A Shelbyville lawyer whose legal secretary was convicted of felony theft and fraud charges has been suspended for 60 days for his failure to supervise the secretary’s actions. The secretary was convicted and ordered to make restitution of more than $178,000, including more than $72,000 to her former boss.
The Indiana Disciplinary Commission’s recommended professional sanctions against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill attests to ongoing racial disparities within the state’s legal and criminal justice system.
Monetary sanctions potentially exceeding $100,000 and default judgment have been entered against state defendants and their attorney in a prisoner case that the presiding federal judge said “shattered” her trust in the defendants’ litigation practices.
A Connersville attorney accused of using client funds to pay for her children’s school tuition and of repeatedly making false assertions to the Disciplinary Commission, among numerous other “criminal and dishonest” acts, has been disbarred.
A suspended Greenwood lawyer accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from disabled and injured clients whose special-needs trusts he established and then allegedly used for his own purposes is in jail in Muncie, where he may remain until standing trial on criminal charges around the state. Kenneth “Shane” Service, 46, was booked into the Delaware County Jail on Thursday, according to jail records.
Indiana State Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Krupp announced Monday he will challenge incumbent Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for the Republican Party nomination, saying he will promote “leadership, integrity and results.” Krupp joins a crowded field seeking to topple the embattled AG.
The head of the Indiana Department of Revenue has decided to challenge embattled state Attorney General Curtis Hill’s bid seeking the Republican nomination for the office. Adam Krupp has said he would resign as the revenue department’s commissioner by the end of January to run full-time for attorney general.
Monetary sanctions and default judgment have been entered against state defendants and their attorney in a prisoner case that the presiding federal judge said “shattered” her trust in the defendants’ litigation practices. The judge also imposed new requirements on lawyers in the Indiana Attorney General’s office who defend the Department of Correction in prisoner civil-rights cases.
Law firm managers have long known they can’t require attorneys to sign noncompete agreements when they join a firm. Even so, there have still been instances where firms have made it challenging for a lawyer trying to make a lateral move. But a recent opinion from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility makes it clear that any provision of an employment agreement that interferes with a client’s autonomy is never acceptable.
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission is calling for the suspension of a prominent Indianapolis employment attorney it accused of possessing child pornography in the fallout of a teacher-student sex scandal at Park Tudor High School. His defense team counters that no sanction is warranted.
A Crawfordsville attorney accused of altering photos submitted as evidence in a slip-and-fall case must pay a $1,000 sanction to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The attorney has also self-reported the underlying incident to the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.
Prosecutors say high-profile California attorney Michael Avenatti was over $15 million in debt when he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike, while Avenatti’s lawyers say the money he legally requested to conduct an internal probe of the sportswear giant was a bargain. Both sides made the assertions in court papers filed late Tuesday in advance of a Jan. 22 criminal trial in Manhattan.
A federal appeals court’s reversal of Madison County killer Fredrick Baer’s death sentence was the most-read story on the Indiana Lawyer’s digital edition, www.theindianalawyer.com. Indiana Lawyer readers clicked on stories on our website more than 2.6 million times between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, 2019, according to Google Analytics. Here are the 50 most-viewed story headlines during that time.
The “license rental” model poses several ethical traps. Here are three things you need to know about “license rentals”:
Most Hoosier attorneys will never face a formal disciplinary complaint for misconduct. But in 2019, the bad behavior of a few lawyers resulted in professional sanctions or criminal charges. Here is a look back at some of the most egregious professional lowlights from the past year.
When those in the legal community look back at 2019, they may turn their heads and look forward instead. While the year had bright spots, several sordid sagas dominated the headlines.
A former Fort Wayne bankruptcy lawyer who served a completed a federal prison sentence for embezzling from a client has resigned from the Indiana bar. Randall Stiles, 46, was released from the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute on Oct. 31 after serving a six-month sentence imposed in March for his guilty plea to two counts of bankruptcy fraud and a misdemeanor tax charge.
As the parties await a hearing officer’s report in the lawyer discipline case against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, their competing filings urge the hearing officer to take very different views of the underlying sexual misconduct allegations in making her recommendation to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Competing filings in the disciplinary case against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill call for the Republican AG to face a sanction as severe as a two-year suspension or as little as nothing at all.
With the 2020 party conventions less than a year away, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill’s challenger to become the Republican AG candidate says he has a growing list of supporters within the Indiana GOP.