In the Matter of Amjad M. Ibrahim

This Court recently rejected a petition for voluntary discipline filed by Amjad Muhammad Ibrahim State Bar No. 382516 to resolve a client grievance. See In the Matter of Ibrahim, 291 Ga. 94 727 SE2d 501 2012 Ibrahim I. Ibrahim then filed an amended petition for voluntary discipline agreeing to accept up to an 18-month suspension with conditions on reinstatement to resolve that grievance and a new, unrelated grievance that was still at the screening stage with the State Bar. The special master, James H. Cox, agreed to accept Ibrahim’s amended petition and recommended the 18-month suspension with conditions as discipline for Ibrahim’s admitted violations of Rules 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.15 I and II of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct. See Bar Rule 4-102 d. The maximum sanction for a single violation of Rules 1.2, 1.3, or 1.15 is disbarment.

The facts underlying the initial grievance and related violations of Rules 1.2 and 1.15 I and II are set out in Ibrahim I. See 291 Ga. at 94-95. With regard to the new grievance, Ibrahim admits that in June 2010, a man paid him $2,730 for immigration filing fees for a petition for citizenship for the man and his wife. Ibrahim deposited the money in a “filing fees account,” which was not an IOLTA account and which contained both client and firm funds. Ibrahim did not promptly file the petition for citizenship, and in May 2011, the clients retained new counsel. The following month, Ibrahim refunded the full $2,730 he had been paid, but he admits that he violated Rules 1.3, 1.4, and 1.15 I in his dealings with this matter.