The Iowa Supreme Court revokes the license of an attorney who took funds from a client’s estate. In Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Sharpe (Iowa No. 24-0424, October 4, 2024).
The highest court of Iowa reviews the report of the Iowa Supreme Court Grievance Commission, which recommends revoking an attorney’s law license. The attorney, Rebecca Sharpe, represented the estate of Evelyn Haack. Ms. Haack intended to leave $100,000 to her church, but Ms. Sharpe never notified the church. Using small payments and concealing her actions, Ms. Sharpe took more than $65,000 from the estate in excess of her attorney fees.
When Ms. Sharpe attempted to contact the accountant who had handled the decedent’s taxes, he never responded. She misrepresented to the probate court that the estate owed no taxes and was late filing them, incurring penalties.
Agreeing with the Grievance Commission, the Supreme Court finds that Ms. Sharpe violated several rules of professional conduct.
She violated Rule 32:8.4(b), which prohibits criminal acts, even without a criminal conviction, as she broke Iowa law by stealing from the estate. By lying and hiding her theft, Ms. Sharpe also violated rule 32:8.4(c), which targets dishonest conduct.
Rule 32:1.15(a) and Iowa Rule 45.1 mandates that lawyers hold client funds in a separate account. Because she took more than $65,000 over her fees from her client and because she commingled these funds with her property and kept firm funds in the client trust account, Ms. Sharpe violated these rules.
Under Rule 32:1.15(d) and Iowa Court Rule 45.2(2), a lawyer must notify the client when receiving client funds, promptly deliver the funds to the client, and render an accounting. Ms. Sharpe breached these rules by misappropriating client funds.
Iowa Court Rule 45.7(3) and Rule 32:1.15(c) require attorneys to deposit fees into a trust account until earned. By withdrawing unearned funds from the estate without court approval, Ms. Sharp broke these rules.
Her delays with handling the estate taxes breached Rule 32:1.3, which prohibits repeated failures to meet deadlines. Even though she attempted to contact an accountant, she never heard back from him and lied to the court. As a result, the estate incurred significant tax penalties.
Ms. Sharpe’s dishonesty also triggered Rule 32:3.3(a)(1), which bars making false statements to the court, as she knowingly misrepresented information about the taxes in the probate court proceedings.
Per Iowa Rule of Professional Conduct 32:1.15(a) and Iowa Court Rules 45.2(3)(a)(4) and (9), and 45.7(4), an attorney must keep adequate records. She violated these rules by failing to provide written notice to clients about her withdrawals, failing to perform monthly triple reconciliations, and failing to maintain complete and accurate records.
While there is no standard sanction for attorney misconduct, the Iowa Supreme Court has repeatedly revoked attorney licenses for converting client funds without a colorable future claim. Here, the conversion was egregious, and subsequent reimbursements do not rectify it. When an attorney has converted client funds sans a colorable future claim, the court need not consider mitigating and aggravating factors. However, in this case, Ms. Sharpe violated multiple rules, caused harm, and did not cooperate with the Board.
The highest court of Iowa revokes Ms. Sharpe’s license to practice law.
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