The Florida Bar recently announced that the Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 21 attorneys, disbarring four, suspending 12, placing four on probation and reprimanding five. Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline.
None of the attorneys are from the Jacksonville or Northeast Florida area.
The following lawyers are disciplined:
• Albert D. Diamond, 1060 W. 47th St., Miami, permanently disbarred, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 24 court order. Diamond was disbarred in November 1998. However, in 2005, he wrote letters and took other actions that constituted the unlicensed practice of law.
• Manuel Marcelo Arvesu, 201 Alhambra Circle, Suite 502, Coral Gables, disbarred retroactively to June 30, 2006, with leave to seek readmission after five years, pursuant to a May 31 court order. An audit determined that between December 2003 and June 2005 there were large shortages in Arvesu’s trust accounts. Among other things, Arvesu may have commingled personal and operating funds with trust account funds and distributed client funds prior to their collection.
• Paul Robert Golis, 2000 Glades Road, Suite 306, Boca Raton, disbarred, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 10 court order. Golis admitted that he converted to his personal use $223,575 in trust account funds from six clients. Among other things, Golis used client funds to pay a federal tax lien, law firm operating expenses and both corporate and personal credit card debt. Golis agreed to repay to the Clients’ Security Fund all monies paid out as a result of his misconduct as a condition precedent to his eligibility to apply for readmission to The Florida Bar.
• William Lewis Kadish, 500 Old Country Road, Suite 104, Garden City, N.Y., disbarred, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 17 court order. Kadish pled guilty in New York state to grand larceny, a 2nd degree felony. He was sentenced to five years probation and was ordered to pay restitution of $655,035.
• James Joal Birch, 1120 View Pointe Circle, Lake Wales, suspended for 90 days, effective 30 days from a May 10 court order. Birch diverted clients from the law firm that employed him and surreptitiously accepted fees from those cases for himself. He failed to tell clients that they were not represented by the law firm, but by him individually.
• Mark Irwin Blumstein, 4581 Weston Road, No. 203, Weston, suspended, effective 30 days from a May 9 court order. Blumstein failed to produce trust account records compelled by a grievance committee subpoena. He will remain suspended until he certifies full compliance with the subpoena.
• James Francis Cummins, 107 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Suite 5, Inverness, suspended for six months, effective June 15, 2007, and ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution, pursuant to a May 31 court order. Upon reinstatement, Cummins will be placed on probation for two years. Cummins failed to timely remit an overpayment to Citrus County, did not notify clients that he would not personally represent them in court appearances, failed to file an appeal on behalf of a client and failed to diligently represent clients.
• Terence John Daly, 13336 N. Central Ave., Tampa, suspended, effective 30 days from a May 8 court order. Daly failed to produce trust account records compelled by a grievance committee subpoena. He will remain suspended until he certifies full compliance with the subpoena.
• Anne H. Dunlap, 301 S. Monroe St., Suite 401, Tallahassee, suspended for 60 days, effective 30 days from a May 24 court order. Dunlap was an assistant public defender assigned to represent a client in a criminal appeal before the First District Court of Appeal. She failed to communicate with her client regarding the status of his appeal and, ultimately, his appeal was dismissed for failure to file the initial brief. She subsequently represented to the client and her immediate supervisor that she would begin working on the appeal, although she knew the appeal had been dismissed.
• Albert Scott Lagano, P.O. Box 897, Melbourne, suspended on an emergency basis until further order of the court, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 11 court order. In its Petition for Emergency Suspension, The Florida Bar alleged that Lagano “appears to be causing great public harm by misappropriating funds held in trust.” The Bar alleged that Lagano should be holding in trust at least $218,600 from a number of individuals engaged in real estate transactions. However, as of Dec. 31, 2006, the total balance in his accounts contained only $52,333.12.
• R. Patrick Mirk, 1560 W. Cleveland St., Tampa, suspended effective 30 days from a May 14 court order. Mirk failed to produce trust account records compelled by a grievance committee subpoena. He will remain suspended until he certifies full compliance with the subpoena.
• Masha K. Bach, 17768 Maplewood Drive, Boca Raton, reprimanded, pursuant to a May 3 court order. Bach failed to provide her client with a written statement about the outcome of a lawsuit and a remittance and the method of its determination at the conclusion of a contingency fee matter. She also failed to provide a closing statement with itemization of all costs and expenses. Bach also violated Bar rules regarding conflict of interest, as her husband and his business partners were parties to the suit.
• Nancy Faye Lusk, 200 W. Welbourne Ave., Winter Park, reprimanded and placed on probation for one year pursuant to a May 10 court order. Lusk violated a number of Bar rules governing advertising. One ad included an illustration of a shark in attack mode, which is “a deceptive, misleading and manipulative visual depiction or portrayal,” the conditional guilty plea in the case states, in violation of the rules of The Florida Bar.
• Robert Alvarez Rudolph, 8027 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, suspended for 91 days effective 30 days from a May 18 court order. Rudolph accepted a $30,000 fee to finalize the will of a client’s father. He then filed papers to set aside the last will and testament of the client’s father, without discussing this strategy with the client, which put the client at risk of losing $1 million. He also failed to transfer records related to the case to the client’s new lawyer and failed to provide any accounting for the $30,000 retainer fee.
• Robert Alvarez Rudolph, 8027 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, suspended, effective 30 days from a May 18 court order. Rudolph failed to comply with a requirement of a November 2005 “report of minor misconduct” that he execute a rehabilitation contract with Florida Lawyers Assistance, Inc. He also failed to attend a required anger management workshop. Rudolph will remain suspended until he certifies compliance.
• Larry Jay Safron, 12900 S.W. 7th Court, Apt. B-308, Hollywood, suspended for 18 months effective retroactively to Sept. 21, 2006, pursuant to a May 14 court order. Safron entered a no contest plea to felony possession of two controlled substances, heroin and cocaine. At final hearing he gave an account of the events leading to his arrest that is contradicted by the Probable Cause Affidavit that was the basis for his arrest and conviction.
• Rebecca Ann Schernitzki, P.O. Box 325, Milton, suspended for three years, effective 30 days from a May 3 court order. Schernitzki illegally obtained sole ownership of a property jointly owned by her and her boyfriend by causing a forged quit claim deed to be filed. She also misrepresented to the court that she was the sole owner of the property.
• Valerie M. Velella, 609 N.W. 8th St., Dania Beach, suspended for 18 months effective retroactively to Oct. 20, 2006, pursuant to a May 10 court order, and ordered to make restitution of $5,000 to a client. Velella failed to take any significant action in an estate case after accepting a $5,000 fee for her services and failed to communicate with her client.
• James Patrick Woods, 1416 E. Concord St., Orlando, suspended for three years, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 3 court order. Woods accepted new clients and continued to practice law while under a suspension order from the Florida Supreme Court.
• Carol C. Monaco, 35 School St., Andover, Mass., reprimanded pursuant to a May 31 court order. Monaco received a public reprimand in Massachusetts after altering a capias resulting in its being served on the wrong person. The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers concluded that Monaco acted through ignorance and did not intend to deceive the court or the individual.
• James L. Padgett, 3 N. Summit St., Crescent City, to receive a public reprimand and be placed on probation for two years, effective immediately, pursuant to a May 31 court order. Padgett failed to adequately maintain trust account records and to comply with provisions for contingency fee agreements.
• Mark William Van Haasteren, 435 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, reprimanded and placed on probation for one year, pursuant to a May 10 court order. Van Haasteren failed to file an advertisement with a Bar committee and disseminated an ad that contained a deceptive, misleading and manipulative visual depiction or portrayal, in violation of the rules of The Florida Bar. The ad included an illustration of a shark in attack mode.