Hawaii lawyer surrenders law license to avoid disciplinary proceedings
A Hawaii lawyer has surrendered her law license to stave off disciplinary proceedings against her.
Diana Danmeyer of Kailua-Kona had been accused of diverting client funds and other ethics violations, West Hawaii Today reports.
The complaint against Danmeyer stemmed from an 2010 agreement she entered into with Michael Pines, then a California-licensed lawyer who was not licensed in Hawaii, along with two clients. The purpose was to help the clients regain possession of one foreclosed property and prevent the foreclosure of another, according to the paper.
The agreement, which Danmeyer and Pines signed as attorneys, violated a state ethics rule that says only licensed lawyers can act as attorneys, according to the paper.
When the clients began sending Danmeyer retainers, she deposited the money directly into her business account, which violated a rule dictating that client funds be held in a trust account until earned, the paper reports. Danmeyer also used unlabeled bank deposit slips to make deposits on at least six occasions.
Danmeyer later amended her fee agreement with the clients, which the disciplinary board said was not fair or reasonable to the clients. And when asked, she did not turn over records she was required to produce.
This was Danmeyer’s second violation of the rules, the paper reports. In 2013, she was ordered to take a course on “effective legal research” after the disciplinary board found she had not done sufficient research in one of her cases.
The San Diego Reader reports that Pines was disbarred in California in 2012 after being arrested for threatening the occupants of a home once owned by a client, and for encouraging clients to move back into foreclosed properties.
Calls to Danmeyer were not returned, according to the paper.
