On Monday, August 1, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on charges for attorney discipline against attorney Clifford Ginn, alleging misusing client funds.
The case, titled In Re: Clifford Ginn, was brought by Bar Counsel, Case #BD-2021-019.
The respondent was disciplined in Maine for failing to hold client settlement funds intact in a client trust account after he received those funds in December 2019. Some of the funds belonged to the client and some were subject to a fee dispute between the respondent and the client. Although the respondent notified the client of his receipt of the funds, provided him with accounting, and engaged with him in negotiations concerning his fee, he did not remit the amount he owed to the client until May 2020.
On March 18, 2021, bar counsel filed an initial petition for reciprocal discipline and the SJC thereafter suspended the respondent from practice in Massachusetts on an interim basis. On May 13, 2022, bar counsel filed a second petition for reciprocal discipline based on Maine’s final suspension order. The respondent waived the hearing and assented to the entry of an order of discipline consistent with the Maine order.
The order reads:
“Clifford Ginn is hereby suspended from the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a period of two (2)years, with the first one (1) year of the two (2) year suspension to be served and the remaining one (1) year to be stayed.
The effective date of the two (2) year suspension shall be retroactive to March 5, 2021.
The lawyer’s reinstatement to the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall be conditioned upon his reinstatement to the practice of law in the State of Maine and shall be pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 18(1)(b).”
He earned his law degree at Harvard University Law School in 2004. He has been licensed in Maine and Massachusetts.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
