In re Swain
In re Swain
Opinion of the Court
This disciplinary matter is before the Court on the petition for voluntary discipline filed by Respondent James Swain (State Bar No. 693830) pursuant to Bar Rule 4-227 (b) before the issuance of a formal complaint. Swain requests a public reprimand for his admitted violations of Rules 1.2 (d) and 8.4 (a) (4).
From the admissions made in his petition, it appears that Swain, who has been a member of the Tennessee Bar since 1984 and a member of the Georgia Bar since 1994, was hired to create an irrevocable trust for a client’s father, who was hospitalized out of state. Swain created the documents and gave them to his client for the purpose of obtaining the father’s signature on the documents. When the client returned the documents they had the father’s signature, but the signature was not witnessed or notarized. Knowing that time was of the essence and that the client could not return to the out-of-state hospital to have the documents re-signed, Swain called the client’s father in the presence of two witnesses and asked
Having reviewed the record, we conclude that a public reprimand is an appropriate sanction in this case, and we therefore accept the petition for voluntary discipline. Accordingly, the Court hereby orders that James Swain receive a public reprimand in accordance with Bar Rules 4-102 (b) (3) and 4-220 (c) for his admitted violation of Rules 1.2 (d) and 8.4 (a) (4).
Petition for voluntary discipline accepted. Public reprimand.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN THE MATTER OF JAMES SWAIN
- Cited By
- 13 cases
- Status
- Published