Board: Lawyer should lose law license for misconduct

A disciplinary board says Columbus lawyer Brian Harter should be permanently disbarred for what it deems an ongoing pattern of misconduct in handling client funds.

Following a hearing on the misconduct charges, the Board of Professional Conduct recommended to the Ohio Supreme Court that Harter forever lose his law license.

While handling workers’ compensation cases, Harter would personally pick up checks payable to his clients, cash them at a convenience store and spend some of the money on personal expenses, according to the board’s filing Monday.

He would delay turning the money over to clients and in one case said $3,500 in cash he planned to give to a client was stolen from his parked car, the filing said.

Harter also was accused of mishandling cases involving a divorce and an appeal in a criminal case.

The board also recommended that Harter be ordered to pay $1,867 in restitution to four clients who never received full payment of the funds they were owed.

The board also noted that Harter’s law license once was suspended for failing to pay child support and that he was indicted in 2014 in Franklin County for drug trafficking and possession of drugs.

Harter received intervention in lieu of conviction in the criminal case, conditioned on attending weekly sessions with therapists and receiving treatment for opioid addiction. But he never arranged to receive therapy or treatment. Harter said he resolved his drug addiction without treatment.