Jefferson City lawyer Sam Trapp can't practice law for at least a year, the Missouri Supreme Court said Tuesday.
In a five-paragraph order, the court said Trapp "is hereby suspended indefinitely from the practice of law and that no petition for reinstatement will be entertained for a period of one year from the date of this order."
The ruling came 13 days after the seven-member court heard arguments in the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel's (OCDC) motion to suspend Trapp's license for at least six months because of his sloppy accounting practices and, at least in one case, misappropriating property of a client's mother.
Trapp's attorney, James (Doug) Barding, urged the court to place Trapp on probation, because some of the problems the OCDC cited really didn't occur, and the accounting issues were being resolved.
But the court's order found that Trapp "is guilty of misconduct" for violating six provisions of the court's Rules of Professional Conduct that lawyers are supposed to follow.
Those provisions include communicating with, and explaining things to, clients; declining or terminating representation of a client; keeping clients' property and money separate from the lawyer's "own property," with legal fees paid in advance to be withdrawn "only as fees are earned or expenses incurred;" and, in a disciplinary hearing, knowingly making "a false statement of material fact," or failing to disclose "a fact necessary to correct a misapprehension known ... to have arisen in the matter" or failing "to respond to a lawful demand for information from an admissions or disciplinary authority."
The court ordered Trapp to "comply in all respects with Rule 5.27 - Procedure Following a Disbarment or Suspension Order," which spells out how he must "not accept any new retainer or act as lawyer for another in any new case or legal matter of any nature," and withdraw "from representation in pending matters in a manner that will minimize any material adverse effect on the clients' interests."
The rule also details how he must notify current clients and any lawyers on the other side of cases he was working on, of the court's suspension of his license, which he must turn in to the Supreme Court's clerk within 15 days.
Trapp at one time had offices at the Lake of the Ozarks and in Columbia and Kansas City as well as Jefferson City. Barding told the court during the Oct. 1 hearing that those had been consolidated into the Jefferson City office.
Trapp also has the Zesto's (Downtown) franchise, which he is closing next month, and relocating to East High Street as Trappers Too, a restaurant/bar that recently opened. Those business interests are not directly affected by the Supreme Court's Tuesday order.