Richard Taylor Wilsdon

Richard Taylor Wilsdon was admitted to the California Bar 7th January 1959, but is now resigned. Richard graduated from Stanford University Law School.

Lawyer Information

Name	Richard Taylor Wilsdon
First Admitted	7 January 1959 (65 years, 4 months ago)
Status	Resigned
Bar Number	29086

Contact

Current Email	[email protected]

Schools

Law School	Stanford University Law School (Stanford CA)
Undergraduate School	Pomona Coll (Claremont CA)

Address

Current Address	P O Box 5515 Carmel, CA 93921
Map

History

17 April 2002	Resigned (22 years ago) Resignation with charges pending 02-Q-10988
27 February 2002	Not eligible to practice law in CA (22 years, 2 months ago) Vol.inactive(tender of resign.w/charges) 02-Q-10988
5 July 1983	Active (40 years, 10 months ago)
1 August 1980	Not eligible to practice law in CA (43 years, 9 months ago) Interim suspension after conviction
2 July 1980	Not eligible to practice law in CA (43 years, 10 months ago) Discipline w/actual suspension
7 January 1959	Admitted to the State Bar of California (65 years, 4 months ago)

Discipline Summaries

April 17, 2002

A Carmel attorney convicted of embezzling about $1.8 million from his deceased clients' estate has resigned from the State Bar, shortly before he was sentenced to seven years in state prison. RICHARD WILSDON [#29086], 68, gave up his law license April 17, 2002, after pleading guilty to two counts of felony grand theft.

Wilsdon represented the estate of Ella and Lindberg Kao of Pebble Beach, both natives of China and former professors at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. Lindberg Kao died in 1999 and his wife died in 2001. They wanted their million-dollar-plus estate to go to an eye clinic at a Beijing hospital.

Instead, Wilsdon, who had drawn up the couple's wills and was named the executor of their estate, dipped into the fund to buy a Carmel Valley condominium, an Infiniti car, and $90,000 worth of gold coins. At the time, the lawyer was going through his third divorce, which had left him with no property and little money.

"What seemed like a solution appeared in the form of an estate whose only heir was the Chinese government, who presumably would suffer little harm if the estate funds were diverted," Wilsdon wrote in a letter to Monterey County Superior Court Judge Gary Meyer at the time of his sentencing.

"I could buy a home so I would have a place to live the rest of my days," he wrote. "I could buy the last car I would ever need. I would have some reserve funds which would allow me to cut back on my schedule."

But Wilsdon got caught by another attorney who had been appointed to represent Ella Kao prior to her death. Wilsdon had not filed an accounting of the estate with the probate court and when ordered to do so, he fled Monterey. He was arrested in Boulder City, Nev.

At his sentencing, Wilsdon told the judge he is deeply remorseful about his conduct. "I have always been proud to be an attorney and I never have understood the low opinion of attorneys held by the general public," he wrote in his letter to Judge Meyer. "My actions have only served to give credence to the low opinion held by the public, a fact I deeply regret.

"It is with great shame, embarrassment and sorrow that I find myself in the situation I have created. I am, frankly, very fearful of what the future holds, but I intend to do my best to survive and to atone for what I have done. My greatest fear is that I will die while still confined. It is not how I wish to end my life."

In addition to a 40-year legal career, Wilsdon was a member of the Carmel Unified School District Board and was president of both the Carmel Business Association and the Carmel Rotary Club.

But his record was hardly spotless. He also was convicted of embezzlement in 1980, after taking about $65,000 from a client's estate. Sentenced to 90 days in jail, he was suspended by the State Bar for three years and says he returned all the money to his client.

In addition to the prison sentence, Meyer ordered Wilsdon to make $1.87 million in restitution to the Beijing hospital. At the time of the sentencing, Wilsdon had returned $1.2 million, but several hundred thousand dollars remained unaccounted for.

Richard Wilsdon