Law conduct panel suspends 2

1 attorney from Texas, other from Maumelle; 3rd reprimanded

In decisions released Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct suspended the law licenses of Maumelle attorney James M. Dendy and Austin, Texas, attorney Margaret Ingle, and reprimanded Jonesboro attorney Garland L. Watlington.

U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright forwarded information to the committee about Dendy in February after he failed to show up at a sentencing hearing for a client, apparently abandoning the client in mid-case. Wright relieved Dendy in his absence and appointed Little Rock attorney John W. Hall to represent the client.

Hall filed a grievance in April stating that Dendy had been assisted in the case by former attorney Kenneth G. Fuchs, whose license was surrendered in 2003, and that the client had met with both men on the case while making most of his fee payments to Dendy through Fuchs.

Fuchs avoided disciplinary proceedings into a complaint of “serious misconduct” by surrendering his license in 2003, at which time he was barred from practicing law in the state and prohibited from having any contact with clients of any other attorney.

The committee found that Dendy failed to provide competent representation to the client after being paid $6,000 of a quoted $7,500 fee, and abandoned the client without refunding any of the unearned fee. He also should not have allowed Fuchs to work on the case, the committee said.

Citing several violations of the rules of professional conduct, the committee suspended Dendy’s license for two years, noting that his lack of a prior disciplinary record was a factor in determining his punishment. For his failure to file any response to the complaint before the committee, he was also sanctioned with a reprimand.

Ingle, who is licensed to practice law in both Texas and Arkansas, self-reported to the Arkansas committee that she had been disciplined in Texas, the committee said. Documents the committee later received from Texas showed that she had agreed to a 4-year suspension of her license, with just one month being an “active suspension” and the rest to be “probated suspension on conditions.”

Because requirements for a reciprocal sanction in Arkansas are met, the committee said, it imposed an active one-month suspension of Ingle’s Arkansas law license, as well. The order of suspension doesn’t say why Ingle’s license was suspended in Texas.

Watlington was reprimanded by the committee, assessed $100 in costs and fined $1,000 in response to a grievance submitted to the Office of Professional Conduct in April 2009 by a former client.

The information in the woman’s grievance led to a review of her trust account, resulting in the formal complaint, the committee said.

In 2006, Watlington had the woman sign a contract to represent her in connection with a minor vehicle accident in 2005. The personal injury case was settled in February 2008 for $15,000, which was paid in two checks deposited into Watlington’s trust account, the committee said.

The woman eventually complained to the committee that she had received no funds from the settlement, and the committee demanded an explanation from Watlington, who provided trust account records and said he had placed the remaining funds of the settlement, after collecting his fee, into the registry of the Baxter County Circuit Court.

The committee investigated and found that the funds had not been properly safeguarded, which Watlington attributed to a failure to keep appropriate records as opposed to any intentional misappropriation of funds.

The committee penalized him for failing to hold his client’s personal injury funds separate from his own property, noting that at some point her funds had been removed, as evidenced by the balance of the account four months after the funds had been deposited.