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Lawyer’s Diversion of Funds From Trust Shocks the Conscience—State Bar
Office of Chief Trial Counsel, in Unrelated Matter, Is Asking High Court to Order Disbarment
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The State Bar of California announced Friday that additional disciplinary charges have been filed against a San Francisco lawyer whom the Office of Chief Trial Counsel has already urged the California Supreme Court to disbar, with a new notice of disciplinary charges accusing him of sapping massive sums from a trust fund set up to benefit a man suffering from mental problems.
Filed Feb. 2, the notice to attorney Drexel Andrew Bradshaw says:
“Just four years after respondent became trustee, the Trust assets were depleted. Respondent ultimately paid himself approximately $1.33 million, constituting more than half of the Trust assets, spent on respondent’s own fees/financial gain. These fees were so wholly disproportionate to the services that were rendered so as to shock the conscience.”
It notes that the beneficiary of the trust is “an individual who suffers from mental health and other personal issues and struggles with managing his finances and other aspects of his life.”
Advanced Fee Deposit
Under a retainer agreement, Bradshaw was to receive a $7,500 advanced fee deposit. However, the notice alleges, Bradshaw “unilaterally used the Trust assets to increase, replenish, and maintain, his advanced fee deposit” to $750,000.
“In total, respondent’s advanced fee deposit increased by 10,000 percent over the original agreed upon deposit amount,” the notice says.
It accuses Bradshaw of breach of fiduciary duty, overreaching, charging an unconscionable fee, acquiring interest adverse to his client and having a conflict of interest, specifying that he committed “an act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption.”
Another Matter
In another trust matter, the State Bar’s Hearing Department recommended disbarment; the Review Department dismissed the charges with prejudice, saying, “we do not find clear and convincing evidence to support culpability as to the charged misconduct”; the Office of Chief Trial Counsel sought review in the California Supreme Court; it was granted and the matter was remanded to the Review Department for further consideration. On remand, the Review Department imposed a six-month suspension.
The Office of Chief Trial Counsel has asked the state high court to reject the Review Department’s recommendation and to disbar Bradshaw.
In that case, Bradshaw is accused of elder abuse by failing to disclose to his client his relationship to a contractor he repeatedly hired and paid with fund from the trust.
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