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ERIN MORRISSEY
ERIN MORRISSEY [#158015], 42, of Los Gatos was Disbarred in June of 2005.
In a default proceeding, the State Bar Court found that Morrissey committed multiple acts of misconduct while representing a client in a variety of family law matters, including an out-of-state adoption and a California marital dissolution.
After she filed a dissolution petition, her client sold her house, which she contended was separate property, and gave the $98,000 proceeds to Morrissey to deposit in her client trust account. Morrissey billed the client $72,000 for her work and paid herself $60,000 from the trust account.
A fee dispute ensued, and as partial resolution, Morrissey sent the client a check for more than $38,000, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the house. The client told Morrissey not to release any funds she was holding in escrow; she then hired a new attorney to review the file and determine if the fees were appropriate. The court ordered Morrissey to place the house sale proceeds into a blocked account that could not be invaded without a court order.
Morrissey opened an account and deposited $60,000, but did not ask the bank to block it. She told the court, in a declaration signed under penalty of perjury, that the bank did not know how to open such an account. Nonetheless, the court ordered that the account not be invaded except under court order or written agreement. Morrissey told the court she was unaware of any fee dispute.
Meanwhile, Morrissey filed for divorce and declared the $60,000 as a community asset. At the same time, the client whose money Morrissey was holding substituted her husband in as her lawyer. Morrissey and the husband agreed between themselves to split the $60,000, with $54,000 going to Morrissey and the remainder going to the husband.
The client who sold her house has received nothing. The proceeds represented her life savings, and she has suffered “extreme financial harm,” according to the bar court.
The court found that Morrissey committed five acts of misconduct: she violated a court order, misled a judge, withdrew disputed funds, and “employed means inconsistent with the truth” (two counts).
JOAN PFEIFER
Pfeifer's name been up forty-eight hours before we began receiving complaints about her innappropriate connections to certain judges. As "Marty" in Pfeifer's employ roughly seventeen years, demonstrates in his performance as obnoxious gatekeeper, when offices conduct themselves in this manner, it's because they feel secure, and untouchable. Sadly, that usually is a sign of inappropriate contact with judges.
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