Victor H. Morgan, Jr. was disbarred from the practice of law on November 18, 2015.  Prior to disbarment, Morgan’s license was suspended for three years effective June 15, 2013.  Morgan represented numerous clients before his suspension.  During his suspension, Morgan failed to return files to former clients, as well as unused attorney’s fees and undisbursed court costs.  In one known instance, Morgan also failed to file a personal injury lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of [...]

Jimmy A. Pettus was disbarred on November 11, 2015. The State Bar found that between November 2010 and December 2011, Pettus, as managing partner, misappropriated entrusted funds for his own benefit or for the benefit of Vick & Associates.  By misappropriating entrusted funds, Pettus committed criminal acts that reflect adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects in violation of Rule 8.4(b), and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit [...]

H. Russell Vick and Jimmy A. Pettus, partners in Vick & Associates, were disciplined for not timely depositing their employee’s IRA withholdings into the participating employees’ simple IRA accounts. Rather, they commingled the withholdings with other funds used for the benefits of Vick & Associates. The balance of withholdings due to the IRS currently exceeds $350,000. Vick & Associates failed to respond to notices from the IRS informing them of this tax liability.  The State [...]

Robert Tucker was suspended from the practice of law on November 3, 2015.   During the course of his law practice, Tucker mishandled several trust accounts by failing to properly keep records and disbursing more funds than were deposited.  Tucker also failed to record deeds of trust for several clients and failed to collect funds.  The Disciplinary Hearing Panel concluded that Tucker’s actions violated several subsections of Rule 1.15 of the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct. [...]

The complaint filed against Gretchen M. Engel alleging that she had engaged in intentional misconduct, willfulness, or bad faith, was dismissed on November 2, 2015.  Engel was employed as the Director of Post-Conviction Litigation for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL) in Durham.  During her employment there, she was responsible for reviewing information for comparative jury analysis, since there had been complaints of race being a factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty. [...]