Rich Irony In Attorney Lawsuit

Client's reason for filing a lawsuit against his attorney could not be more perfect.

Don’t you just love a heaping helping of irony on a steamy Monday?

That’s what you get when an attorney — who taught ethics at the University of Tulsa Law School — is the subject of a lawsuit alleging a violation of his ethical duties. And it’s not like an obscure or archaic rule that Oklahoma lawyer Robert Nichols is accused of breaking — it’s a pretty basic one (namely, stealing your client’s money and/or forging their signature). News On Six has the details of Ralph Mackey’s story, who hired Nichols to negotiate with the City of Tulsa over an eminent domain settlement related to a highway expansion but says he never actually got the payday he banked on:

Ralph Mackey said he trusted Nichols for years in an imminent [sic] domain case but when it came time to get a settlement check, Mackey said Nichols kept it all to himself.

Mackey said he never signed a check for $198,332, but his name is on it along with the real estate fraud attorney’s signature.

“Obviously didn’t look like my signature at all. My heart just sunk. My stomach turned,” Mackey said.

Along with the visceral, physical reactions Mackey describes upon allegedly learning of his lawyer’s action, he also had a very American reaction. He filed a lawsuit, and Mackey’s reasons for filing the lawsuit could not be more perfect:

He [Mackey] said Nichols’ responses were just excuse after excuse until Attorney Edward Lindsey got involved and filed a lawsuit against his law firm.

“When you settle a case, the first person who should get their money is the client. And he was hiding that he had gotten the money and used the money for other purposes, and he had to be sued to come clean on that,” Lindsey said.

In the lawsuit, Edwards and Mackey are asking Nichols for $250,000. Edwards said Nichols has paid $7,000 of it, and Mackey needs the rest of it, ironically, to pay attorneys’ fees.

And… scene.

Tulsa Lawyer Accused Of Stealing Client’s Settlement Money [News On Six]

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