In re: Phoebe Leslie Deak ( 2017 )

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
No. 17-BG-369
IN RE PHOEBE LESLIE DEAK, RESPONDENT.
A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
(Bar Registration No. 454829)
On Report and Recommendation
of the Board on Professional Responsibility
(DDN 504-10)
(Decided December 14, 2017)
Before FISHER and EASTERLY, Associate Judges, and NEBEKER, Senior
Judge.
PER CURIAM: In this case, an Ad Hoc Hearing Committee found by clear
and convincing evidence that respondent Phoebe Leslie Deak engaged in
misappropriation of funds while representing a client in Virginia. Specifically, the
committee found that Ms. Deak obtained funds from her client to secure the
services of an expert witness but instead deposited the funds into her overdrawn
operating account, with the result that the check given to the expert as payment for
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services was rejected due to insufficient funds. Further, the Committee found that
Ms. Deak paid for personal expenses with these entrusted funds. The Committee
determined that Ms. Deak had violated Rules 1.15 (a)(1) and 1.15 (b)(5) of the
Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct—applicable pursuant to the choice of law
provision in Rule 8.5 (b) of the District of Columbia Rules of Professional
Conduct—and that her conduct at a minimum amounted to reckless behavior. In
the absence of any mitigating evidence, the Hearing Committee recommended that
Ms. Deak be disbarred.
Neither Disciplinary Counsel nor Ms. Deak filed exceptions to the
Committee’s findings or recommended sanction, and the Board on Professional
Responsibility, after review of the record, also recommended that Ms. Deak be
disbarred. No exceptions were filed to the Board’s recommendation.
Under D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9 (h)(2), “if no exceptions are filed to the Board’s
report, the Court will enter an order imposing the discipline recommended by the
Board upon the expiration of the time permitted for filing exceptions.” See also In
re Viehe, 762 A.2d 542, 543 (D.C. 2000) (“When . . . there are no exceptions to the
Board’s report and recommendation, our deferential standard of review becomes
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even more deferential.”). We discern no reason to depart from the Board’s
recommendation, which conforms to our precedent. See In re Addams, 579 A.2d
190, 191 (D.C. 1990) (en banc) (“We now reaffirm that in virtually all cases of
misappropriation, disbarment will be the only appropriate sanction unless it
appears that the misconduct resulted from nothing more than simple negligence.”);
cf. In re Anderson, 778 A.2d 330, 339 (D.C. 2001) (where respondent’s
misappropriation of funds was not reckless, no presumption of disbarment).
Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that Phoebe Leslie Deak is hereby disbarred from the practice of
law in the District of Columbia. For the purposes of reinstatement, Ms. Deak’s
period of disbarment will not begin to run until such time as she files an affidavit
that fully complies with the requirements of D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14 (g).
So ordered.