What is the professional ethics and morality of an attorney who misappropriates client funds?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Bambic v. State Bar, 219 Cal.Rptr. 489, 40 Cal.3d 314, 707 P.2d 862 (Cal. 1985):

The words of this court in Resner v. State Bar, supra, 53 Cal.2d at pages 614-615, 2 Cal.Rptr. 461, 349 P.2d 67 are relevant here: "The records here disclose an unrelenting indifference to the obligations of an attorney by deliberately ... diverting his clients' funds to his own uses and purposes. The violation of the trust which both the individual client and the general public repose in an attorney in the handling of funds entrusted to him is a most grievous breach of professional ethics and morality. An attorney who is shown to have embarked on a course of conduct during which such breaches become commonplace is not entitled to be recommended to the public as a person worthy of trust, and accordingly not entitled to continue to practice law."

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