Tustin lawyer misappropriated up to $282 million from 60,000 clients looking for debt relief, state bar says

A Tustin attorney faces disbarment for allegedly misappropriating up to $282 million from as many as 60,000 clients who hired him looking for debt relief, the State Bar of California said.

Daniel Stephen March did not dispute 27 ethics charges of moral turpitude, misappropriation, failure to maintain client funds in a trust account and others filed against him in May in State Bar Court, which independently handles attorney discipline cases.

“The level of March’s misconduct and misappropriation of client funds is stunning,” Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a State Bar release Tuesday. “March completely betrayed his responsibilities as a lawyer and his sworn oath of service to his clients and to the profession. Given the scope of his offenses, the just outcome in this case is disbarment.”

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March operated a Tustin business called Litigation Practice Group that offered debt relief services to customers for a flat fee, paid in monthly installments, and offered a refund if they could not deliver. It filed for bankruptcy in March 2023.

But according to bankruptcy filings, up to $282 million in advanced fee revenue collected by March from as many as 60,000 clients between November 2019 and March 2023 were missing, leaving only $1,500 in a JPMorgan Chase trust account and approximately negative $1,000 in a Union Bank trust account. Lawyers are required to hold client fees in trusts until the lawyer completes the work promised, at risk of discipline or disbarment.

Bankruptcy filings for Litigation Practice Group showed that March made 20 separate deposits of clients’ monthly installment fees into a trust account from March 2020 to September 2021 but then withdrew $78 million in client fees during that period, the State Bar said in the release. The fees, part of the $282 million total, were either never deposited into a trust account or remained for only a day and were wired into a personal account, the complaint alleges.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/tustin-lawyer-misappropriated-up-to-282-million-from-clients-looking-for-debt-relief-state-bar-says