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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Ind. Courts - Former attorney punished by court

The Muncie Star-Press reports:

A former Muncie attorney has been found in contempt of court by the Indiana Supreme Court for doing legal work after surrendering his license to practice law.

Bruce W. McLaren last week was fined $1,000 and given a 15-day jail term that was suspended on the condition his fine is paid by Aug. 21.

McLaren, who had been a longtime Delaware County court commissioner, gave up his law license after his 2003 indictment by a federal grand jury on charges he had participated in a scheme to conduct fraudulent real estate transactions.

The ex-attorney was sentenced in April 2004 to five months of incarceration and five months of home detention after entering a guilty plea in U.S. District Court.

According to last week's Supreme Court ruling -- a copy of which was mailed to The Star Press -- McLaren "maintained a presence in the law office of Michael Alexander," his defense attorney in the federal court case, in 2005, and helped Alexander "prepare a dissolution-of-marriage case for trial."

The court said that Alexander's $12,740 bill for legal services in that case specified that $5,540 was for work performed by McLaren.

"Such a blatant violation" of rules governing the practice of law in Indiana "will not be tolerated and a significant sanction is warranted," the Supreme Court wrote in its ruling.

The court noted a rule specifying that attorneys who have lost their law licenses shall "not maintain a presence or occupy an office where the practice of law is conducted."

The court rejected a suggestion by McLaren that the rule didn't apply to him since he had resigned from the Indiana Bar before being suspended or disbarred.

Here is a link to an April 30, 2004 ILB entry, including an earlier quote from the Muncie paper that "Moments after Federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker sentenced a former Delaware County court official to a 5-month prison term, she nearly cried and told the people standing in her courtroom how she never wanted to hear the case."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 16, 2006 09:03 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts