SPECIAL REPORT
Second Of Three Parts
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Consequences of misconduct
leave lives in shamblesFund covers losses from legal misdeeds
Laughing at lawyers becomes popular pastimeBy Rob Perez
rperez@starbulletin.comJust mention the names. And recall the headlines.
A three-part series
Day 1 | Day 3Tom Foley.
Gary Modafferi.
Andy Mirikitani.
And now Jon Yoshimura.
Thanks to a string of high-profile cases that have cast Hawaii lawyers in a spotlight of shame the past several years, the profession has taken a public-relations pounding.
Yoshimura, the City Council chairman who learned last week he faces a possible six-month suspension from practicing law for lying about a 1999 traffic accident, is only the latest in that string.
Yet many other cases involving more egregious conduct, affecting more people, have unfolded over the same period while receiving little media attention.
Take the misdeeds of Thomas J. Carney Jr., an attorney who voluntarily resigned from the profession in early 1997 rather than face disciplinary proceedings for professional misconduct.
His troubles with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the agency that investigates ethical misconduct, barely registered on the media radar screen.
But they should have.
A handful of former clients accused him of negotiating settlements of tens of thousands of dollars for their personal-injury cases and then keeping all the money.
The Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, established by the Hawaii Supreme Court but bankrolled by the industry, has paid more than $137,000 to seven former Carney clients since 1997.
In all seven cases the fund trustees ruled the losses were a result of the attorney's dishonest conduct, a finding required for any reimbursements.
One ex-client told the fund he picked Carney from a phone book ad and retained the lawyer to handle his personal-injury case following a motorcycle accident.
Carney eventually reached a $50,000 settlement with the insurance company, but the victim said he never received any of the money.
The fund trustees awarded him nearly $34,000, basically the settlement amount minus the one-third fee he had agreed to pay Carney to handle the case.
Carney, his whereabouts unknown, could not be reached for comment.
A Star-Bulletin review of client-fund and ODC cases over the past five years turned up numerous other examples of serious lawyer misconduct.
And while many of the cases involved theft of client funds, some had more to do with client neglect or other types of unethical behavior that still cost victims dearly.
Of course, the vast majority of Hawaii's lawyers will never get into trouble with the ODC, staying clear of any ethical quagmires.
But for the tiny minority who do cross the line and get caught, the consequences can be severe.
Ruined careers. Broken marriages. Jail time. Shattered reputations.
"It's very humiliating," said one attorney who has been suspended before. "Your life becomes hell."
Some of the most severely punished attorneys leave the islands, wanting to escape the lingering embarrassment of a disbarment or resignation. The case files are replete with examples of attorneys facing sanctions who disappeared without leaving any forwarding addresses.
Some of the disciplined lawyers also seemed ill equipped to handle the rigors of a high-stress, highly competitive profession during rough economic times.
Studies done elsewhere have shown that lawyers are much more likely to suffer from depression than the population at large and are more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs.
Peter Donahoe, who runs a program to assist Hawaii attorneys having difficulty coping with the pressures of the job, said the studies' conclusions would definitely apply to the Hawaii market as well.
Lance A. DuBos would be a case in point.
DuBos represented a couple who won a $75,000 judgment in a lawsuit. Because of DuBos' neglect in doing the paperwork for the judgment, the case eventually was dismissed, and the couple never got their money.
During the period he was representing the couple, DuBos later told the ODC, he was suffering from depression, spent little time in his office and withdrew from outside contact with all but close friends.
As the ODC pursued its case against DuBos, he disappeared. A sheriff's deputy told the agency he believed DuBos moved to Thailand to play in a band. DuBos was disbarred in August 1997.
Disbarred that same month was Richard C. Post, who also cited depression as one reason to explain his misconduct.
According to the ODC's findings, Post received $10,000 from a couple to settle a lawsuit against them, but he used the money for his benefit instead.
At one point, Post's trust account for holding client funds was overdrawn by about $146,000, the filing said.
In a May 1997 letter to the agency, Post said his poor health, severe depression and serious financial straits contributed to "the problems I have caused my clients."
The client protection fund has since paid $60,000 in claims to former Post clients.
The higher rates of depression among lawyers reflect in part how the profession has changed over the years, attorneys say.
It is less collegial, more competitive, more procedure-oriented. Some lawyers have problems coping in such an environment, eventually becoming unhappy and dissatisfied with the work. Often, their law practices struggle financially.
If they then run afoul of the disciplinary system, some will throw in the towel "because there's nothing to fight for. Their practice is not worth the effort of keeping it alive," said Donahoe of the lawyers' assistance program.
Drug or alcohol problems also play a factor in many discipline cases.
A Honolulu deputy prosecutor was arrested in 1996 for forging prescriptions to feed a codeine addiction developed years earlier while a police officer. His addiction developed after he was the target of two assassination attempts by Hawaii mobsters.
The attorney, who no longer is a prosecutor, was suspended from practicing law for six months. His suspension attracted minimal press coverage.
That wasn't the case when Foley, Modafferi, Mirikitani or Yoshimura got into trouble.
Foley was a prominent Honolulu attorney who was convicted for the 1995 drunken-driving killing of a man waiting for a stoplight.
Modafferi, a former deputy prosecutor, was sentenced to three months in prison in 1998 for distributing crystal methamphetamine.
Mirikitani, a former city councilman, was sentenced in December to a four-year sentence for a kickback and extortion scheme.
The Hawaii Supreme Court now has to decide what sanction to impose on Yoshimura.
As damaging as those cases have been to the image of Hawaii lawyers, not everyone has become jaded.
Henry Dietz has every reason to be. In 1998 he hired an attorney to do the legal work so Dietz could be appointed guardian for his elderly wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was no longer mentally competent.
For about the next year, the attorney did nothing for Dietz, even as his wife's health continued to deteriorate.
The lawyer also neglected other cases. He was suspended for one year and a day.
Dietz said the experience hasn't soured him on lawyers.
"In any kind of profession, you'll run across people like that," he said. "My wife's in a nursing home now receiving good care. That's really all I was after anyway."
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It's a fund of last resort. Fund covers losses from
legal misdeedsMore than $700,000 in claims has
been paid to clients hurt by
lawyers since 1995By Rob Perez
rperez@starbulletin.comHawaii residents who suffer losses because of the dishonest conduct of their local attorneys can apply for reimbursement through the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, which is bankrolled through fees paid by practicing attorneys here.
Claims are considered only if the client cannot get reimbursed through any other source, such as the attorney or an insurance carrier.
The fund also doesn't cover losses resulting from attorney negligence or malpractice, and the attorney must have been disbarred, suspended or voluntarily resigned from the profession, or fit one of several other categories, including being bankrupt.
Since 1995 the fund has paid out more than $700,000 in claims. No single claim can exceed $50,000.
There's also a cap per attorney. The fund will only pay up to $150,000 for claims arising from one attorney's dishonest conduct.
David A. Bufalini, who was disbarred in 1994, has the dubious distinction of being the only lawyer or former lawyer to have reached the cap, and that happened in just one year.
In 1996 the fund paid a little more than $150,000 to 11 former clients of Bufalini, whose whereabouts are unknown and who could not be reached for comment. A Web search for a phone number for Bufalini turned up nothing.
Only clients of two other former attorneys, Thomas J. Carney Jr. and Glenn H. Kobayashi, have collected more than $100,000 from the fund since 1995. Phone numbers for those two also could not be located.
A five-member board of trustees appointed by the Hawaii Supreme Court makes all decisions about claim payments.
The high court established the fund as a way to help protect the legal profession's reputation from being damaged by dishonest lawyers.
"The legal profession depends upon the trust of clients," says a fund brochure. "In the very small number of cases where lawyers betray that trust and improperly handle client funds or property, it is important that the legal profession's reputation for honesty be maintained and protected by helping injured clients recover their losses."
Claim forms can be obtained through the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which provides administrative services for the fund. The phone number is 599-2483.
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Do you know why lawyers are buried at a depth of at least 20 feet? Laughing at lawyers
becomes popular pastimeThe occupation is among the
most maligned nationwideBy Rob Perez
rperez@starbulletin.comBecause deep down, lawyers aren't all bad!
Ha, ha.
With maybe one or two exceptions, there's probably no other profession that is the butt of so many jokes as lawyers.
Everybody loves to pick on them.
Lawyers also are not among the most highly regarded occupations, either -- probably down there with used-car salesmen and journalists.
Why do lawyers make such easy targets?
Lawyers have several theories:
If you need a lawyer, you're typically facing some kind of jam. And if it involves going to court, that means you have a 50 percent chance of losing.
If you win, the facts were on your side.
If you lose, your lawyer blew it.
"It's easy to blame the attorney," said Carroll Taylor, chairman of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
There's also the perception that lawyers are greedy, that they'll do anything it takes to win a case.
So just how much do people like to pick on lawyers?
Here's one measure: A Web search for "lawyer jokes" produced 211,000 hits.
Engineer jokes: 73,800. Accountants: 19,200. Reporters: 85,100.
The most popular targets?
Doctors: 314,000 hits.
The legal profession has a fund for reimbursing clients who suffered financial losses because of their attorneys' dishonest conduct. Here are the attorneys -- no longer practicing -- who accumulated the highest claims paid to their ex-clients since 1995: Distinction of dishonor
Name No. of clients Total paid David A. Bufalini 11 $151,023 Thomas J. Carney Jr. 7 $137,701 Glenn H. Kobayashi 6 $104,415 Riccio M. Tanaka 5 $68,601 Richard C. Post 2 $60,000 Bruce A. Masunaga 4 $29,173 Robert P. Goldberg 5 $26,500 Source: Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection
On a per capita basis, Hawaii in 1999 was near the middle of the pack in terms of the number of lawyers practicing in each state. Here's how we compare with the top states and the District of Columbia, based on 2000 population figures: Lawyers, lawyers everywhere
DISTRICT / STATE Lawyers per capita Washington, D.C. 12 New Jersey 124 Connecticut 126 Massachusetts 155 Illinois 172 Hawaii 316 U.S. 245 Source: American Bar Association, U.S. Census Bureau
