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.
Full Article & Source:
Milford lawyer Harland L. Smith Jr. disbarred, accused of stealing $300K from clients
