Don't Do This: Lawyer Steals From Dying Clients

This is pretty much exactly what you aren't supposed to do as a lawyer.

jailIf you learned anything during your professional responsibility class in law school, it should have been not to mix your personal money with client funds. It’s such a big red flag of bad behavior that knowing that fact alone (and a dash of common sense) may be enough to get you through the MPRE.

So you’d expect there to be some pretty severe consequences for Wisconsin attorney Sarah E.K. Laux, who pleaded guilty (as part of a plea deal) to bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and filing a false tax return, for her role in stealing $2.1 million of client funds.

Laux was (she’s since given up her law license under threat of disbarment) an estate attorney, with her practice primarily dealing with providing planning advice to elderly clients. It seems she abused that trust by convincing dying clients to transfer money into accounts she then used for personal expenses. As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“My mother trusted Sarah implicitly,” Andrea Mayerson told [U.S. District Judge Charles] Clevert, before describing how Laux lied to her mother as she died of cancer. She said Laux had no moral compass and likely would have victimized other families if she hadn’t been caught.

“I’m only thankful my mother didn’t witness this devastation,” Mayerson said.

Mark Franzen told Clevert how he came home from Arizona to check on his retired parents after reading about Mayerson’s lawsuit, since he knew they were also working with Laux. He went to the FBI after Laux wouldn’t give him straight answers about the $2 million she persuaded his parents to transfer to her control, then ultimately confessed to using some of it for herself and giving back about $1 million.

And the judge was similarly horrified by Laux’s actions:

Clevert said Laux had exhibited a “staggering” degree of “callousness,” and compounded her crimes by lying to families, banks and other lawyers.

Yet he said she deserved less time than the 51 months at the low end of federal guidelines because Laux has no criminal history, has turned over assets, needs to earn money to pay the balance of restitution and has four young children, one of whom needs surgery.

So Laux will be going directly to jail for her actions. At least she can look forward to seeing the details of her life, thinly veiled, in a future law school exam somewhere.

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Former estate lawyer who swindled dying clients gets 4 years in prison [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

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