Milford lawyer Harland L. Smith Jr. disbarred, accused of stealing $300K from clients

MILFORD – The state’s top court has disbarred a Milford attorney, accusing him of stealing more than $300,000 from clients and mishandling cases over at least two decades.

“There were multiple aggravating factors,” according to documents from the state Board of Bar Overseers, announcing the disbarment, “including the respondent’s experience in the practice of law, prior discipline, as well as dishonesty and lack of candor before the hearing committee.”

Harland L. Smith Jr., whose office is in downtown Milford, was most recently in Framingham District Court late last year on embezzlement charges. Holliston police accused Smith of stealing from a dead client, whose money should have gone to her estate and family, according to the state board and Holliston police.

That case, which played out between 2012 and 2017, and another from 2006 to 2018, were the subjects of particular scrutiny in Smith’s disbarment.

The board accused Smith of stealing at least $40,000 associated with the case, beginning in 2006, in which he handled money from a home sale in a divorce, and mishandled more. That included an accusation that Smith withdrew $160,000 meant for his client, but did not notify her or give it to her for years, and failed to give the money to his client for child support when asked.

State board documents said he inaccurately blamed the ex-husband for the lack of child support payments, and that the account plummeted from $210,899 to $140 under his care.

In the second case, with the Holliston client, the board claimed Smith took $17,456 in pension checks and a $9,577 insurance check meant for his client, as well as $183,865 in real estate proceeds. Some of that money, board documents said, was used to pay back the $160,000 due his client in the divorce case.

Smith was admitted to the bar in 1988. The Board of Bar Overseers records accuse him of mishandling multiple cases since the 1990s, saying he “took advantage of and victimized multiple vulnerable clients.”

In the earliest case in the board’s online records, Smith is accused of failing to secure necessary permission from a trustee.

“At the time that he filed suit, (Smith) knew that he was required to obtain permission of the trustee,” the board’s summary of that case reads, “but the statute of limitations was about to expire and the respondent was concerned that the trustee would not provide authorization in time.”

Over the years, the board publicly reprimanded Smith, and in 2011, gave him a stayed suspension of six months.

Smith lives in East Brookfield, according to phone records and Daily News archives. The voicemail for the number listed for Harland Smith Attorney at Law in Milford was full Tuesday, calls to the number went unanswered, and he was not available at his listed address of 134 Main St.

To comply with the order for disbarment from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Smith will have to do several things within a month, according to the documents. Those include officially withdrawing from every court where he has a case, resigning from all his attorney-related appointments, such as guardian, executor or trustee, and notifying all his clients that he has been disbarred. He will no longer be able to practice law as of May, though he can finish cases on which be might currently be working.

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Milford lawyer Harland L. Smith Jr. disbarred, accused of stealing $300K from clients