On Monday, May 1, 2023, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania suspended attorney Gina Yvonne Toppin for her misconduct involving misrepresentation and failure to promptly refund an unearned fee.
The case is entitled “Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Gina Yvonne Toppin,” with case no. 91 DB 2022.
The charges cited Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4(a)(3), 1.4(a)(4), 1.4(c), 1.16(d), 8.4(c), and Pa.R.D.E 203(b)(7) which states:
A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.
A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.
A lawyer shall keep the client reasonably about the status of the matter.
A lawyer shall promptly comply with reasonable requests for information.
A lawyer in private practice shall inform a new client in writing if the lawyer does not have professional liability insurance of at least $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 in the aggregate per year, subject to commercially reasonable deductibles, retention or co-insurance, and shall inform existing clients in writing at any time the lawyer’s professional liability insurance drops below either of those amounts or the lawyer’s professional liability insurance is terminated.
A lawyer shall maintain a record of these disclosures for six years after the termination of the representation of a client.
A lawyer shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests, such as refunding any advance payment of fee or expense that has not been earned or incurred.
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or Pa.R. D.E which states that failure by a respondent-attorney without good cause to respond to Disciplinary Counsel’s request or supplemental request under Disciplinary Board Rules, S 87.7(b) for a statement Of the respondent- attorney’s position, shall be grounds for discipline.
The Rules of Professional Conduct can be found here.
The case stems from the respondent’s misconduct involving misrepresentation and failure to promptly refund an unearned fee while representing a client in a divorce matter.
The filing states:
“Between January 7, 2021, and January 10, 2021, Ms. Lloyd attempted to contact Respondent on several occasions at Respondent’s email address. Each of Ms. Lloyd’s emails was returned as “delivery incomplete”, “message not delivered”, “there was a temporary problem delivering your message” and/or “the recipient server did not accept our requests to connect.” On January 8, 2021, Ms. Lloyd telephoned the Respondent’s office to obtain a status on her matter. The respondent failed to return Ms. Lloyd’s call. Respondent failed to take any steps to finalize Ms. Lloyd’s divorce. Respondent failed to advise Ms. Lloyd that she did not intend to finalize her divorce matter.”
The filing continues:
“On November 1 0, 2021, O DC forwarded a DB-7 Letter Request for Statement of Respondent’s Position and Request for documents (“DB-7 Letter”) to her JFK address via certified mail return receipt requested. The DB-7 Letter informed Respondent that f she did not respond or provide good cause for failing to respond within 30 days, ODC may seek to impose discipline for her violation of Pa.R.D_E_. Respondent received the DB-7 Letter as evidenced by the signed return receipt card (“RC398C19″). Thereafter, the Respondent failed to respond to the DB-7 Letter.”
In lieu of her conduct and in consideration of the specific joint recommendation for discipline, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided to suspend the respondent from the practice of law.
The Disposition states:
“AND NOW, this ISt day of May 2023, upon consideration of the Recommendation of the Three-Member Panel of the Disciplinary Board, the Joint Petition in Support of Discipline on Consent is granted, and Gina Yvonne Toppin is suspended on consent from the Bar Of this Commonwealth for a period Of three months, followed by a period Of probation for three years.”
As of today, Ms. Toppin is listed as the owner of the Mosley Law Firm, LLC. She attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She practices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is licensed in Pennsylvania with license no. 209192. Her info can be found on Linkedin.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
