This disciplinary matter is before the Court on State Disciplinary Board Docket Numbers 3009 and 4076 in both of which cases the State Bar filed Formal Complaints; Respondent Robert A. Wilkinson acknowledged service but failed to file answers within 30 days of acknowledging service; and, accordingly, the facts alleged and violations charged in the Formal Complaints are deemed admitted, Bar Rule 4-212 a. After meeting with Wilkinson and counsel for the State Bar regarding the appropriate level of discipline for Wilkinson’s admitted violations of Standards 4 lawyer shall not engage in professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or wilful misrepresentation; 44 lawyer shall not without just cause to the detriment of his client in effect wilfully abandon or disregard a legal matter entrusted to him; and 65 A lawyer shall not commingle his client’s funds with his own, and shall not fail to account for trust property, including money and interest paid on the client’s money, if any, held in a fiduciary capacity of Bar Rule 4-102 d, the special master recommended that Wilkinson be disbarred. Wilkinson did not request review by the Review Panel and, therefore, he is deemed to have waived his right to file exceptions with or make oral argument to this Court, and is subject to the discipline of the Court. Bar Rule 4-217 c.
According to the facts as admitted, in SDB Docket No. 3990, in June 1998, Wilkinson agreed to represent a client in an immigration matter for $750. The client initially paid $375, at which time Wilkinson told her he would promptly file her immigration application with the INS and that she could expect the INS to process it in approximately 90 to 120 days. The client also gave Wilkinson $295 for filing fees but, although Wilkinson accepted the funds in a fiduciary capacity, he deposited them in his law firm’s operating account, not in his attorney escrow account, and commingled them with his own funds. In October 1998 and September 1999, Wilkinson assured the client’s husband that he had filed the applications and that the case was proceeding as it should, but Wilkinson had not filed the applications. He also told the husband that he was going to the INS office to check on the status of the case and would call with an update, but Wilkinson did not check on the case and did not call the husband. The client finally went herself to the INS office and discovered that Wilkinson had not filed her applications; when she confronted Wilkinson he told her he would call her, but he did not, and the client ultimately filed the applications herself in September 1999.
