March 20, 2005 - Sunday Oklahoman
By Nolan Clay, Staff Writer
Nearly 80 Oklahoma attorneys were disbarred, suspended or resigned in the past five years for such misconduct as neglecting cases, embezzling settlement checks or having sex with clients, records show.
Some were disciplined after getting criminal convictions.
The results are part of a long operating disciplinary process that officials admit is too slow in some cases and critics say is badly underfunded.
"We are going to take care of it," said Dan Murdock, who prosecutes the cases for the Oklahoma Bar Association, the main state lawyers' group. "We need to work harder and that's what we're going to do."
About 30 disciplinary cases are now pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court - the final step in a process where attorneys police themselves.
Clients can seek reimbursement from a fund set up by the lawyers' group but they may wait years for their checks and not get all they lost, records show.
"I got 80 percent of my money back," said Joe M. Beasley of Moore, who was reimbursed $4,000 in January. "I figured they'd probably trash it or ... write me back and say, 'Too bad.' I was pleasantly surprised."
Almost $1.4 million has been paid out of the Clients' Security Fund since its creation in 1965.
The latest payments - funded by attorneys' dues - totaled $86,512 to 26 people. Almost half went to clients of former attorney Steve Angel of Edmond, who resigned in November 2003 after repeated accusations of neglect.
Beasley, a physician's assistant, said he paid Angel $5,000 a couple of years ago to file a civil rights lawsuit against his then-employer.
"He never took any action whatsoever," Beasley said. "The first time I went to see him and gave him five grand he was all smiles and glad-handing and that sort of thing. After that, the few times that I did get him to talk to me, he was rude and condescending."
Angel did not return calls from The Oklahoman. In his resignation, he said he was being treated for depression.
The Oklahoman looked at dozens of cases against attorneys and other reports as part of an ongoing check on the legal system. The review found:
Cases can take years to resolve.
Among the longest-pending cases is one against a former district attorney, John Maddox, who pleaded guilty to embezzling state funds five years ago. It is expected to be resolved soon with a suspension.
"I don't have an excuse for Maddox," said Murdock, the bar association's general counsel. "It took too long. There are other things that took priority. ... Some things get pushed to the back burner."
Some with pending cases have moved out of state or can't be found and are no longer a threat to Oklahomans, Murdock said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph M. Watt said prosecutors keep most cases moving along.
"We do notice on occasion that some have languished down there," Watt said.
Justices also can be slow, records show. They took five years on one case before disbarring a Tulsa attorney in 2003.
Other states with the same or fewer attorneys have a bigger budget and more prosecutors handling their disciplinary cases, studies show.
Murdock has four attorneys who assist him in prosecuting cases, four investigators and a budget of $870,454, which comes from attorneys' dues.
A national watchdog group, HALT - An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform, said the disciplinary process in Oklahoma is badly underfunded. HALT called for attorneys to use a recent dues increase to deal with "the burgeoning backlog."
Dues for Oklahoma attorneys have been raised for the first time in more than a decade - from $175 to $275 a year. Murdock said there has been no discussion of increasing his budget.
"I think we do a good job with the people that we have," Murdock said.
Last year, 1,070 of the 15,269 attorneys licensed in Oklahoma had grievances made against them.
The Supreme Court disbarred one attorney last year for neglect and approved the resignations of 10 others who faced disciplinary proceedings. Two were suspended for a year; one was suspended for two years and a day.
Most grievances are handled informally and do not end up before the Supreme Court.
Officials said some grievances were cleared by simply getting the attorney and client communicating again. Others were deemed frivolous or involved fee disputes and other issues not subject to sanctions.
"We got a grievance against a lawyer alleging he was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy and that he was involved in the Bay of Pigs and helping the Russian Mafia. ... The lawyer wasn't even born when that happened, so you have to apply some common sense," Murdock said. "We deal with some people who ... have some instability in their lives."
The most common gripe about attorneys is that they neglect cases. Almost half of the grievances opened for investigation last year involved neglect, a report shows.
The Supreme Court is getting tougher on attorneys for sexual misconduct, sanctioning even flirting with clients.
One attorney in 2003 was censured after his divorce client reported he had touched her inappropriately and made other advances. She secretly taped him saying, "There is always that fantasy that your hormones will kick in and I'll get to do lewd and lascivious things to you."
Justices said they want to enforce a "transition from what once, regrettably, may have been tolerated, if not indeed accepted, behavior to new standards of professional etiquette."
Justices in February suspended an attorney for a year for having sex "with a particularly vulnerable client."
Prosecutors said in November they are concerned many attorneys still view consensual relationships as permissible.
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