Minnesota: Lawyer Publicly Reprimanded and Placed on Probation for Receiving Advance Payments With No Written Fee Agreement

In In re Eichhorn-Hicks, 767 N.W.2d 20 (Minn. 2009), the Minnesota Supreme Court publicly reprimanded and placed an attorney on probation for two years for receiving advance fee payments on two occasions in a client matter in which there was no written fee agreement signed by the client. The lawyer also did not deposit the funds into a trust account and during the investigation failed to disclose the full amount of payments received for representation of a client. These actions violated Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 1.5(b), 1.15(c)(5), and 8.1(b).
The Minnesota Supreme Court accepted the recommended disposition of Director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility with terms that include lawyer’s avoidance of these violations in the future and cooperation with authorities releasing personal and compliance information.
Compelled by Rule 1.5(b), a lawyer must communicate ““the scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses for which the client will be responsible…”. Additionally, Rule 1.15(c)(5) states that “unless the lawyer and the client have entered into a written agreement” a lawyer must ”deposit all fees in advance of the legal services being performed into a trust account … “. In violation of Rule 8.1(b) the lawyer also failed “to disclose a fact necessary to correct a misapprehension known by the person to have arisen in the matter…”.