By Chloe Murdock
BridgeTower Media Newswires
ST. LOUIS — With no way to tell how much to reimburse clients of an attorney who mismanaged his clients’ funds in trust accounts for years, the Missouri Supreme Court disbarred Lorenzo Antoine Hester in a 22-page en banc opinion.
“Above all else, this Court finds Hester traversed the edge of unacceptable conduct by engaging in conduct that resulted in a financial benefit to himself and a loss to his clients,” Judge Robin Ransom wrote in the Nov. 22 opinion disbarring Hester.
Hester, a St. Louis personal injury attorney represented by Michael Downey, had sought a two–year license suspension on appeal before the high court. Downey did not respond to a call requesting comment. Gail Vasterling was counsel from the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel during oral arguments and had sought disbarment. Chief Disciplinary Counsel Laura Elsbury declined to comment.
An investigation and audit of Hester’s trust accounts revealed that the initial OCDC complaints were part of a pattern of fund mismanagement and other misconduct.
“He often deposited certain clients’ funds into one trust account and made disbursements related to those clients’ deposits from a different trust account,” Ransom wrote.
Hester had submitted a claim from one client’s personal insurance company to cover $500 medical payments, which he placed in his operating account rather than his trust account where client funds must be held. He never notified the client he received it after the client fired him and acquired new counsel. After a 2020 complaint from the client, Hester sent the former client $500 and an apology letter.
Though Hester never received a settlement or had settlement money deposited for two other clients with a car accident claim, he pulled thousands of dollars for each client from his trust account, claiming it was their settlement money award.
Hester also directed one of the clients to sign an agreement limiting Hester’s liability for malpractice without the client having another attorney present. Hester also failed to explain to clients his fee for reducing liens and provider bills, which the court found to be misconduct in itself.
“Hester’s retention of all reduced provider bills and liens as firm fees under his interpretation of the contingent fee agreement harmed clients,” Ransom wrote.
The audit also revealed a mess of trust account mismanagement. Hester did not maintain individual client ledgers or keep a record of receipts and disbursements.
It proved difficult for him to comply with the audit. An OCDC investigator estimated that he provided 10 percent of the requested settlement statements, and in order to complete the audit, she agreed to accept unsigned settlement statements from Hester.
“The investigator believed she would be receiving the same document, reprinted, as would have been given to the client to sign. Instead, Hester produced statements he created in response to the request,” Ransom wrote, noting he fabricated the statements based on estimations rather than exact accounting.
During an October 2021 hearing, Hester tried to introduce 159 settlement statements that OCDC had been requesting. No documentation supported the statements, and 10 of them were unsigned and created after February 2020.
“Hester testified that, in most instances, the providers did not actually receive the amount shown on the settlement statements because the amounts did not reflect any sort of negotiations or reductions that occurred,” Ransom wrote. “He further testified he did not withdraw attorney fees from his trust account on a case-by-case basis, so that figure on the settlement statements was also inaccurate.”
As noted in oral arguments, Ransom noted the impossibility of reimbursing all affected clients was the greatest impact on the decision to disbar Hester.
“Because of the disarray of Hester’s recordkeeping, it is doubtful any proper allocation of funds to clients could occur,” Ransom wrote. “The sheer quantity of impacted clients cannot be ignored.”
