Former councilor disbarred after withholding money from clients

Disciplinary board finds attorney Ortiz engaged in ‘conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation’

A former Santa Fe city councilor accused of withholding money from law practice clients has been permanently disbarred by the state Supreme Court.

The court took the action against Matthew Ortiz in November following a filing by the state Disciplinary Board, which investigates alleged ethical misconduct by attorneys.

Ortiz represented a south-side district on the City Council for three terms, from 2000 through 2012. He had been licensed to practice law since 1992.

Ortiz has worked as director of the Administrative Law Division of the state Commission of Public Records since 2014, according to online state employee records, which show his annual salary is $69,000. He did not respond to a voicemail Tuesday about the court’s action, first reported by the Santa Fe Reporter.

The Disciplinary Board found that he did not turn over money from a 2015 settlement to a pair of his clients, instead keeping it in his trust account, from which he wrote a check to himself for more than he was owed.

Ortiz took 14 months to pay some $58,000 owed to the clients, having to be ordered several times by the clients’ bankruptcy trustee to hand over the funds. He explained his delays by saying he had sent the funds to the wrong address and wanted to protect his clients from a tax burden, according to the Disciplinary Board.

He failed to pay a sanction levied by a Bankruptcy Court for contempt, the board said. After being suspended from practicing law in January 2017, he did not notify clients of the suspension, the board found, noting he generally failed to cooperate with disciplinary counsel in proceedings stemming from the 2015 case.

At one point, Ortiz paid himself $50,000 from the trust account, some $15,600 more than what the clients owed him, the Disciplinary Board found.

Ortiz, 51, in violating at least six state court rules, engaged in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” and had “dishonest or selfish motive,” the Disciplinary Board wrote. It cited an American Bar Association standard that disbarment is “generally appropriate when a lawyer knowingly converts client property and causes injury or potential injury to a client.”

The five Supreme Court justices were unanimous in concurring on the order to disbar Ortiz. The court also ordered him to submit to an audit of his trust account and notify clients.