In THE MATTER OF CYNTHIA ANN LAIN (Five Cases)

A lawyer named Cynthia Ann Lain faced five separate disciplinary complaints from the State Bar of Georgia after clients and judges in Clayton, Henry, and Muscogee counties reported that she repeatedly missed hearings, misled courts about why she was absent, failed to communicate with clients, and kept unearned fees without doing the promised work. Several judges held her in contempt, and she was even arrested on a bench warrant in one case. When the Bar tried to investigate, Lain refused to cooperate with discovery, skipped her own deposition, and filed what a Special Master called a frivolous motion to dismiss. As a sanction for that misconduct, her answers were struck and all the Bar's factual allegations were deemed admitted. Based on those admitted facts, the Special Master found numerous rule violations and recommended disbarment, and the Supreme Court of Georgia agreed, removing Lain from the practice of law in Georgia.

The court held that disbarment is warranted because Lain engaged in a sustained pattern of neglecting clients, misleading courts, disrupting proceedings, and obstructing the Bar's disciplinary investigation in bad faith, conduct that under Bar rules and ABA sanctioning standards calls for removal from practice.

The ruling protects Georgians who hire lawyers for custody, criminal, and family matters from an attorney who repeatedly failed to show up, communicate, or return unearned fees. It also signals that attorneys who obstruct the State Bar's disciplinary process, not just misconduct toward clients, face the harshest sanction available.

Disbarment imposed

1. The Special Master first resolved a discovery dispute by striking Lain's answers and deeming all of the Bar's factual allegations admitted, after she repeatedly ignored discovery orders, skipped her deposition, and filed a frivolous motion to dismiss the complaints.
2. Using those admitted facts, the Special Master found Lain violated multiple Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct across five client matters, including failing to act with reasonable diligence (Rule 1.3), failing to communicate with clients (Rule 1.4), charging unreasonable fees without doing the work (Rule 1.5(a)), and disrupting court proceedings and misleading judges (Rules 3.3(a), 3.5(d), and 8.4(a)(4), which bar dishonesty toward a court).
3. The court applied the American Bar Association's sanctioning framework, which calls for disbarment when a lawyer shows a pattern of client neglect causing serious harm, engages in intentional dishonesty toward the court, or knowingly violates court orders to gain a benefit while harming a party or proceeding.
4. The Special Master and the court then weighed aggravating factors, including a pattern of misconduct, multiple offenses, bad-faith obstruction of the disciplinary process, and submission of false information, against the single mitigating factor that Lain had no prior discipline, and concluded the aggravating factors dominated.
5. Because Lain's conduct fit squarely within the standards calling for disbarment and she showed no genuine engagement with the disciplinary process, the court adopted the Special Master's recommendation and ordered disbarment.

• attorney disbarment
• State Bar of Georgia
• contempt of court
• client neglect
• unearned fees