Grievance v. Coppola

ATTORNEY GRIEVANCECOMMISSION OF MARYLAND

v.JOHN MICHAEL COPPOLA

Misc. Docket AG No. 5

COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND

September Term, 2010

Filed: April 29, 2011

Attorney Grievance Commission v. John Michael Coppola,

Misc. Docket AG No. 5, September Term 2010.

ATTORNEY DISCIPLINE - FORGERY OF ESTATE PLANNING

DOCUMENTS - NOTARIZATION OF FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS

The Respondent, John Michael Coppola, having been found in violation of the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct 1.2(d) and 8.4(a), (b), (c), and (d), was disbarred.Bell, C.J.

Harrell

Battaglia

Greene

Murphy

Adkins

Barbera

JJ.

Opinion by Battaglia, J.,

Murphy, J., Dissents which Bell, C.J.,

joins.

John Michael Coppola, Respondent, was admitted to the Bar of this Court on October 20, 1997. On February 24, 2010, the Attorney Grievance Commission ("Petitioner" or "Bar Counsel"), acting pursuant to Maryland Rule 16-751(a),¹ filed a "Petition for Disciplinary or Remedial Action" against Coppola, charging numerous violations of the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct ("MRPC" or "Rule"), including Rule 1.2(d) (Scope of Representation),² Rules 3.3(a)(1) and (a)(2) (Candor Toward the Tribunal),³ and Rules 8.4(a), (b), (c), and (d) (Misconduct),⁴ with regard to estate planning services provided to thechildren of Elizabeth West, while Ms. West lay "unconscious or semi-conscious" in the hospital.

This Court referred the matter to Judge Ronald H. Jarashow of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for a hearing to determine findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Maryland Rule 16-757 (Judicial Hearing).⁵ On June 23, 2010, Judge Jarashowheld an evidentiary hearing, during which Coppola was represented by counsel, and thereafter, issued Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, in which he found, by clear and convincing evidence, that Coppola's acts and omissions constituted violations of Rules 1.2(d) and 8.4(a), (b), (c), and (d). In so doing, Judge Jarashow made the following findings regarding Coppola's background:⁶

I. FINDINGS OF FACT.

A. BACKGROUND FACTS

Respondent, John M. Coppola, was born in 1960. Mr. Coppola was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1989 and to the Maryland Bar in 1997. He currently lives in Upperville, Virginia, and practices law principally out of the Leesburg, Virginia office of Ryan & Coppola.

Mr. Coppola was raised in Northern Virginia and he attended Catholic elementary school and high school in that area. In 1982, he earned a B.A. in economics from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He then attended graduate school at Boston College, earning an M.B.A. with a concentration in marketing in 1984, at the age of 23.

After earning his M.B.A., Mr. Coppola returned to Northern Virginia and worked as the Director of Marketing for Washington Business School, a trade school then owned by Mr.Coppola's parents. In 1985, Mr. Coppola began attending law school at night at American University, Washington College of Law while working full time. He earned his J.D. from American University in December 1988, and was admitted to the Bar of Virginia in 1 989.

John Coppola, the Respondent, has been a member of the Maryland Bar since 1997. He has practiced law from an office in Leesburg, Virginia since 2000 and concentrates his practice in the area of estates and trusts.

After passing the Virginia Bar, Mr. Coppola continued in his marketing position at Washington Business School, while also taking on a few legal duties for the School. In or about 1996, Mr. Coppola formed a partnership with John Ryan, an estates and trusts lawyer and lifelong friend. Mr. Ryan had recently opened a solo practice in Fairfax. Mr. Coppola audited courses at American University's law school to learn the basics of estates and trusts practice.

In 1997, Mr. Coppola opened an office of Ryan & C oppola in Towson, M aryland. He closed the Towson office in 2000 and relocated his practice to Leesburg, Virginia, much closer in distance from his home. From 2000 through the present, Mr. Coppola has worked from the Leesburg office while Mr. Ryan works from a Fairfax office.

Mr. Coppola was married in 1987 to Patricia DiSalle Coppola. The Coppolas have four children, a girl who is now 15, and triplets (two boys and a girl) who are now 13. The triplets were born premature and have had significant health issues, particularly early in life. Two of the children have continuing health and developmental issues that consume a significant portion of Mr. Coppola's time and income.

The Coppolas were divorced in 2002, but Mr. Coppola maintains very close ties to his ex-wife and children. Patricia Coppola currently works as an assistant for Ryan & Coppola. She and the children live in Mr. Coppola's former home in Vienna, Virginia. Although Mr. Coppola lives about an hour away, he spends a substantial portion of each day with his children and his ex-wife. On most weekdays, he leaves the office in the late afternoon, meets the children at their house, prepares and serves them dinner, and takes one or more to various evening activities like boy scouts or sports practices,before driving an hour back to his house in Upperville. On weekends he also meets with the children and takes them to various activities.

Mr. Coppola is the principal provider for his children. He has alimony and child support obligations in excess of $36,000 per year. He also pays health insurance in excess of $36,000 per year, a consequence of his children's preexisting health problems. Mr. Coppola testified that he is behind in his health insurance payments as a result of a substantial decrease in his income, as described in more detail below.

Since 1997, Mr. Coppola has practiced in the area of estates and trusts. He estimates that he has represented 950 to 1,000 clients over the course of his practice and that 80 percent of his clients today are Virginia residents and about 20 percent are Maryland residents.

Mr. Coppola consciously chose estates and trusts work because he believed he could help his clients without simultaneously harming others, unlike the nature of other legal practice areas, like litigation, which involve clients in dispute with others. Mr. Coppola typically represents middle-aged and middle-income individuals and families in estate planning and trust matters. He believes that many people in this demographic neglect their estate-planning needs in part because of the expense and difficulty of retaining a lawyer, and he has been known to reduce or waive his fee for clients who cannot afford to pay.

Mr. Coppola has never been disciplined by any bar association or court.

The hearing judge then described Coppola's contact with Elizabeth West's daughter, Jeanne Swink, which ultimately led to the series of events in issue here:

B. ALLEGED VIOLATIONS - ESSENTIAL FACTS.

In 2001, Mr. Coppola represented a Virginia couple named Jeanne and Richard Swink in preparing a typical estate plan. At that time, Ms. Swink mentioned that her mother, Elizabeth L. West, was getting older and lacked an adequate estate plan. Mr. Coppola invited Ms. Swink to have her mother get in touch with him, but Ms. West did not do so at that time.

Mr. Coppola stayed in touch with Ms. Swink over the years. In approximately December 2007, Ms. Swink mentioned to Mr. Coppola's ex-wife that Ms. West needed an estate plan. Ms. West, however, did not contact Mr. Coppola at that time.

In or about June 2008, Ms. Swink again contacted Mr. Coppola about an estate plan for Ms. West. On this occasion, Ms. Swink indicated that her mother was ill. Mr. Coppola recalls that he spoke by phone with Ms. West on this occasion. The Respondent testified that the conversation lasted approximately fifteen minutes and that Ms. Swink was also involved in the conference. This conversation appears to be the only one that Respondent had with Ms. West concerning her estate plan. He learned that Ms. West had an existing Will, drafted in 1995, that left all her assets in equal shares to her four adult children. Mr. Coppola subsequently obtained a copy of the 1995 Will, which was introduced into evidence in this case.

Mr. Coppola also learned that Ms. West had one significant probatable asset, a house in Prince George's County, Maryland, and that Ms. West wanted to leave her estate to her four children in equal shares, with a minimum of fees and expenses. Mr. Coppola recommended that Ms. West enter into an estate plan that would include a new Will, a trust declaration, an assignment of property to the trust, and a deed transferring the house to the trust. Under Mr. Coppola's plan, a revocable "Living Trust" would be created during Ms. West's lifetime. Ms. West would be named as trustee and would have full control of trust assets during her lifetime. The Deed would transfer ownership of the house to the Living Trust, and the Assignment would pass untitled personal property to the Trust. Upon Ms. West's death, the Living Trust automatically would be converted to an irrevocable "Family Trust," whose assets would be distributed to each child in equal shares.

The principal purposes of this estate plan were to ensure that Ms. West's major asset did not become part of her probatable estate with the goals of (1) avoiding the fees and expenses chargeable in probate proceedings; (2) allowing the trustee to sell the house readily and without delay or complications of probate; and (3) accomplishing the same distribution as would be carried out in formal probate.

Mr. Coppola also explained to Ms. West that he wouldprepare a general durable power of attorney and related medical powers of attorney as part of a normal estate plan for a person in her circumstances. She did not formally ask him to prepare the documents at that time.

Ms. West, herself, did not follow up ever again with Mr. Coppola.

The hearing judge then described what happened on August 25, 2008, when Ms. Swink asked Coppola to meet with her family at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, where Ms.West was a patient:

On or about August 25, 2008, Mr. Coppola

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