Mcle Article: the Buck Stops Here

• Publication year: 2020
• Author: By Erin Joyce

MCLE Article: The Buck Stops Here

By Erin Joyce

Erin Joyce has extensive experience in State Bar investigations and disciplinary proceedings, plus over twenty five years of civil litigation practice. Erin was admitted in 1990 and practiced for nearly eight years in an intellectual property boutique before joining the Office of Chief Trial Counsel as a prosecutor for the State Bar, from 1997 through 2016. Erin has almost twenty years of experience handling all aspects of discipline cases against attorneys in State Bar Court, from the filing of the complaint through trial and review. She has personally tried dozens of State Bar trials and several appeals. Erin has a comprehensive understanding of how State Bar investigations and proceedings unfold. Before going into private practice, Erin served as Chief Special Investigator for the Los Angeles Fire Department, as a prosecutor for the State Bar of California, and as a lawyer for multiple private practices.

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"The buck stops here."¹

Truer words were never spoken when it comes to an attorney's client trust account. Under Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15, an attorney has a non-delegable duty to safeguard the attorney's trust account. An attorney can (and probably should) employ a reliable bookkeeper and accountant to ensure invoices are sent out timely and the trust account is reconciled each month. However, the attorney is ultimately responsible for the trust account activity. It pays to know all the requirements for maintaining a proper client trust account.

In November 2018, the biggest overhaul of the Rules of Professional Conduct in twenty-five years occurred, with more than sixty substantive changes to the Rules (in addition to the adoption of an ABA Model Rule type numbering system). Perhaps the most significant change was the change to an attorney's trust accounting obligations, which it pays for every practitioner to know.

Under the new Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15(a):

All funds received or held by a lawyer or law firm for the benefit of a client, or other person to whom the lawyer owes a contractual, statutory, or other legal duty, including advances for fees, costs and expenses, shall be deposited in one or more identifiable bank accounts labeled "Trust Account" or words of similar import, maintained in the State of California, or, with written consent of the client, in any other jurisdiction where there is a

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