Disbarred attorney begged fleeced client for mercy
Published:Thursday | May 9, 2019 | 12:29 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer
Now-disbarred attorney-at-law Donovan Malcolm is said to have pleaded with complainant Cecille Thomas to not take legal action against him after she found out that only a portion of the money that she had given him had been paid over to the law firm where he worked.
“Please, I am really begging you, I have done a wrongful act. I have learnt from this. I don’t want to lose my licence to practice as an attorney. I don’t want to go to court,” Malcolm said in a WhatsApp message sent to Thomas dated December 22, 2016.
“I am begging you, Ms Thomas, I am on my knees. Please give me some time to work back the monies.”
Despite his plea, Thomas filed a complaint with the General Legal Council’s (GLC) Disciplinary Committee, which, on March 8, 2019, found that Malcolm was in breach of Canon 1 (b) of the Legal Profession (Canons of Professional Ethics) Rules. The Disciplinary Committee ruled that Malcolm had contravened the stipulation that an attorney should maintain the honour and dignity of the profession and abstain from behaviour that brought it into disrepute.
He was also found in breach of Canon V11 (a), which states that an attorney shall comply with rules prescribed by the GLC relating to the maintenance of separate accounts for client funds.
In her affidavit, which was accepted as true by the three-member panel comprising attorneys-at-law Debra McDonald, Dane Marsh, and Jeffrey Daley Thomas, the client said that she entered into an agreement with Monica and Keith Blair to purchase the parcel of land located at 651/2 Deanery Road, Kingston, for $15 million.
Cecille Thomas said that the Blairs were represented by attorney Donovan Malcolm, who she later found out was an associate at the firm Clough Long & Co.
Thomas said that she paid him just over $11.5 million towards the purchase price, closing costs, and fees for applications for change of use and modification of a boundary breach.
She also gave evidence that she paid sums to the attorney to settle the vendor’s mortgage of $5.1 million well before the end of the three-year mortgage term.
After requesting the title and being given multiple excuses by Malcolm, she said that she contacted a senior partner at Clough Long & Co who took over conduct of the matter and learned that only $5 million of what she had given to Malcolm was paid over to the firm. The rest of the money could not be accounted for.
She said that she subsequently paid the balance of $6.5 million, bringing the grant total paid over to the firm and the disbarred attorney to $16.4 million. This sum excluded closing costs, which were paid separately.
The disciplinary panel also heard that the attorney falsified a copy of the registered title, the real one showing a mortgage deed for $8.6 million.
Having been found guilty of professional misconduct, however, the attorney was given an opportunity to present arguments in mitigation on the matter of sanction.
But at the hearing on April 17, no such arguments were presented. He was subsequently disbarred.
The disbarred attorney has been ordered to pay just over $4.3 million to Thomas and $200,000 to the General Legal Council.