| ► Attorney Lawrence Newman of Bradenton, FL; greedy loser |
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Attorney Lawrence Newman of Bradenton, FL; greedy loser
The state of Indiana provided Lawrence Todd Newman with a law license in 1987.
The Indiana Disciplinary Commission found Lawrence guilty of the following misconduct.
In one matter, a lady hired Lawrence in regards to a dispute regarding the assets of an estate, but he was not hired concerning the client’s inheritance from the estate. The client instructed Lawrence that she wanted him to seek the removal of the estate’s attorneys, reinstatement of her as co-special administrator of the estate, an accounting of work done for the estate, and appointment of a neutral party to run the Corporation left by the estate. Lawrence agreed to represent the client at $195 an hour, payable only upon receipt of her distribution from the estate, plus 25% of the Corporations distribution.
Three weeks later, the client terminated Lawrence and asked him to send her a statement for the work he had done. The client’s new attorney John Price then sent Lawrence a letter requesting that Lawrence send the client’s file and an invoice for his work to him. The client and Price sent several more letters requesting that Lawrence promptly notify the court of his withdrawal from the case, return the client’s file, and send a statement of his hours. One letter proposed a settlement regarding Lawrence’s fees.
Two weeks later, Lawrence filed a “Notice of Intent to Hold Attorney’s Lien” on his client’s distribution from the estate for his hourly fee plus 25 of any distribution with the trial court. Three years passed before Lawrence provided a two-page summary of the hours he claimed to have spent to Price before he was fired.
Lawrence had the chutzpah to claim that he was entitled to 25% of the $3.5 million that his client received as an inheritance from an estate worth over $20 million even though there was never any dispute that the client would in fact receive at least $3.5 million. The Disciplinary Commission specifically ruled that Lawrence had no colorable claim to assert he was entitled to 25% since there was never any dispute that the client would receive her share of the estate.
Subsequently, Lawrence dropped his 25% fee claim; however, he had the audacity to claim he was entitled to $60,000 for the hours he spent representing the client. This sham claim meant that Lawrence was billing his client $7,000 an hour even though the fee agreement he signed called for an hourly rate of $195.
As a consequence of his misconduct, the cheerleaders for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Indiana Supreme Court punished Lawrence by gifting him with a complimentary 18-month suspension of his law license.
As we speak (ca. December 2012) Lawrence practices with the Lawrence Law Firm at 4102 66th Street in Bradenton, Florida.
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