In re Placide
| Decision Date | 12 April 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 201,639-1,201,639-1 |
| Citation | 414 P.3d 1124,190 Wash.2d 402 |
| Parties | In the MATTER OF the DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDING AGAINST Carllene M. PLACIDE, an Attorney at Law. |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
Kurt M. Bulmer, Attorney at Law, 740 Belmont Pl. E Apt. 3, Seattle, WA, 98102-4442 for Appellant.
Scott G. Busby, WSBA, 1325 4th Ave. Ste. 600, Seattle, WA, 98101-2539 for Respondent.
¶ 1 Attorney Carllene M. Placide appeals the unanimous recommendation of the Washington State Bar Association Disciplinary Board (Board) that she be disbarred from the practice of law. The misconduct charged includes misappropriation, repeated lying, failure to deposit flat fees received from clients into a trust account, failure to deliver property to which a third party was entitled, and charging an unreasonable fee. We uphold the Board's unanimous recommendation and disbar Placide.
¶ 2 Placide was admitted to the practice of law in 1999. In November 2006, Placide joined the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP as a "non-equity" partner with base yearly compensation of $225,000. Decision Papers (DP) at 51 (Hr'g Officer's Am. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, & Recommendation (AFFCLR) ). Placide's practice emphasized labor and employment law and immigration law. Dorsey had a firm policy stating that all compensation received by Dorsey partners, associates, or other attorneys was property of the firm. That policy states, in relevant part:
Checks for legal services should be made payable to the Firm, and in any instance in which a check for legal or any other services representing compensation which is the property of the Firm is made payable to an individual payee, it should be endorsed immediately by the individual payee to the order of the Firm and delivered to the Finance Department with the Check for Deposit form. Similarly, any cash or other property representing any such compensation should be delivered immediately to the Finance Department with the appropriate identification.
Office of Disciplinary Counsel's (ODC) Ex. A-109, at 20. Placide knew of these policies and agreed to comply with them by signing the offer of employment letter. For several years prior to 2011 and while a partner at Dorsey, she represented individual immigration clients who hired her personally (outside clients) and who paid her directly. She failed to disclose the existence of these clients to Dorsey. Placide attempted to conduct conflict checks, but those attempts were "wholly inadequate." DP at 53 (AFFCLR). She retained the funds she received as compensation from her outside clients instead of turning them over to Dorsey. She represented outside clients on a flat fee basis, with fees and expenses paid in advance. Placide's engagement letters or agreements with outside clients failed to include the language required by RPC 1.5(f)(2) in order to designate such fees as the lawyer's property on receipt. She failed to deposit funds she received from outside clients in a trust account as required by RPC 1.5(f) and RPC 1.15A(c)(2); she did not have an interest on lawyer's trust account and either retained or deposited into a personal bank account all such payments. On at least one occasion, Placide was unable to refund unearned fees to a client because she failed to deposit and hold those funds in a trust account.
¶ 3 Placide occasionally used Dorsey's office space, equipment, e-mail, letterhead, and the time and labor of Dorsey employees when working on outside client matters. She attempted to conceal her representation of outside clients while at Dorsey. In November 2011, Dorsey representatives learned about Placide's outside clients. Dorsey's internal investigation revealed that Placide had received more than $56,700 in fees from outside clients. At a November 8, 2011 meeting with Dorsey representatives, Placide repeatedly denied representing outside clients. Each time the Dorsey administrators presented Placide with an e-mail or other document that showed her contact with outside clients, she would admit to representing that client, but no others. Placide claims that "under the pressure of the moment some of her statements were inaccurate but denies there was any intent to deceive." Opening Br. of Appellant at 4-5.
¶ 4 Dorsey terminated its relationship with Placide around November 14, 2011. The separation agreement shows that Placide agreed to repay Dorsey $50,923 by December 30, 2012, a sum that included $56,700 in fees that Placide received from outside clients and also certain benefits that Placide had already received from Dorsey, less any November partnership income already paid to Placide. Dorsey filed an ethics complaint against Placide, alleging that Placide operated her off-the-books practice from Dorsey's Seattle office, made significant efforts to hide the practice from others in the office, was dishonest, and violated trust account procedures for unearned fees.
¶ 5 Placide did not complete the work she agreed to perform for client P.S., an outside client, before her separation from Dorsey. P.S. paid a $2,500 flat fee to Placide to perform work on an immigration matter. Dorsey attorneys completed the work instead. After learning that other Dorsey attorneys had completed the work, Placide asked P.S. if she should return his fee, and P.S. indicated that he wanted Placide to give the fee to Dorsey. Placide nevertheless did not return those funds to Dorsey, claiming that the funds were covered by the above-referenced separation agreement.
¶ 6 Prior to November 2011, and while still a partner at Dorsey, Placide was in contact with the law firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart regarding potentially leaving Dorsey and joining Ogletree. Although Placide believes she was terminated by Dorsey at least in part because Dorsey found out about her intention to move her practice to Ogletree, the hearing officer found no evidence that Dorsey was aware of Placide's contacts with that firm. Placide falsely told Ogletree representatives that Dorsey had terminated her because it had learned of her discussions about moving her practice to Ogletree. In December 2011, Placide accepted employment with Ogletree as a shareholder. While Ogletree had no written policy prohibiting shareholders from representing clients in legal matters outside of the firm, it intended and expected its shareholders to provide legal services exclusively for Ogletree clients. The hearing officer found that Placide knew of this expectation but began representing outside clients as she had at Dorsey, and had performed legal services for at least seven outside clients.
¶ 7 Placide received fees equal to at least $10,000 from outside clients while at Ogletree, did not disclose those clients to Ogletree, and did not maintain a trust account to hold those outside clients' payments. She deposited all fees into her personal bank account. She did not perform conflict checks before representing those clients; no evidence exists that her client engagement letters complied with RPC 1.5(f)(2). Placide did not discuss with her outside clients, either at Dorsey or Ogletree, whether their fees would be placed in a trust account, where the funds would be deposited, or the fact that their flat fee arrangement did not alter the client's right to terminate the client-lawyer relationship. In November 2012, Dorsey notified Ogletree that it had filed an ethics complaint against Placide. When Ogletree's general counsel contacted Placide to discuss the Dorsey ethics complaint, Placide repeatedly lied, stating that Dorsey had approved her representation of outside clients and that Dorsey terminated her because it became aware of the discussions with Ogletree regarding potential employment.
¶ 8 Ogletree requested that Placide provide a copy of her Dorsey separation agreement, reviewed Placide's Ogletree e-mails, and discovered that Placide had performed legal services for at least seven or eight outside clients. Ogletree representatives then met with Placide without disclosing the purpose of the meeting in advance. At that meeting, Placide acknowledged that she knew she was prohibited from representing outside clients while at Ogletree, initially denied representing outside clients while at Ogletree, and then admitted to representing outside clients when shown documentary evidence.
¶ 9 In January 2013, Placide and Ogletree entered into a settlement agreement, in which Placide promised to pay to Ogletree a specified amount based on the payments she received from her outside clients. The hearing officer noted that Placide had made no payments pursuant to the agreed-upon schedule as of the time of the disciplinary hearing.
¶ 10 The ODC charged Placide with eight counts of misconduct:
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