2 lawyers suspended after settling dead client’s cases, taking money
Two Florida lawyers began serving matching three-year suspensions of their law licenses earlier this week, after they were found to have put their dead client’s name on lawsuit settlements and collected money from the defendants, according to the Florida Supreme Court. (Image from Shutterstock)
Two Florida lawyers began serving matching three-year suspensions of their law licenses earlier this week, after they were found to have put their dead client’s name on lawsuit settlements and collected money from the defendants, according to the Florida Supreme Court.
Lawyers Lee Sarkin of Boca Raton, Florida, and Drew Levitt of Ocean Ridge, Florida, were suspended Monday by the state supreme court following their guilty pleas, the Miami Herald reports.
While attorney-client privilege typically survives death, “this death killed the power” of the lawyers to act on behalf of their client, the Miami Herald reports.
In one case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the defendants were a Florida condo association. As settlement negotiations progressed, Sarkin’s and Levitt’s client died in November 2021. Both sides filed a joint notice of settlement five days later, according to the Miami Herald.
“The next day, unable to reach [the client], [Levitt and Sarkin] signed [the client’s] name to the settlement agreement with an ink signature,” the guilty pleas said. “The settlement proceeds were paid into respondent’s trust account, per the settlement agreement.”
About a month later, in December 2021, Sarkin and Levitt learned that their client had died 29 days earlier, according to the Miami Herald. They didn’t share this information with the condo association defendants, who didn’t find out about the client death’s until “approximately a year and a half later.” The condo association defendants argued that the settlement should be vacated.
In addition to owing the condo association defendants a fee award of $11,287, Sarkin and Levitt each received a nine-month suspension from appearing in the Middle District of Florida.
Another suit in the Middle District of Florida also reached the settlement discussion stage—this time in December 2021.
Almost 17 months later, in May 2023, the lawyers in that case found out when Sarkin’s and Levitt’s client had died and discovered what happened in the case involving the condo association.
Sarkin and Levin returned that settlement money five days later, according to the Miami Herald.
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