On Thursday, March 10, 2023, the Supreme Court of Florida approved the petition for disciplinary revocation of the license of attorney William Kalish for his misconduct that involved withdrawing approximately $559,000 without the authorization of the foundation, the beneficiary of the trust account he is handling.

The case is entitled “In the Matter of William Kalish,” with case no. SC2022-0436.

On April 5, 2022, attorney Kalish filed an amended petition for disciplinary revocation without leave to apply for readmission before the Supreme Court of Florida. This is in relation to the current charge against him wherein he allegedly misappropriated funds from a trust account.

The filing states:

“Petitioner’s former law firm alleged that Petitioner represented a revocable trust over which he ultimately became the sole trustee and had sole signature authority on the trust investment account(s). The trust had various individual beneficiaries. After satisfying bequests to those individuals, the remaining corpus was to be turned over to the final remainder beneficiary of the trust, which was a Foundation. Petitioner served as a director of the Foundation along with other individuals.”

The filing continues:

“While some money was turned over to the Foundation, the balance of the distribution remained under the control of the Petitioner as trustee. While at the law firm, from 2017 to 2019, Petitioner informed the firm’s professional liability insurer that he did not take trustee fees for his services as trustee. In or around August 2021, the law firm had reason to believe that Petitioner was disbursing funds from the trust for his personal use and conducted an investigation. As a result of the investigation, the law firm alleged that Petitioner withdrew approximately $559,000 for the benefit of Petitioner without the knowledge or authorization of the other directors of the Foundation. The law firm reported that Petitioner explained in part that the disbursements were for trustee fees he had deferred to collect in years past.”

On May 5, 2022, the Florida Bar, in its answer to the amended petition for disciplinary revocation, requested the court to grant the same thereby revoking the license of the petitioner. According to the Florida Bar, the Board of Governors considered the amended petition at the Board of Governors’ May 20, 2022, meeting and voted to recommend that the court grant the said petition. Following the said response, an amended stipulation as to restitution was filed by the Florida Bar, and the petitioner requested the referee to grant the same.

On the referee’s report dated, March 3, 2023, it recommended to the court to accept the amended stipulation and enter a judgment that requires the petitioner to comply with confidential restitution agreements with the Baschab Trust. In relation to this, on March 30, 2023, the court entered an order approving the amended stipulation.

The order states:

“The uncontested report of the referee is approved and the parties’ Amended Stipulation is accepted. Petitioner shall comply with his confidential restitution agreements with both the Baschab Trust as well as Johnson, Pope, under the terms stated in the referee’s report and the Amended Stipulation.”

Mr. Kallish practices in Tampa, Florida. He is licensed in Florida as well as in the District of Columbia. His info can be found on lawyers.justia.com.

A copy of the original filing can be found here.