Attorney Discipline Summaries
| Citation | Vol. 28 No. 6 Pg. 0049 |
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 0049 |
February 21, 2023, through March 7, 2023
BY LEIGH BURGESS
Disbarments
Kara Sherrisse Lawrence
Atlanta, GA 30309 Admitted to the Bar 2016
On Feb. 21, 2023, the Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Kara Sher-risse Lawrence (State Bar No. 534355) from the practice of law in Georgia. The matter came before the Court on the Report and Recommendation of the special master who recommended Lawrence be disbarred for her multiple violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct in connection with her representation of a single client.
In February 2019, a client hired Lawrence to initiate and handle his immigration matter. The client signed an attorney-client retainer agreement, which provided for a $3,500 retainer as a flat fee in lieu of her hourly rate and authorized Lawrence to debit that amount from the client's bank account. The agreement specified that the attorney-client relationship between Lawrence and the client would continue until "completion of the matter or upon earlier termination of the relationship as provided"ﾝ in the agreement. Neither Lawrence nor the client ever took steps to cancel or terminate the agreement. On Feb. 22, 2019, Lawrence debited $1,000 from the client's account as a deposit on the retainer. Several days later, she debited another $1,300. Then, on March 5, 2019, she debited another $3,321.75 from the client's account. Lawrence provided the client no advance notice of the March 5 debit and no notice that she was debiting more in total than the $3,500 he had authorized.
When an attorney is involved in an immigration claim, the client is required to accept the lawyer's representation within an online portal. Lawrence's client and his daughter repeatedly attempted to contact Lawrence to learn how to accept her representation in the portal and to learn of the status of the client's matter. On several occasions, a person in Lawrence's office sent the client a "code"ﾝ to use to accept the representation, but none of the codes were valid. Thus, Lawrence never entered an appearance in the client's immigration matter and did not (and could not) file any immigration paperwork on his behalf. Nevertheless, on May 21, 2019, a person from Lawrence's office sent the client an email stating that his "application [wa]s moving forward"ﾝ and directing him to "create an account if [he] d[id] not already have one"ﾝ with immigration services. Twice, the client appeared at Lawrence's office to speak with her about how to have his matter proceed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The first time, no one in her office was able to provide the client with any specific information, although he was assured that she was working on his case. The second time, during late May 2019, the client discovered that Lawrence had abandoned her law office and left no contact information. The client continued to try and contact Lawrence but was unsuccessful.
Eventually, the client filed a grievance with the State Bar. In Lawrence's response, she misidentified her client multiple times, attached a copy of the email from her office to the actual client, but offered no other evidence of any codes sent to the client, any other communication with him, or any other follow-through by her or her staff. Following her response to the grievance, the Bar requested that Lawrence provide it with certain documents and information related to the matter and her IOLTA account. She did not respond...
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