On Friday, January 27, 2023, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission filed disciplinary charges against attorney Jeffrey Mark Leving for charging unreasonable fees to clients and failing to refund unearned fees.

The case is entitled “In the Matter of Jeffrey Mark Leving,” and was brought by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission with case no. 2023PR00004.

The charges cited Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct Rules 1.5 (a) and 1.16(d).

The Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct can be found here.

According to one of the complaints, the respondent, while representing a client in a child support matter, charged an unreasonable fee including collecting $6,000 in legal fees from the client and attempting to collect an additional $3,900.26. The respondent and his firm allegedly incurred approximately three months of representation during which time no substantive motions or pleadings were filed on the client’s behalf. Moreover, the respondent also failed to refund the unearned fees to the same client including failing to refund the unearned portions of the clients.

The filing states:

“Per the Leving Firm’s invoice, the firm claimed Leonard owed $9,766.50 in billable time and incurred $133.76 in expenses. As a result, the Leving Firm claimed Leonard owed the firm $3,900.26, in addition to the $6,000 he already paid the firm. As of the date of the invoice, the firm had not filed any motion to adjust Leonard’s child support payments on his behalf.”

The filing continues:

“In the course of its representation of Leonard, the Leving Firm employed the services of investigator Wayne Halick. Neither the intake attorney who initially handled Leonard’s case nor anyone at the Leving Firm consulted with Leonard before engaging Halick’s services. Halick purportedly investigated the finances of Leonard’s former spouse. At no point did Leonard raise any issues or concerns with anyone at the Leving Firm about his former spouse’s finances, nor did he request that such an investigation take place. The Leving Firm billed Leonard for 3.4 hours of Halick’s time at $290 per hour, for a total of $986 for the investigation of Leonard’s former spouse.”

The respondent charged unreasonable fees not just in the instant matter. In total, there are eight counts of accusations where the respondent was charged for the same conduct. In consideration of the multiple disciplinary charges and factual findings, along with the violated Rules of Professional Conduct, the administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission requested that a hearing be held by the Hearing Board to make findings of fact, conclusions of fact and law, and recommendations for such discipline.

As of today, Mr. Leving runs his own law firm the Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving Ltd. H practices in Chicago, Illinois. He is licensed in Illinois. His information can be found here.

A copy of the original filing can be found here.