Lorain attorney faces possible disciplinary action

LORAIN — Former Lorain Law Director Mark Provenza is facing potential sanctions from the Ohio Supreme Court’s disciplinary arm for allegedly failing to provide legal services for two of his clients and then refusing to cooperate with the investigation into allegations against him.

According to a certified complaint filed by the Lorain County Bar Association with the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline last week, Provenza neglected his responsibilities to the two clients earlier this year.

In one instance Provenza is accused of taking $800 from Robin Maxwell-Smith to file a divorce for her and then not doing any of the work.

Maxwell-Smith paid Provenza $300 on Dec. 27, 2013, for the divorce paperwork to be filed. That money should have been deposited in Provenza’s trust account, where lawyers are supposed to keep money from clients while cases are pending, but that never happened, the complaint said.

Over the next few months, Maxwell-Smith made several attempts to contact Provenza, but never had any meaningful communication with him, although she did pay him another $500 on Feb. 20. That money also wasn’t put into the trust account.

Provenza told Maxwell-Smith to meet him in court March 31, but that day he ignored text messages from her and only talked to her when she had him paged by court staff at the Lorain County Justice Center.

Provenza then told her “that he had not filed any divorce pleadings on her behalf and had forgotten he told her to appear in court for a hearing,” the complaint said.

He also didn’t return the money Maxwell-Smith paid him after she demanded a refund in April, according to the complaint.

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Lorain attorney faces possible disciplinary action