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Attorney Grievance Commission v. Zuckerman4/13/2005
hat she considered a better job. Karen Kinsely, Ms. Becker's aunt, was respondent's office manager for three years prior to her retirement. While working for the respondent in that capacity, Ms. Kinsely had check-signing authority. In May of 2002, Ms. Becker was rehired by the respondent who requested her job back. She was then 23 or 24 years old. Ms. Kinsely had left the employ of the respondent in Ms. Becker's absence. Ms. Becker was to do generally what she had done before, but was also to handle what her aunt had formerly done which was to handle the accident settlements after a case was settled. This required Ms. Becker to meet with clients, go over the settlement sheet and disburse their money.
"Within one or two days of her hiring, he delegated to her the authority to write checks on his trust account so that he could "concentrate on trying cases." He did so because of the constant need for someone to always be available to sign checks in connection with financial aspects of accident cases whenever such checks were needed. Though he personally had signed each check in the beginning, he later found he could not continue to regularly be available for that purpose, since he did the office's trial work, and it seemed much more efficient to delegate authority to do so to an employee, as he had delegated it to Ms. Kinsely and occasionally other office managers. One of the tasks assigned to Ms. Becker was to go through a group of old files to see if any money was owed to medical providers and, if so, to distribute it, some monies having accumulated during the period of Ms. Kinsely's tenure as office manager. Prior to the discovery of Ms. Becker's defalcations, respondent used a manual system, in which a separate escrow sheet was kept in each case file on which all trust account transactions were entered. Respondent currently maintains a computerized system controlling his trust account which satisfies the Bar Counsel's office.
"In early May, 2002, Ms. Becker devised a scheme to steal the money in the respondent's trust account. She did so by filling out check stubs made payable to appropriate payees for what appeared to be proper amounts, but the corresponding checks were made out for considerably larger amounts made payable to friends of Ms. Becker's, who cashed the checks and turned over the proceeds to her.
"The statement for the respondent's trust account arrived in his office on or about June 15, 2002. A comparison of the check stubs with the bank statement and investigation into the missing return checks from the statement would have revealed Ms. Becker's theft. However, respondent delegated that task to Stacy Kohler, another of his employees who never reported back to him concerning the assigned task. As a result, Ms. Becker continued to steal from respondent's trust account until mid-July when an anonymous telephone call informed him that Ms. Becker was stealing from him. Upon this information becoming known to him, respondent examined the June bank statement, and detected her theft. He immediately began an intense examination of his trust account which resulted in his discovery that Ms. Becker had been stealing from the trust account. On or about July 15, 2002, respondent contacted the police and took out criminal charges against Ms. Becker. Respondent cooperated fully with police and prosecuting authorities in connection with the charges brought against Ms. Becker, who plead guilty. She was ordered to pay restitution of approximately $137,000 and sentenced to ten (10) years incarceration with all but three years suspended.
B. Conclusion of Law: Respondent Violated Rule 5.3 (a) and (b)
"Maryland Rule of Professional Conduct 5.3(a) provides that "a
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