This Court suspended the authorization of Nakata S. Smith Fitch Bar No. 262068 to practice law for a period of one year, beginning on May 31, 2011, for conduct in 2005 to 2007 that violated Rules 1.15 I and II, 1.3, and 1.4 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct contained in Bar Rule 4-102 d. See In the Matter of Fitch, 289 Ga. 253 710 SE2d 563 2011. We imposed two conditions on Smith Finch’s authorization to practice law thereafter: 1 her attendance, prior to reinstatement, at an Ethics School offered by the State Bar; and 2 her submission to an evaluation by the State Bar’s Law Practice Management Program, at her expense and with successful implementation of the resulting recommendations, within six months of reinstatement. See id. at 256. Smith Fitch has not fulfilled either of these conditions and thus remains suspended.
The disciplinary matter now at issue arose out of Smith Fitch’s involvement in a conservatorship case beginning in August 2008. In November 2008, Smith Fitch filed a petition for letters of conservatorship on behalf of a mother and step-father whose minor child received $344,756.77 in life insurance proceeds upon the death of the child’s father. The probate court entered a final order in May 2009, and in June 2009, Smith Fitch filed the required annual return for the estate indicating that she had disbursed $20,935.40 from the minor’s estate to herself for legal fees and expenses. After reviewing the return, the probate court set a show cause hearing for December 2, 2009, to address these disbursements. In August 2010, Smith Fitch relocated to New York. On September 15, 2010, the court entered an order finding that almost 30 of the fees and expenses that Smith Fitch paid herself were unreasonable. The court ordered her to reimburse the minor’s estate $6,002.50 within 30 days. Smith Fitch appealed that order, but the Court of Appeals affirmed it in May 2011—the same month that this Court suspended her authorization to practice law for one year. Six months later, in November 2011, the probate court held Smith Finch in contempt of court for willfully disobeying the order to reimburse the minor’s estate $6,002.50 and for failing to pay court costs of $1,260.
