On Friday, March 10, 2023, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge of the Supreme Court of Colorado suspended attorney Matthew Kent Barringer. The case is entitled “In the matter of Matthew Kent Barringer” with case no. 22PDJ064.
The charges cited Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.4(b), and 1.15(a) which state:
A lawyer must act with reasonable diligence and promptness when representing a client.
A lawyer must explain the matter so as to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation.
A lawyer must hold client property separate from the lawyer’s own property.
The Rules of Professional Conduct can be found here.
The respondent represented a client and agreed to prepare an I-589 asylum application for the latter and her son. However, the application that the respondent prepared for his client was deficient and failed to establish the required essential eligibility requirements for asylum, despite the fact that the client mentioned to the respondent that she had experienced specific and articulable harm in her country of origin. The respondent failed to include that material information in the said application. Moreover, the application even incorrectly stated that it wasn’t filed within a year of the date the client entered the United States.
Allegedly, the respondent also failed to prepare his client for the merits hearing in the asylum case. Instead of personally attending, the respondent sent another lawyer to cover the hearing for him. The problem was that the latter cannot speak Spanish and relied on the client’s friend to translate during a brief conferral before the hearing. Lastly, the respondent failed to hold his client’s money in his trust account until the money was earned.
The filing states:
“Barringer charged a flat fee of $4,000.00 for the work. The fee agreement provided that Barringer would earn the $1,500.00 deposit by preparing his client’s file and that he would earn the remainder of the fee after appearing at any required hearings in the case. Barringer’s client paid the fee in installments between May and October 2019.”
Following the incident, the parties filed a stipulation to discipline. Upon considering the factual allegations, the court decided to approve the stipulation and suspend the respondent.
The Disposition states:
“The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Matthew Kent Barringer (attorney registration number 35429) for sixty days, all to stay upon Barringer’s successful completion of a one-year period of probation with conditions. The discipline takes into account substantial mitigating factors. The probation is effective March 10, 2023.”
Mr. Barringer is listed in the Barringer Law firm as a practicing attorney. He attended the Oklahoma City School of Law, graduating in 20023. He practices in Denver, Colorado. He is licensed in Colorado and Oklahoma. Mr. Barringer’s info can be found on Linkedin.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
