State Supreme Court Doubles Down On This Guy Not Being Allowed In Courtrooms

// One of the things that gets beaten into your head as a law student is to be cautious about what you do as a student. The fear is that your undergraduate or grad school shenanigans will follow you into your career. Maybe more attention should be paid to, I don’t know, beating it into people’s heads that they should be cautious about what they do as lawyers. Having your license suspended in multiple states over unethical behavior is definitely the type of thing that can put a damper on your career. As reported by Law.com:

The Washington State Supreme Court issued reciprocal discipline for a North Carolina attorney found to have exploited two clients with severely diminished mental capacities who were recently released from their lengthy, wrongful incarcerations.

The attorney, Patrick Michael Megaro, received a reciprocal five-year suspension of his license to practice law in Washington state, mirroring the punishment leveled by North Carolina’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission.

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There’s no disputing that what Megaro did was horrible — taking advantage of one person is enough, to then double up on the exploitation is obscene.

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According to the order, Megaro entered into a representation agreement “with knowledge that McCollum and Brown had been consistently diagnosed as mentally retarded with adaptive skills deficits and were unable to understand their confessions.” That representation agreement allowed Megaro to collect a contingency fee of between 27-33% for any recovery claims against Robeson County, the Red Springs Police Department and the State of North Carolina.

…

The Industrial Commission distributed $750,000 to each McCollum and Brown, and Megaro took one-third as his fee. Additionally, Megaro used $110,000 of each man’s proceeds to repay loans he helped them obtain. The DHC questioned whether those loan repayments were even enforceable due to the men’s incapacity to enter into loan contracts.

I’ll save you the surprise — it gets even worse. My question is one of timing. Why is Washington reciprocating the suspension now? Megaro’s license got suspended by North Carolina’s Supreme Court for this back in May of 2021; why did it take over a year for Washington’s Supreme Court to act in kind? Either way, this is one of those times where a slow justice is better than none at all — Washington’s court put it best.

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“Defendant’s conduct caused significant harm to the profession by reinforcing the negative stereotype that lawyers are greedy, selfish, and dishonest, and by diminishing the public’s expectation that attorneys can be trusted to protect vulnerable clients,” stated the order.

The terms of reinstatement laid out by the North Carolina DHC, most notably included a possible stay of the remaining period of suspension if Megaro reimbursed McCollum and Brown $250,000 for the “excessive fees he collected.”

Given that this is still newsworthy, I assume that Megaro opted to not return the $250k to McCollum and Brown. Sure would be a shame if he couldn’t practice anywhere until he righted his wrongs. Sure would be a shame.

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Attorney Receives 5-Year Reciprocal Suspension for Exploiting Vulnerable Clients [Law.com]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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Courts, Lawyers Behaving Badly, Legal Ethics, North Carolina, Patrick Michael Megaro, Washington