Roy Rickard Withers was admitted to the California Bar 16th December 1985, but has since been disbarred. Roy graduated from Western State University.

Lawyer Information

NameRoy Rickard Withers
First Admitted16 December 1985 (38 years, 3 months ago)
StatusDisbarred
Bar Number120779

Contact

Current Email[email protected]
Phone Number619-295-1305
Fax Number619-297-9036

School

Law SchoolWestern State University (CA)

Address

Current AddressPO Box 16685
San Diego, CA 92176
Map

History

25 July 2010Disbarred (13 years, 8 months ago)
Disbarment 03-O-03566
12 February 2010Not eligible to practice law in CA (14 years, 1 month ago)
Ordered inactive 03-O-03566
16 December 1985Admitted to the State Bar of California (38 years, 3 months ago)

Discipline Summaries

July 25, 2010

ROY RICKARD WITHERS [#120779], 61, of San Diego was disbarred July 25, 2010, and was ordered to make restitution and comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court.

The State Bar Court found that Withers committed 10 acts of misconduct, including misappropriating $162,000 from a client.

Withers represented various members of a family with a variety of matters, including divorce, estate planning, elder abuse, a breach of contract lawsuit and protective orders. He held more than $459,000 in his client trust account and paid himself legal fees of $150,000. When another attorney asked for information, Withers wrote, “There is no current estate from which to pay any allowance, family or otherwise.” Judge Pat McElroy said his statement was false.

Two days after the court ordered that Withers transfer the funds he held in trust to a court-appointed attorney for the trust’s administrator, he declared bankruptcy. He sent a check for $189,502.76 to the administrator’s attorney and said he’d paid his own law office $150,000 for legal fees and costs and the remaining balance was $189,502.76. The court ordered Withers to return the $150,000 and to pay a $1,500 sanction. The clients repeatedly requested an invoice, and Withers finally sent a bill for $150,029.40 in unpaid attorney fees. He also wrote a letter to a bar investigator that falsely claimed his client authorized payment of that amount.

McElroy found that Withers failed to maintain client funds in trust, communicate with clients or obey a court order and he committed acts of moral turpitude by misappropriating client funds and by making misrepresentations to another lawyer, the court and the bar.

In another matter, one of the clients sued Withers for breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud and professional negligence and won actual damages, $36,000 in punitive damages and an invalidation of a fee agreement. The value of the judgment, with interest, was $289,433.67. McElroy found that Withers failed to report the judgment to the State Bar, as required, and he committed further acts of moral turpitude by falsely telling the bar his client had approved a $150,000 legal fee.

Although McElroy said Withers was entitled to substantial mitigation “for his 16 years of misconduct-free practice, his extensive partial stipulation of facts and his good character,” she nonetheless recommended his disbarment because he has not repaid any of the misappropriated money or the court-ordered sanction and he “repeatedly attempted to conceal his misappropriations by deliberately making false statements to opposing counsel, the superior court, and the State Bar.”