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James Thomas Brown was censured for his role as closing attorney in certain real estate transactions that occurred from 2004 to 2006.  In total, there were nine real estate transactions at issue, all of which were purchase transactions.  In his role as the closing attorney, however, Brown prepared HUD-1 Settlement Statements falsely indicating that the transactions were refinance loans rather than purchase transactions. Brown prepared and submitted the false HUD-1 statements at the [...]

Susan Saturno was retained to perform a real estate closing on a residential refinance transaction.  As the closing attorney, Saturno represented both the homeowner and the lending institution.  Though the lending institution requested that Saturno have the homeowner execute a “Road Maintenance Agreement,” Saturno failed to have the homeowner execute the agreement at the closing.  Following the closing, Saturno herself signed the homeowner’s name to the agreement.  Ultimately, the [...]

Edwin M. Hardy was disciplined for various recordkeeping issues pertaining to his client trust account.  Specifically, Hardy failed to: conduct monthly and quarterly reconciliations of his attorney trust account; maintain ledgers for each client for whom funds were received in the trust account; accurately record the date of deposit on client ledgers; and provide written accountings to clients with funds in the trust account for more than twelve months. Additional missteps included Hardy’s [...]

William “Trippe” McKeny was disciplined for various grievances related to his client trust account, many of which involved McKeny’s failure to properly maintain records relating to the trust account.  Additionally, McKeny received payments from clients via credit card; these payments were credited directly to the client trust account.  The credit card processing fees were debited from the trust account, resulting in entrusted funds being used to satisfy McKeny’s obligations to the [...]