limited the grounds on which the court could grant relief.

Respondent’s conduct violated Rule 1.3. Rule 1.4 Communication During his representation of the Embreys, Respondent repeatedly failed to inform them of important developments in their case. He failed to inform them of GM’s discovery requests and the mediation date, which then denied them the opportunity to participate in the preparation and presentation of their case. He failed to inform them of the consequences of his discovery lapses, which were the filing of the motions to compel, for sanctions and for summary judgment.

He repeatedly misled Ms. Embrey with promises that he would answer the discovery. He failed to ⁵¹⁸ report the missed deadline for expert designation and the impact of the loss of this crucial witness on the overall prospect for success in the case. He failed to communicate GM’s multiple requests for a settlement demand. After the case was dismissed and the Motion to Vacate was denied, he failed to candidly inform Ms. Embrey that he would not seek reconsideration, but instead promised further action for six months.

As a result of Respondent’s failure to provide basic information to the Embreys about the status of their case, they were unable to make informed decisions about the representation. Respondent’s conduct violated Rule 1.4(a) and (b). Rule 8.4 Misconduct Respondent’s violations of the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct establish a violation of Rule 8.4(a). Respondent’s misrepresentations to the Circuit Court for Frederick County in the Motion to Vacate Judgment due to Fraud, Mistake, or Irregularity which he filed on June 7, 2010, establish a violation of Rule 8.4(c).

Respondent stated that “Plaintiffs counsel and Plaintiff never received documentation of any kind from the court and only a few of Defendant’s filings.” Contrary to Respondent’s statement in the Motion to Vacate, Respondent stipulated that he received all of GM’s discovery requests and GM’s Motion to Compel and for Sanctions at his correct mailing address in Abingdon. As demonstrated by the certificates of service, GM’s Motion for Summary Judgment and Motion for Sanctions were also sent to Respondent at his correct mailing address. Respondent further stated in the Motion to Vacate that he “did not become aware of the judgment and sanctions until the early part of May, 2010.” Ms. Embrey’s testimony that she discussed the dismissal of her ease with Respondent in mid-April is corroborated by her email exchange with Respondent on April 20, 2010, in which Respondent promised to send a later email with the motion to vacate attached. Respondent also stipulated that he in ⁵¹⁹ formed Ms. Embrey of the dismissal sometime in April, 2010.

The Embreys’ case was dismissed due to Respondent’s complete failure to respond to any of the discovery requests or motions of his opponent. Whatever the merits of the case might have been, Respondent’s dereliction of his duty to his clients was the sole reason they lost the opportunity to have their day in court. Respondent’s conduct was clearly prejudicial to the administration of justice in violation of Rule 8.4(d). Representation of Ms. Cleaves In April 2009, Respondent answered a Craigslist advertisement regarding the closure of the law practice of Ralph Byrd, whom this Court disbarred on April 14, 2009.

See Attorney Grievance Comm’n v. Byrd, 408 Md. 449 , 970 A.2d 870 (2009). At their first meeting Respondent learned of Byrd’s disbarment, but, notwithstanding this knowledge, entered into a professional relationship with him wherein Respondent would act as counsel of record for Byrd’s clients in exchange for Byrd’s mentorship in the law of debt collection and Byrd’s promise to refer clients to Respondent in the future. Respondent was to share in none of Byrd’s fees. On April 16, 2009, two days after his disbarment, Byrd sent a proposed retainer agreement to Lily Cleaves, who was a defendant in a credit card debt collection action brought by Pasadena Receivables, Inc. (“Pasadena”).

Ms. Cleaves returned the signed retainer on April 22, 2009, agreeing to be represented by “one of our affiliated attorneys.” At this time, Ms. Cleaves paid Byrd $3,000 in attorney’s fees, which he deposited in his own attorney trust account. In May 2009, Byrd obtained from Ms. Cleaves her signature on a pro se Demand for Jury Trial, which he subsequently filed, to transfer her case from the District Court of Maryland in Montgomery County to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Respondent entered his appearance in the case on June 15, 2009. Respondent never sent Ms. Cleaves a letter ⁵²⁰ notifying her that he was assuming the representation, and the two did not enter into a separate retainer agreement.

Respondent testified that it was his general practice when taking over Byrd’s cases to conduct a telephone conference call with Byrd and the client, during which Byrd would explain that Respondent was his “subsequent counsel.” Respondent testified that he believed he had followed this practice with Ms. Cleaves. The hearing judge did not seem to credit this testimony, referring to Respondent’s “vague belief’ that he participated in a conference call with Ms. Cleaves. On June 15, 2009, Respondent filed a general denial in response to Pasadena’s complaint. In his answer, he did not assert the defense of lack of authority to sue in a representative capacity.

Respondent later characterized this decision as one of “trial strategy.” On July 15, 2009, Pasadena filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. Respondent did not file timely an opposition but did file a Motion to Excuse Late Filing, stating that he had been away on vacation. 10 This Motion to Excuse was granted. His opposition, thus accepted by the court, included an affidavit prepared by Byrd, who sent the document on his own letterhead to Ms. Cleaves for signature and had her return it to him. Respondent’s written filing raised two arguments, but at the October 20, 2009, hearing on the Motion for Summary Judgment, he attempted to raise a third.

The judge hearing the motion refused to hear this third argument, as well as argument on the defense of Pasadena’s lack of authority to sue in a representative capacity, treating that argument as waived because Respondent did not raise it in his answer. The judge also found that Ms. Cleaves’s affidavit did not generate a genuine issue of material fact. Consequently, the Circuit Court granted summary judgment in favor of Pasadena and entered a judgment of $19,750 against Ms. Cleaves on October ⁵²¹ 26, 2009. Respondent filed a Motion for Reconsideration on November 5, 2009, but the court denied that motion.

On April 21, 2010, Respondent noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. His notice of appeal, however, did not include the information report required by Maryland Rule 8-205(b). The Court of Special Appeals issued a Show Cause Order directing Respondent to file the information report or offer an explanation as to why his appeal should not be dismissed, but he did neither. 11 As a result, the Court of Special Appeals dismissed Ms. Cleaves’s appeal on July 12, 2010. When he took over Ms. Cleaves’s case, Respondent did not arrange to transfer the attorney’s fees she had paid to Byrd from Byrd’s attorney trust account to his own.

As Respondent prepared to note the appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, Byrd recognized the impropriety of drawing the filing fee from his own account and so transferred to Respondent the $190 Ms. Cleaves had sent to him for that purpose. On November 23, 2010, the Circuit Court granted a writ of garnishment to enforce Pasadena’s judgment against Ms. Cleaves. Ms. Cleaves stated in a pro se Motion and Declaration to Vacate Judgment she filed on March 28, 2012, that she was not aware Respondent was her attorney until her wages were garnished. Although Respondent testified that he in no “way, shape, or form asked or allowed Mr. Byrd to practice law with” him, the hearing judge found that their correspondence during the pendency of Ms. Cleaves’s case reveals that Byrd assisted Respondent in drafting and filing court documents.

For example, in preparing Ms. Cleaves’s Motion for Reconsideration on the evening of November 5, 2009, Respondent sent Byrd a draft via email, requesting proposed changes. Three hours later, Byrd replied to the email stating that he had ⁵²² “Modified it a little and filed it.” Although Byrd afforded Respondent no opportunity to review what he filed in the Circuit Court under Respondent’s own name, Respondent did not admonish Byrd in any way for this conduct nor did he restrict Byrd’s participation in the matter going forward. Based upon these factual findings, the hearing judge concluded that Respondent violated MLRPC 1.1 (competence); 1.3 (diligence); 5.5(a) (unauthorized practice of law); and 8.4(a) and (d) (misconduct). The hearing judge explained her conclusions, as follows: Rule 1.1 Competence Respondent failed to provide competent representation to Ms. Cleaves in violation of Rule 1.1.

Specifically, Respondent failed to act with the requisite legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. In the Answer he filed on behalf of Ms. Cleaves, Respondent failed to raise the issue of Pasadena’s authority to sue in a representative capacity by specific negative averment as required by Rule 2-323(f), thereby admitting Pasadena’s ownership of Ms. Cleaves’ credit account for the purpose of the collection action. Respondent deliberately chose not to raise this required negative defense in the Answer as a matter of trial strategy. As a result of Respondent’s waiver of this issue, the judge refused to consider this potentially meritorious argument at the hearing on the Motion for Summary Judgment.

When Respondent appealed the judgment against Ms. Cleaves, he failed to file the information report required by Rule 8-205. Respondent’s admission at his deposition that he did not know the information report was required contradicts his claim at the hearing on January 29, 2013, that he had paid careful attention to filing the brief and all related documents and that he did not know what had happened to the report. Whether due to Respondent’s lack of legal knowledge of the appellate rules, or to his lack of thoroughness in preparing the appeal, his client lost the opportunity ⁵²³ to have the appellate court review the ruling by the trial court which Respondent claimed had been in error. Rule 1.3 Diligence Respondent failed to act with diligence and promptness in representing Ms. Cleaves in violation of Rule 1.3.

The Dismissal Order from the Court of Special Appeals specifically refers to an earlier show cause order issued on June 21, 2010, which directed Respondent to file the necessary information report by July 6, 2010, or show cause in writing why the appeal should not be dismissed. In effect, this June 21st order gave Respondent an extension until July 6, 2010, to file the information report which had actually been due on May 3, 2010. Respondent took no action and the appeal was dismissed. Rule 5.5(a) Unauthorized Practice of Law Respondent’s willful disregard of the facts in front of him enabled Mr. Byrd to continue to function as an attorney and to retain unearned fees after his disbarment on April 14, 2009.

Respondent learned that Mr. Byrd had been disbarred when he met with Mr. Byrd the first time in April of 2009. When Respondent entered his appearance on behalf of Ms. Cleaves on June 15, 2009, he had an obligation to review the entire court file, including the Complaint and the request for jury trial. The Complaint was filed on March 10, 2009, thirty-four days before Mr. Byrd’s disbarment. The only document which had been filed on behalf of Ms. Cleaves at the time of Respondent’s entry was the pro se Demand for Jury Trial which was filed immediately after Mr. Byrd’s letter on May 5, 2009, within three weeks after Mr. Byrd’s disbarment and certainly after Respondent’s initial meeting ■with Mr. Byrd.

This information alone was sufficient for Respondent to conclude as an attorney and as an officer of the court that Mr. Byrd had not earned the full fee in Ms. ⁵²⁴ Cleaves’ case before he was disbarred, if, indeed, he had earned any of it. When Respondent became Ms. Cleaves’ attorney, particularly in light of Mr. Byrd’s disbarment, he had an affirmative duty to enter into a separate retainer agreement with Ms. Cleaves which would have made it clear to her, as the client, that Respondent (and not Mr. Byrd) was her attorney. Even in the face of evidence which showed that it was impossible for Mr. Byrd to have legitimately earned and disbursed Ms. Cleaves’ full retainer at that juncture in the case, Respondent failed to demand that Mr. Byrd surrender Ms. Cleaves’ payments for safekeeping in Respondent’s trust account. Although Respondent testified that he “relied” on Mr. Byrd’s retainer agreement with Ms. Cleaves rather than executing a separate representation agreement with her, Respondent never requested or received a copy of Mr. Byrd’s retainer agreement.

Had Respondent demanded a copy of Mr. Byrd’s retainer agreement, he would immediately have seen that it was executed April 22, 2009, after Mr. Byrd’s disbarment. Respondent also failed to fulfill his affirmative duty to his client Ms. Cleaves to inform her of her right to a refund of the payment to his disbarred predecessor and the fact that Mr. Byrd was now no longer able to represent her or to legitimately earn any of the fee which had been paid. Despite Respondent’s vague belief that he participated with Mr. Byrd in two conference calls with Ms. Cleaves, the record demonstrates that Respondent permitted Mr. Byrd to conduct all client contact, including obtaining Ms. Cleaves’ signed affidavit, advising her of court outcomes and accepting her check (made payable to Mr. Byrd) for the appellate costs. The record supports Ms. Cleaves’ statement in her pro se Motion and Declaration to Vacate Judgment, which she filed on March 28, 2012, that she “had never been contacted by Mr. Bocchino regarding [her] case.” That is because Respondent permitted Mr. Byrd to perform all the functions of an attorney in terms of client contact, and to profit from that relationship by keeping Ms. ⁵²⁵ Cleaves’ retainer, while Respondent simply represented her in court.

Although Respondent professed ignorance of Mr. Byrd’s unauthorized practice of law, the facts were before him. As he acknowledged in testimony and as was evident in the email exchanges, Mr. Byrd still considered Ms. Cleaves to be his client and he was anxious to insert himself to direct Respondent’s representation. Knowing this, Respondent nonetheless surrendered client contact to Mr. Byrd. Mr. Byrd’s refusal to transfer any of the fee paid by Ms. Cleaves, his email that he had “modified and filed” the Motion for Reconsideration (an email which prompted no action on Respondent’s part), the use of a fax account which continued to identify Mr. Byrd as Esquire, Mr. Byrd’s acceptance of a client’s check made payable to him, all put Respondent on notice that Mr. Byrd continued to conduct himself as an attorney in Ms. Cleaves’ case.

Respondent testified that he did not employ Mr. Byrd in any capacity. Had he employed Mr. Byrd as his non-legal assistant, these red flags would have required immediate action to control a subordinate who had overstepped the appropriate boundary between para-legal assistance and the practice of law. Respondent described a relationship in which Mr. Byrd was the mentor and Respondent was the apprentice. The facts of this case establish by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Byrd was continuing to practice law through Respondent, by drafting, modifying and signing court documents in Respondent’s name, by conducting all client contact through which information was given and legal counsel was provided, and by retaining all fees for those services, fees which could not possibly have been earned until after the date of Mr. Byrd’s disbarment.

Although Respondent received over thirty cases from Mr. Byrd, Mr. Byrd retained control of the cases and possession of the files until they required action that only an attorney in good standing could provide, such as a court appearance or a signature on discovery or a motion. Respondent testified that “what Mr. Byrd may or may not have been ⁵²⁶ doing with his clients/former clients, I don’t know. I have my suspicions but that is not something I would be willing to testify to in court.” Respondent opined that it was not his job, but the Attorney Grievance Commission’s, to police Mr. Byrd’s conduct. In fact, however, Respondent’s willingness to step into each case when some crucial juncture was reached, rather than assuming responsibility for all of the cases shortly after Mr. Byrd’s disbarment, allowed Mr. Byrd to practice law, not with his own license, but with Respondent’s.

Respondent’s conduct violated Rule 5.5(a). Rule 8.4 Misconduct Respondent’s violations of the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct, both directly and through the acts of Mr. Byrd, constitute a violation of Rule 8.4(a) and Respondent is, therefore, in violation of Rule 8.4(a). Respondent failed in his duty to inform Ms. Cleaves of her right to a refund of the unearned retainer held by Mr. Byrd, to execute a separate representation agreement with Ms. Cleaves so that she would have a clear understanding of who was (and who was not) her attorney, and to require Mr. Byrd to transfer the unearned funds to Respondent’s trust account. His failure to follow basic rules