On Friday, September 5, 2025, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge of the Supreme Court of Colorado approved an amended stipulation to discipline attorney Robert Allen Lees. Lees will face a six-month suspension, which will be stayed contingent upon his successful completion of a two-year probation period with specific conditions. The probation period commenced on September 5, 2025.
The case is entitled “People v. Robert Allen Lees,” with case no. 25PDJ53.
The disciplinary action stems from violations of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct related to Lees’ management of his law firm and handling of client funds. Lees owns and operates the law firm in question. The issues arose from events following the hiring of an experienced lawyer as the firm’s senior managing associate in August 2023. On October 3, 2023, this associate took on managerial roles, including some oversight of the firm’s finances.
In early October 2023, a client retained Lees’s firm for litigation representation in a New York state court, paying a $5,000 retainer. The full retainer was deposited into the firm’s business account on October 2, 2023. While Lees did not personally deposit the check, he acknowledges ultimate responsibility for the deposit.
An invoice issued to the client on March 1, 2024, indicated that the firm had earned $1,785 in legal fees, leaving a credit balance of $3,215. Lees had entrusted the senior managing associate and the firm’s bookkeeper with reconciling the firm’s trust account, but failed to reconcile the account in a timely manner. This failure led to Lees not noticing that the client’s retainer had been deposited into the firm’s business account instead of the trust account.
In February 2024, Lees and the client discussed hiring local New York counsel, and Lees provided the client with several referrals. However, the client received no further communication from the firm until June 2024, when a paralegal inquired whether the client had found New York counsel. The client had understood that securing local counsel was Lees’s responsibility. Although the paralegal offered to arrange a call between the client and Lees, no call occurred.
Lees’s accounting records showed a trust balance of $557.50 due to the client. Lees replenished the missing funds to the trust account and refunded the client the balance of the trust funds on August 26, 2025.
The parties agreed that Lees’s conduct violated several Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct. These include Rule 1.4(a)(3), requiring lawyers to keep clients reasonably informed; Rule 1.15A(a), mandating the segregation and safeguarding of client property; Rule 1.15C(c), requiring quarterly reconciliation of trust account records; Rule 5.1(a), obligating partners to ensure firms implement measures for compliance with professional conduct rules; and Rule 5.3(b), requiring lawyers to ensure nonlawyer staff conduct aligns with the lawyer’s professional obligations. The case file is public record.
According to Avvo.com, Mr. Lees is an administrative law attorney in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He attended Case Western Reserve University, graduating in 1977. He acquired his law license in Colorado in the same year.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
