The Great Recession left a wake of disbarred attorneys in Florida who lost their licenses after dipping into client trust funds in order to keep their practices afloat.

Florida Bar data reviewed by the Daily Business Review showed client theft-related disbarments after the recession increased by nearly 88 percent, peaking at 47 disbarments in 2010. It often takes a year or more for the state Supreme Court to issue a final disciplinary order once the Florida Bar is notified of a possible trust account violation. That means disbarments for recession-era conduct came slightly after the economic downturn.

The recession lasted from December 2007 through June 2009, according to the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research. Many attorneys lost business during the recession as companies and families struggled to balance their checkbooks.

“This was the height of the financial crisis in Florida, and it gave rise to discipline cases for trust account violations as well as issues involving consumer fraud,” the bar said in a statement.

Given that there are more than 106,000 attorneys in Florida, the number of those who stole from clients during the recession is minuscule. But following the bar's client trust account rules is sacrosanct—and any violations cut to the heart of the profession, said Florida Bar Board of Governors member Dennis Kainen.

“If members of the public can't rely on their lawyers, then the profession will ultimately cease to exist as we know it,” said Kainen, a partner at Weisberg Kainen Mark in Miami.

What Causes Lawyers to Steal?

When money gets tight, some lawyers think they can dip into their client trust accounts—just for $10,000 or so, until they can pay their bills.

“They'll move money over, thinking in a couple days they're going to replenish it,” said Miami attorney Andrew Berman, who represents lawyers facing bar complaints. “Often, they don't.”

After the first theft, “the seal is broken,” the Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez senior partner said. Subsequent ”borrowing” gets easier and easier, until the attorney is too far behind to make up the difference.

Jack Weiss, a bar discipline defense lawyer in Tallahassee, also said the few cases he's seen in the past decade involving severe trust account violations have been “a direct result of [lawyers] using their trust account as an interest-free loan account.”

“That's grossly improper,” said Weiss, of counsel at Rumberger Kirk & Caldwell. “You just don't do that.”

Other times, attorneys who steal aren't squeezed for cash at all—they just think they can get away with it, defense lawyers said.

Particularly for real estate and personal injury attorneys, who often have six- or seven-figure trust account balances, it can be a while before a bounced check or a client complaint tips off the bar to a possible problem. Banks report insufficient funds in client trust accounts directly to the Florida Bar.

For instance, Fort Myers attorney Joseph Troiano agreed to disbarment in February 2010, shortly after SunTrust Bank sent five notices of insufficient funds in the firm's trust account in one week. One client who had $450,000 held in trust could not clear a $10,000, according to the bar.

It turned out the real estate and tax attorney took about $2.5 million from the trust account, according to his plea agreement in criminal court. Troiano was investing client funds in a Costa Rican real estate project, a scheme that began in 2008, according to the indictment.

Stealing from trust accounts is also more common among solo practitioners and small firms, particularly given a 2014 bar rule amendment making each lawyer in a firm responsible for reporting knowledge accounting issues.

“I can't say I've ever seen a firm where two people got their hands in the cookie jar,” said Kevin Tynan, a Tamarac attorney with Richardson & Tynan, who began defending lawyers in 2000 after 13 years as Florida Bar counsel.