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Attorney’s license suspended for two years due to multiple conduct violations

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News

Published: April 29, 2016

Last week, the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Disciplinary Counsel imposed a two-year law license suspension on a West Chester attorney who was charged with 31 violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct and one violation of the Rules for the Government of the Bar.

The attorney, Jesse Jackson Jr., began his misconduct about a year after his admission to the practice of law in 2010.

According to the Supreme Court’s summary of the case, Jackson began employment with the law firm of Caparella-Kraemer & Associates in May 2011 after his work as a sole practitioner.

As an associate, Jackson was to handle bankruptcy and probate matters and agreed to close his other law offices and to split equally with the firm all fees for work he performed.

Five months in, the firm discovered that Jackson had not closed his other offices and was not sharing fees for court-appointed and other work he had performed.

As a result, criminal charges were brought against Jackson and he was found guilty of petty theft before being sentenced to three years of community control and ordered to pay fines and restitution.

But the investigation into Jackson’s failure to share fees uncovered a pattern of more serious misconduct.

The law firm found that Jackson failed to complete work he had been hired to do in six bankruptcy matters, that he had been misusing his Interest on Lawyers Trust Account, or IOLTA, that he failed to provide competent representation to a client and then attempted to settle with her after she filed a grievance and that he attempted to initiate a sexual relationship with a client and engaged in a sexual relationship with another client.

In a consent to discipline agreement, Jackson stipulated to most of the facts alleged in the complaint against him which included charging excessive fees, making false statements and failure to respond to a demand for information during an investigation.

“The parties stipulate that the applicable mitigating factors include the absence of a prior disciplinary record and Jackson’s acknowledgment that his actions were improper,” the high court’s opinion states.

The Supreme court noted that Jackson was not initially cooperative in the investigation into his IOLTA account but it counted his appearance at multiple depositions and eventual disclosure of his actions as mitigating evidence.

As for the aggravating factors, the parties agreed that Jackson acted with a selfish and dishonest motive, that there was a patter of misconduct and that he failed to pay restitution.

“Based on Jackson’s stipulated misconduct and these factors, the parties agree that the appropriate sanction for Jackson’s misconduct is a two-year suspension from the practice of law with reinstatement conditioned on the payment of restitution in the amount of $15,329.77 as well as a two-year period of monitored probation once Jackson is reinstated to the practice of law,” the Supreme Court wrote.

In adopting the recommended sentence, the high court agreed that Jackson violated several Rules of Professional Conduct.

“Accordingly, Jesse Jackson Jr. is hereby suspended from the practice of law for a period of two years, with reinstatement conditioned on the payment of restitution to Caparella-Kraemer & Associates, LLC, in the amount of $5,700, to the estate of Leonetta Jackson in the amount of $8,629.77, and to Sharon Allen in the amount of $1,000,” the Supreme Court concluded. “In addition, upon reinstatement, Jackson shall serve a two-year period of monitored probation pursuant to Gov.Bar.R. V(21).”

The case is cited Disciplinary Counsel v. Jackson, Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-1599.

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