This matter is before the Court on the Report and Recommendation of the Review Panel, which recommends that Respondent Joseph A. Carragher, Jr. State Bar No. 112150 be suspended for one year with reinstatement conditioned on his successful participation in the State Bar’s Law Office Management Program at his expense. Carragher originally filed a petition for voluntary discipline pursuant to Bar Rule 4-227 b before the filing of a formal complaint. Carragher requested no more than a public reprimand for his admitted violations of Rules 1.15 i and 1.15 II of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, see Bar Rule 4-102 d, despite the fact that a violation of either of those rules is a disbarment level offense. The State Bar opposed the petition on the grounds that the requested discipline was insufficient to address the admitted conduct, and we then rejected the petition because it contained inconsistencies and did not include sufficient information to allow the Court to determine the proper level of discipline. See In the Matter of J.A.C. , 285 Ga. 393 677 SE2d 119 2009. The State Bar subsequently filed a formal complaint against Carragher, alleging violations of Rules 1.15 I a and b and 1.15 II a and b, as well as Rules 1.7, 1.8 a and b, and 8.4 a 4. The special master, Dana Norman, held an evidentiary hearing and issued a report recommending that Carragher be suspended indefinitely. After the State Bar sought clarification, the special master affirmed the indefinite suspension recommendation and recommended, in the alternative, disbarment. Carragher filed an exception and request for Review Panel review, and the Review Panel issued its report and recommendation of the discipline noted above. Neither party filed exceptions to the Review Panel report, which adopted the special master’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, except as to Rule 8.4, about which the special master declined to make a finding and with respect to which the Review Panel found Carragher had violated. Carragher admitted violating all the rules except 8.4.
The record shows that Carragher, who has been a member of the State Bar since 1976, used his attorney trust account to hold and distribute proceeds earned by his 65-year old client and long-time family friend and handyman on the sale of a house the client inherited. Carragher represented the client on the sale of the house and deposited a portion of the proceeds paid at the closing into his trust account. Although he did not have any interest in the majority of those funds, he did not immediately distribute the money to the client; instead, he simply held those funds in his trust account and on two occasions borrowed money from the funds he held in escrow for the client, each time documenting the loans with promissory notes that promised repayment at 18 interest. Carragher did not tell his client that he had borrowed the money, but he advised the client that the money was returning 18 interest. Carragher also deposited earned money into his trust account but wrote checks to his son, the proceeds of which were personal and not fiduciary, and one to himself, the proceeds of which were earned fees and fiduciary funds.
