In the Matter of Michael Frederick Greene

Michael Frederick Greene, a Georgia lawyer since 1993, took on three clients' cases, including a criminal defendant whose father paid $10,000 for a bond hearing, another criminal defendant who paid $15,000, and a woman who paid $500 to investigate her father's federal prison conditions. In each case, Greene stopped communicating with his clients, missed scheduled court hearings without explanation, and left his clients to fend for themselves, in one instance leaving a client incarcerated without conveying her wish to cooperate with prosecutors. The State Bar of Georgia opened disciplinary proceedings, but Greene failed to respond to the Bar's investigation or file a formal rejection of the disciplinary notice, putting him in default. Because he defaulted, the facts against him were deemed admitted and he had no right to a hearing. The Supreme Court of Georgia reviewed the record and agreed with the State Bar that Greene's pattern of abandoning clients, combined with his prior disciplinary history and refusal to participate in these proceedings, warranted disbarment.

The court held that disbarment is the appropriate sanction because Greene knowingly violated his duty of diligence to clients by abandoning three separate representations, causing economic harm and, in one case, extended incarceration, and because he failed to participate in the disciplinary process at all.

Clients who hired Greene lost money and, in one case, a client's wish to cooperate with prosecutors went unheard while she remained jailed. The ruling removes Greene from practicing law in Georgia and signals that the State Bar and courts will disbar attorneys who repeatedly abandon clients and ignore disciplinary process.

Disbarred

1. Because Greene did not file a Notice of Rejection to the State Bar's Notice of Discipline within the required time, he was found in default, meaning the facts alleged against him were deemed admitted and he lost any right to an evidentiary hearing.
2. The State Disciplinary Board found probable cause that Greene violated multiple Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, including the duty of diligence (Rule 1.3) and the duty to keep clients informed (Rule 1.4), based on his repeated failure to attend hearings, communicate with clients, or complete promised work.
3. The court applied ABA Standard 4.4, which calls for disbarment when a lawyer knowingly fails to perform services for a client and causes serious injury, or engages in a pattern of neglect causing serious harm, and found this standard satisfied by Greene's conduct across three separate client matters.
4. The court considered aggravating factors including Greene's prior disciplinary history from an earlier 18-month suspension, his pattern of misconduct across multiple clients, his substantial experience as a lawyer, and his bad-faith obstruction of the current disciplinary proceedings by failing to respond to the Bar's investigation.
5. The court found no supported mitigating factors in the record, declining to credit unsubstantiated claims about Greene's mental health or remorse because no documentation of either was actually before the court.
6. Based on the presumptive sanction under ABA Standard 4.4 and comparable precedent disbarring attorneys who abandoned multiple clients, the court concluded disbarment was the appropriate and consistent sanction here.

• attorney disbarment
• client abandonment
• State Bar of Georgia
• legal malpractice discipline