In re Coulter

816 S.E.2d 1, 304 Ga. 81
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 18, 2018
DocketS18Y0993
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 816 S.E.2d 1 (In re Coulter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Coulter, 816 S.E.2d 1, 304 Ga. 81 (Ga. 2018).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

**81This is the second appearance of this disciplinary matter before this Court, as this Court previously rejected the special master's first **82report, which recommended accepting the petition for voluntary discipline *2filed by Respondent Gary Lanier Coulter (State Bar No. 190100). See In the Matter of Coulter, 301 Ga. 895, 804 S.E.2d 345 (2017). Coulter sought by his earlier petition to receive a two-year suspension for his admitted violations of Rules 1.5, 1.7, 1.8 (a), 1.15 (I), and 1.15 (II) of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, see Bar Rule 4-102 (d), based on his conduct in connection with his representation, beginning in 2003, of a client and the various organizations his client created related to his professional endeavors as an art promoter (collectively, "the client"). This Court determined that a voluntary two-year suspension was insufficient given that Coulter, who has been a member of the Bar since 1971, was subject to two prior instances of professional discipline, the serious nature of the admitted rule violations, and the record facts in this case. See Coulter, 301 Ga. at 897, 804 S.E.2d 345.

This matter is now before the Court on the report and recommendation of Special Master Sandra S. Cho, who recommends that Coulter receive a four-year suspension with no conditions for reinstatement for his admitted violations of Rules 1.5, 1.7, 1.8 (a), 1.15 (I), and 1.15 (II). The maximum sanction for a violation of Rules 1.5 and 1.8 (a) is a public reprimand, while the maximum sanction for a violation of Rules 1.7, 1.15 (I), and 1.15 (II) (a) and (b) is disbarment. The allegations regarding Coulter's conduct remain the same:

Although Coulter's work for the complaining client began as representation on personal tax matters and a landlord-tenant dispute, it expanded over the years to include a number of matters including personal and business issues. In 2010, Coulter assumed more responsibility over the client's affairs, becoming involved in the receipt, depositing, transfer, and disbursement of the client's funds collected in the course of the client's businesses [and in doing so opened up a number of bank accounts on behalf of the client]. It appears that the client knew of some of the accounts Coulter had opened on behalf of the client but did not know of others, and in some of the accounts Coulter was the sole authorized signer. Coulter concedes these accounts were not approved lawyer-trust accounts and that they held only funds related to the client and his businesses, yet Coulter transferred funds from or through the client's accounts to his operating account as payment of attorney fees. It also appears that in just the final ten months of Coulter's representation of this client, he administered more than $1 million through the client's accounts. In those final months, Coulter paid himself **83$400,000 in fees from the client's bank accounts. ... Coulter did not provide any billing invoices to the client after 2008, but two of the complainants are lawyers who were formerly associates in Coulter's law firm, and they printed a set of invoices from the firm's billing system in 2011 and provided them to the client. The invoices contained substantial discrepancies that Coulter could not explain. Coulter concedes he did not keep and maintain complete and accurate records of this client's funds and did not promptly notify the client of Coulter's receipt of funds in which the client possessed an interest.

Coulter, 301 Ga. at 895-896, 804 S.E.2d 345.1

In determining the appropriate level of discipline, the special master notes that this Court views trust account violations as exceptionally serious, see In the Matter of Howard, 292 Ga. 413, 414, 738 S.E.2d 89 (2013), and finds that in violation of Rules 1.15 (I) and 1.15 (II), Coulter: administered very large sums of client-money for years, over $1 million in 2011 alone, using 12 different bank accounts, none of which were trust accounts; failed to keep complete records of the funds; failed to keep and maintain records reflecting at all times the exact balance held for each client and third person; failed accurately to account for all funds transferred to his firm's operating accounts as attorney fees before making transfers; and failed to accurately debit attorney fees transferred *3to his firm's operating account against an appropriate account of the client and to record the same as such. In addition, the special master finds that every transaction Coulter executed or directed involving the 12 accounts violated Rule 1.15 (II) (a) because they were not deposited and administered from a trust account; and that he also violated Rule 1.15 (II) (b) in connection with the holding of the client's property in his office. Thus, the special master finds that Coulter's violations of the trust account rules alone demanded substantial discipline given that they were vast in scope, consisted of numerous violations involving seven-figure sums in the aggregate, and continued unabated over an extended period of time. The special master states that her conclusion is bolstered by this Court's forceful and definitive treatment of improper acquisitions of financial interests adverse to clients. See In the Matter of Oellerich, 278 Ga. 22, 22-23, 596 S.E.2d 156 (2004) (disbarment of attorney who, **84during his legal representation of the executor of an estate, received a loan from the estate for a corporation in which he was the sole shareholder and then defaulted on the loan); In the Matter of Henley, 267 Ga. 366, 369,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
816 S.E.2d 1, 304 Ga. 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-coulter-ga-2018.