On Thursday, August 29, 2024, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred attorney Bruce A. Johnson Jr. from practicing law in D.C.
The case is entitled “In the Matter of Bruce A. Johnson, J.,” with case no. 23-BG-0587.
The court had found Johnson committed reckless misappropriation of client funds held in trust. Their ruling stems from disciplinary charges brought against Johnson related to his handling of funds for three separate client matters from 2015 to 2019.
A Hearing Committee originally concluded Johnson negligently rather than recklessly misappropriated funds, warranting a 16-month suspension. However, the Board on Professional Responsibility disagreed and found his conduct rose to the level of recklessness.
As the sole principal of his firm, Johnson relied on credit card payments and used a processing company to facilitate transfers into his law firm’s trust account. This led to sizable monthly processing fees being deducted from the account without proper reimbursement for years.
Problems came to a head in late 2018 when several checks written from the account were returned due to insufficient funds. An investigation revealed over $30,000 in unpaid credit card fees had been deducted from the trust balance since 2015, leaving less than $5 in the account in November 2018 when significantly more money should have been held for clients.
While Johnson maintained various bookkeeping methods and employed an accountant, the court did not find these measures adequate. Records were poorly kept and bank statements went unreviewed, despite Johnson becoming aware as early as 2016 that fees were not being reimbursed to the trust account. He failed to properly supervise the accountant or take meaningful actions to address red flags.
Johnson attempted to challenge several factual findings against him and argued his case differed from prior cases of reckless misappropriation. However, the court was not persuaded, finding the key facts established by record were sufficient to show his conduct rose to the level of reckless misconduct.
The Disposition states:
“Accordingly, it is ordered that Bruce A. Johnson, Jr. be, and hereby is, disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia. For purposes of reinstatement, the period of Mr. Johnson’s disbarment shall not begin to run until such time as Mr. Johnson files an adequate affidavit of compliance with D.C. Bar R. Xl, 14(g). See D.C. Bar R. Xl, 16(c).”
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
