In the Matter of Edward Hine, Jr

Edward Hine, Jr. was an attorney who served as executor of a client's estate and as trustee of a separate trust. He admitted taking more money from the estate's funds than he had actually earned in fees, treating the difference as a personal loan he did not fully repay before making final distributions, and separately failing for years to repay an $85,000 loan he took from a trust he oversaw. He disclosed these problems to the State Bar himself. After the Supreme Court of Georgia had previously rejected an earlier, less complete request from Hine for lesser discipline, he filed a new petition admitting the full extent of his misconduct and asking to voluntarily surrender his law license rather than face formal disciplinary proceedings. The State Bar did not object. The court reviewed the record and agreed to accept the surrender, removing Hine from the rolls of lawyers permitted to practice in Georgia.

The court held that Hine's admitted violations of the rules requiring client communication, avoiding conflicting financial interests, and safeguarding client and trust funds were serious enough that voluntary surrender of his law license, which is treated the same as disbarment, was warranted and should be accepted.

The decision permanently bars Hine from practicing law in Georgia, protecting his former clients and the public from further risk. It also reinforces that Georgia lawyers who mishandle client and trust funds face the loss of their license even when they self-report and cooperate.

Voluntary surrender of license accepted

1. The court noted that under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, violating the rule requiring lawyers to keep client and trust funds separate from their own money can carry disbarment as the maximum punishment.
2. Hine admitted transferring far more money out of an estate's trust funds than he had actually earned in fees, treating the excess as an undocumented personal loan he failed to fully repay, which the court treated as commingling and converting client funds to his own use.
3. Hine also admitted borrowing $85,000 from a trust he controlled as trustee and not repaying it to the intended beneficiary for years, only doing so after the Bar began investigating the separate estate matter.
4. The court looked to the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, guidelines it uses to decide discipline cases, and found that the intentional nature of Hine's conduct and its potential for serious harm to clients pointed toward disbarment as the presumptive punishment.
5. Weighing mitigating factors such as Hine's lack of prior discipline in 45 years of practice, his self-reporting, and his cooperation against the seriousness of the admitted misconduct, the court concluded that accepting his voluntary surrender of license, equivalent to disbarment, was the appropriate resolution.

• attorney discipline
• voluntary surrender of law license
• trust account violations
• State Bar of Georgia
• estate mismanagement