B.C. lawyer James Comparelli disbarred after taking money from an estate
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 04:39:08 +0000
A longtime B.C. lawyer has been disbarred after admitting that he misappropriated and improperly withdrew money from a large estate he was handling.
“The respondent’s misconduct is extremely serious, demonstrating a fundamental lack of honesty and integrity and a deliberate neglect of his professional duties,” wrote The Law Society of British Columbia’s hearing panel in a decision released on Monday.
The case dates back to Feb. 2007 when James Anthony Comparelli drew up a will for a longtime client of Comparelli’s father (a recently-retired lawyer). According to the panel’s ruling, the first error Comparelli made was to place in the will a $40,000 gift to himself.
The client died in June 2014 and in Feb. 2015 Comparelli paid himself the $40,000 gift, that was to be on top of $332,800 that he was to earn in executor fees.
In Sept. 2016, without getting authorization from the beneficiaries, Comparelli withdrew $137,000 as a part payment for his fees. The panel heard that Comparelli used that money to pay a debt owed by his wife and to pay down his own line of credit and credit card. Comparelli was also found to have withdrawn $40,500 from the estate trust fund in three payments when he was not entitled to the funds.
In July, 2017, the law society told Comparelli that a compliance audit was scheduled for the following month. At that time, Comparelli had been a lawyer for 26 years.
After getting this notice, he repaid the $40,500 that he was not entitled to, then self reported his actions. Comparelli handed control of the estate to another lawyer and in November, 2017 closed his practice and resigned from the law society.
Despite his resignation, the work of the law society’s discipline committee continued and Comparelli admitted to his wrongdoing.
“The hearing panel has no difficulty in accepting the respondent’s admission that the conduct outlined in each of the four allegations demonstrates a deliberate and prolonged course of misappropriation and that, as a result, he has committed professional misconduct,” the panel wrote.
“While the respondent was transparent and immediately cooperative with the law society investigation once the process began, it is notable that the respondent self-reported his misconduct to the law society only after he was notified that a compliance audit would be conducted of his law practice.”
Given that a hearing panel has the jurisdiction to make a finding of professional misconduct against a former lawyer, the panel ruled that Comparelli’s actions warranted being disbarred.