| ► Attorney Eva Gildee of Columbus, OH; lying crook |
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Attorney Eva Gildee of Columbus, OH; lying crook 
The state of Ohio presented Eva Catherine Gildee with a law license in 2000 after she graduated from The Ohio State University Law School.
The Ohio Supreme Court Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline found Eva guilty of the following misconduct.
Eva was hired by a client to represent his company on a 1/3rd contingent-fee basis in regards to a commercial-lease dispute against a sports club and its owner in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio.
Subsequently the case settled when the defendants agreed to pay Eva’s client a lump-sum payment of $32,500, followed by quarterly payments representing a percentage of the lease payments paid by a new tenant for the next four years. Eva then issued her client a check for $21,669.92, which represented 2/3rds of the $32,500 settlement.
After the defendants obtained a new tenant, Eva received a lease payment from then in an amount below what she and her client expected, given the value of the lease. The client then agreed to hire Eva to pursue a breach of the settlement agreement against the club and its owner. Eva agreed that money owed to her client re: the lease payments would be used as a retainer against which she would charge $175 per hour.
The defendants continued to send Evan lease payments, and her client later decided not to pursue the claim for breach of the settlement agreement. Eva did not deposit all of the lease payments into her client trust account, instead cashing some of them or depositing them into her office operating account.
The contingent fee agreement required Eva to pay $8,347.60 of the lease payments paid by the defendants to her client, but she misappropriated (stole) those funds. Later one, Eva falsely asserted to Disciplinary Counsel that she had advised her client that she was applying a portion of the lease payments to satisfy the client’s outstanding legal fees. At that time, Eva gave Disciplinary Counsel a letter dated Jan 3, 2010, addressed to her client stating she was retracting her prior policy of overlooking fees that he owed her because the client had filed an ethics complaint with Disciplinary Counsel.
Subsequently, Evan admitted that she had created the letter before the July 2011 meeting with Disciplinary Counsel and that she had backdated it to January 3, 2010.
As a consequence of her misconduct, the apologists for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Ohio Supreme Court punished Eva by gifting her with a complimentary1-year suspension of her law license.
As we speak (ca. May 2013) Eva practices with The Law Office of Eva C. Gildee, Ltd. in Columbus, Ohio.
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