Not a topic lawyers like to talk about, but newspapers do. On Friday October 23, a Bucks County lawyer was charged with taking $150,000 from two of his clients. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the attorney is 40 and seems to have already agreed to suspend his law practice while dealing with addiction issues.
Lawyers have always drunk a lot. It’s not a pretty thing but even if you buy a bottle a day of single barrel whatever, your habit costs $60 and a lot of time you could be working. Today we have new problems that make alcohol look cheap. The list of organic and manufactured drugs that can amuse you is as long as your arm. But they don’t come cheap and they are far more addictive than the stuff that comes “bottled in bond.” Then we have the emergence of internet gambling. No high and no hangover or withdrawal. But the need for money to bet never lets up.
We wrote about this on April 24, 2026, telling the story of a lawyer addicted to gambling. Pennsylvania is the new Mecca of online gambling. In Pennsylvania, the epicenter of online gambling, bettors with addiction beg lawmakers to act . So, we have a vulnerable legal community which may need to tap resources beyond income to feed a habit.
The places where lawyers can go for cash beyond their own stash are client escrow funds. Lawyers managing decedent’s estates typically hold that money while the estate is administered and a court approves the distributions. That can leave large accounts sitting for years. Then there are escrow funds related to business and domestic disputes. Squabbling spouses or business owners sell an asset but can’t agree on how it should be divided. It sits in a bank account held by the lawyer(s) until a court decides.
The typical crisis emerges this way. Lawyer develops a problem with drugs or gambling. They NEED cash now but feel confident that in taking client escrow money they will be able to quickly repay any amount they “borrow.” The client won’t notice because she doesn’t have access to the account to see the transaction. Alas, a week then a month goes by and the withdrawals are starting to mount.
I saw this happen with a colleague in my home county starting in 2020. Respected lawyer. Child of a prominent psychiatrist. Trained at one of the county’s leading law firms and then transitioned to solo practice. At age 57 word circulated that this long-time fixture in the courthouse had lost his license to practice. The Supreme Court docket said only, “Disbarred on consent.” A year later he was charged with theft and forgery involving use of $900,000 in proceeds from a divorce where the parties had sold their home and could not agree. The couple eventually contacted police when they learned of the disbarment and could not reach the lawyer. A court order to turn over the money failed and, at that point, police began to investigate. In November 2023 the lawyer was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison.
How do clients avoid this? Minimize what money any lawyer holds. If you are fighting over whether one of you gets 60% of an asset or 40%, each of you should take 40% and confine the lawyers to 20%. Split the 20% so that each lawyer only holds 10%. If a lawyer holds accounts on behalf of an estate, insist that the monthly statements sent by the banks to the lawyers be copied and sent to you. You won’t be able to monitor each transaction, but the goal of estate accounting is typically to accumulate cash rather than depleting it.
It’s a hassle but a pittance when compared to the anguish of money that goes missing. Courts can order restitution, but disbarred attorneys aren’t real good about repaying the amount owed.
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