| ► Attorney Laura Cannon-Ordile of Waltham, MA; ethical dwarf |
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Attorney Laura Cannon-Ordile of Waltham, MA; ethical dwarf
The Massachusetts Supreme Court presented Laura Cannon-Ordile with a law license in 1988.
The Board of Bar Overseers found Laura guilty of the following misconduct.
A brother and sister hired Laura to handle the estate of their mother who died several months earlier. The probate estate consisted of $175,000 in bank deposits and a car. In her will and two codicils, the mother left all her property to her grandchildren and nominated an attorney and a bank as executors. A third codicil executed by the deceased mother deleted those nominations without any substitutions.
The clients gave Laura the will and three codicils and told her they wanted to be appointed as administrators. The clients retained custody of their mother’s bank books and the car. Laura didn’t ask the clients whether the bank accounts were joint or in the mother’s name only. Laura failed to advise the clients that the funds had to be held unless the mother had designated and intended the accounts as joint accounts and that distribution of the funds had to be approved by the probate court.
Nearly two years passed and Laura failed to deliver the will and codicils to the probate court as required by Massachusetts law, or take any action of substance on behalf of her clients.
Three years later, the clients, without legal right or authority and without Laura’s prior knowledge, withdrew $141,000 from their mother’s accounts. The clients then delivered the $141,000 to Laura and told her that their mother expressed a wish to set up a trust for the education of their grandchildren, the mother’s great-grandchildren, and that she could also pay her fees and expenses from $141,100.
As a result of Laura’s gross negligence and incompetence, the mother’s estate incurred unnecessary expenses and undue delays in disbursing funds to the grandchildren to defray college expenses.
As a consequence of his misconduct, the apologists for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Board of Overseers punished Laura by gifting her with a complimentary reprimand.
As we speak (ca. December 2012) Laura continues to practice at 685 Main Street in Waltham, Massachusetts.
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