In the Matter of Thomas William Veach

An attorney who had practiced law since 1984 was hired to probate a will for an estate with one asset, which was sold for $109,000 in 2014 and deposited into his trust account. After a Medicaid lien dispute settled in 2016, he paid the estate's beneficiary but failed to pay the $27,443.23 owed to the lienholder, because he had been improperly withdrawing estate funds from his trust account for personal use since 2014. He was held in contempt and reported to the State Bar. The attorney explained that his wife's terminal illness, death, and his own heart surgery caused severe financial and emotional hardship. He filed a petition asking the Supreme Court of Georgia to accept an 18-month suspension. The State Bar agreed the petition should be accepted but sought a suspension of 18 months to three years. The court found the attorney's personal and emotional problems weighed in mitigation and agreed to the 18-month suspension both sides could accept.

The court held that, given the attorney's admitted misuse of estate trust funds and failure to pay a lienholder, combined with mitigating factors like his wife's death, his own illness, no prior discipline, and full repayment, an 18-month suspension from practicing law in Georgia was the appropriate voluntary discipline to accept.

The decision shows how the Supreme Court of Georgia balances misconduct involving misused client and lienholder funds against personal hardship and full repayment, guiding future attorneys and the State Bar on discipline for similar trust account violations.

Petition for voluntary discipline accepted; 18-month suspension imposed

1. The attorney admitted violating Rule 1.15(I)(b)(1) and (2), which bars a lawyer from disregarding a third person's known interest in funds based on a statutory lien, by ignoring the Medicaid lien and failing to pay the lienholder from settlement funds.
2. He also admitted violating Rule 1.15(II)(b), which bars withdrawing trust account funds for personal use except earned fees, and Rule 8.4(a)(4), which bars dishonesty or misrepresentation, by removing estate funds from his trust account without the executor's authorization.
3. The court weighed aggravating factors, including his substantial legal experience and a dishonest or selfish motive, against mitigating factors such as no prior discipline, personal and emotional hardship from his wife's death and his own hospitalization, remorse, full cooperation, and repayment of the missing funds.
4. Because Bar Rule 4-227(b) does not clearly let the court impose harsher discipline than requested in a pre-complaint voluntary petition, and the court's practice is to reject such petitions rather than increase the penalty, the court looked to whether the requested 18-month suspension matched the parties' agreement and prior similar cases.
5. Finding that both the attorney and the State Bar could accept an 18-month suspension and that this fell within the range imposed in comparable prior cases involving misuse of trust funds, the court accepted the petition rather than rejecting it for a harsher sanction.

• attorney suspension
• trust account violation
• Medicaid lien
• State Bar of Georgia
• voluntary discipline petition