Click here for prior pages from the Kentucky Court Report posting attorney disciplinary matters. The Disciplinary Actions can be found at page 8-9 of the May 2015 SCOKY minutes.
Disciplinary matters with links to the full text of the action are below, dated May 14, 2015
KBA vs. JAMES NEAL TILSON
ORDER OF SUSPENSION FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW FOR 3 YEARS.
He is a member of the Arizona bar and has recently been suspended from the practice of law there for numerous ethical violations. The Kentucky Bar Association’s Office of Bar Counsel has filed a petition for reciprocal discipline under Supreme Court Rule 3.435, and has asked this Court to require Tilson to show cause why identical reciprocal discipline against him should not be imposed in Kentucky under Supreme Court Rule 3.435. This Court issued a show-cause order, but Tilson failed to file a response.
Under Kentucky Supreme Court Rule 3.435(4), Tilson shall be subject to identical discipline in the Commonwealth of Kentucky “unless [he] proves by substantial evidence: (a) a lack of jurisdiction or fraud in the out-of-state disciplinary proceeding, or (b) that the misconduct established warrants substantially different discipline in this State.” SCR 3.435(4)(a)-(b). The Arizona order, as a “final adjudication in another jurisdiction that an attorney has been guilty of misconduct[,] shall establish conclusively the misconduct for purposes of a disciplinary proceeding in this State.” SCR 3.435(4)(c).
KBA VS. ERIC C. DETERS
ORDER OF TWO CONSECUTIVE 30 DAY TO BE PUBLISHED SUSPENSIONS FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW.
2015-SC-000023-KB
2015-SC-000025-KB
In two now-consolidated disciplinary actions, the Kentucky Bar Association Board of Governors found Eric C. Deters 1guilty of a number of ethical violations and recommended he be suspended thirty days for each. Deters petitions this Court to strike the Board’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Recommendation because the Board failed to provide its findings to this Court within the time specified under Supreme Court Rules (SCR) 3.370(6). We now deny Deters’s petition and adopt the Board’s recommended thirty-day suspension for each action, to run consecutively.
More specifically, the district judge found Deters “knowingly pursued frivolous claims against these two defendants long after he knew the claims to be such, thereby causing defendants to incur additional litigation costs.” In the end, the district judge ordered Deters to pay $12,765.45.
KBA VS. RUSSELL W. BURGIN
ORDER OF SUSPENSION FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW FOR 181 DAYS WITH CONDITIONS.
The Respondent, Russell W. Burgin,’ is alleged to have committed four violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct. He did not respond to the bar complaint or the resulting formal charge, and thus this matter has proceeded as a default case under Supreme Court Rule 3.210. The Board of Governors has reviewed the matter and has recommended that Burgin be found guilty of all four counts and be suspended from the practice of law for 181 days. This Court accepts the recommendation.
This pattern of misconduct, albeit largely confined to the four-year period leading to Burgin’s suspension in 2013, and Burgin’s noncompliance suggests that yet another suspension will be ineffective. But this Court does not take the Board’s recommendation lightly, and it is apparent from the Board’s recommendation of a mandatory KYLAP referral that Burgin may be suffering from a substance-abuse or other mental health problem, which may have contributed to his misconduct. For these reasons, this Court will not undertake an independent review of this case.
KBA VS. BRIAN PATRICK CURTIS
ORDER OF SUSPENSION FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW FOR 5 YEARS WITH CONDITIONS.
Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule (SCR) 3.360, the Trial Commissioner recommends this Court suspend Brian Patrick Curtis’ (Curtis) for five (5) years from the practice of law to run consecutively with all current suspensions for numerous ethical violations involving four separate Kentucky Bar Association (KBA) charges. Finding sufficient cause to do so, we accept the Trial Commissioner’s recommendation to suspend Curtis from the practice of law for five (5) years; however, that suspension shall run concurrently with Curtis’s ongoing suspension for failure to comply with CLE requirements and consecutively with any other current suspensions.
Curtis’s charges arise from allegations that he: agreed to perform legal services for clients or prospective clients in bankruptcy actions; accepted either full or partial payment of costs and fees; and subsequently failed to perform any services. Furthermore, in all cases, Curtis allegedly failed: to respond to the clients’ inquiries; to return file materials; and to refund unearned portions of fees. Finally, in three of the four cases, Curtis was charged with failing to act with reasonable diligence and promptness.
MARY LOU CHANDLER VS. KBA
ORDER OF PERMANENT DISBARMENT FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW.
Movant, Mary Lou Chandler, KBA No. 11465, 1petitions this Court to resign under the terms of permanent disbarment. The Kentucky Bar Association (KBA) has no objection to Chandler’s motion. Movant was temporarily suspended pursuant to SCR 3.166(1) 2on December 20, 2014, and remains suspended at this time.
Movant entered a guilty plea in the Johnson County Circuit Court in the matter of Commonwealth v. Mary Lou Chandler, Case No. 14-CR-00152 to one count of Complicity to Trafficking in a Controlled Substance, a Class D Felony. Movant was sentenced to two years in prison, to be probated for five years. Under the terms of Movant’s plea agreement, she must give up her membership with the Kentucky Bar Association and agree to no longer practice law in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
