On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a disciplinary opinion regarding Attorney Ric Daniell, who was found guilty of violating several rules of professional conduct. The court imposed a two-year suspension on Daniell’s license, with 18 months conditionally stayed.
The case is entitled “In the Matter of Ric Daniell,” with case no. 2023-0468.
The charges against Daniell were related to his handling of a client’s adoption case. Daniell neglected the client’s legal matter, failed to reasonably communicate with the client, and failed to maintain the client’s advance fee and court costs in his client’s trust account until the fee was earned and the expenses were incurred. He also improperly managed his client’s trust account and failed to cooperate in the resulting disciplinary investigation.
The filing states:
“On July 23, 2014, this court imposed a conditionally stayed one-year suspension on Daniell’s license for his failure to properly maintain his client trust account and failure to cooperate during the ensuing disciplinary investigation.”
The parties submitted stipulations of fact and misconduct, which included 46 exhibits. Based on the stipulations and Daniell’s testimony, the panel found that Daniell committed the charged misconduct and recommended a two-year suspension, with 18 months conditionally stayed. The Supreme Court of Ohio adopted the panel’s findings and recommended sanction.
The court found that Daniell’s conduct violated several rules of professional conduct, including the rule that requires a lawyer to act with reasonable diligence, requires a lawyer to keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter, and the mandate that a lawyer should comply as soon as practicable with a client’s reasonable requests for information.
Based on these foregoing events, the Supreme Court of Ohio imposed a two-year suspension on Daniell’s license.
The Disposition states:
“Accordingly, Ric Daniell is hereby suspended from the practice of law in Ohio for two years with 18 months stayed on the conditions that: (1) within 60 days, he make restitution of $500 to Joseph Camp less the amount of any filing fees that Daniell proves he has paid on Camp’s behalf, (2) he pay the costs of these proceedings, and (3) he commits no further misconduct. If Daniell fails to comply with a condition of the stay, the stay will be revoked and he will be required to serve the full two-year suspension.”
According to avvo.com, Mr. Danielle is a bankruptcy and debt attorney in Columbus, Ohio. He attended the University of Toledo College of Law. He acquired his law license in Ohio in 1978.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
