The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the filing of disciplinary orders involving a number of licensed lawyers. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law. More information on each case is available at the
ARDC website.
DISBARRED
- Harry E. Defrouneau, Markham
(Order entered on February 4, 2011)
Mr. Defourneau, who was licensed in 1985, was disbarred on consent. He was convicted in federal court on one count of mail fraud in connection with a real estate transaction that was part of a larger mortgage fraud scheme involving other defendants.
SUSPENDED
- Maurice Joseph Barry, Jr., Normal
Mr. Barry, who was licensed in 1985, was suspended for one year. He made false statements in pleadings and in open court about whether he represented a party in a lawsuit. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- Marie A. Durbin, Clayton, Mo.
Ms. Durbin, who was licensed in 1987, was suspended for two years and until further order of the Court, with the suspension stayed after five months by a two-year period of conditional probation. She failed to diligently represent her client, a group of union funds administered by a board of trustees, in civil cases filed to collect funds owed to the client, and made misrepresentations to the client regarding litigation she falsely claimed she had filed on the client’s behalf. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- Michael Samuel Froman, Skokie
Mr. Froman, who was licensed in 1976, was suspended for two years and until further order of the Court, with all but the first year stayed by a one year period of probation, with conditions. He failed to preserve the identity of $12,131.12 in funds belonging to two clients. In addition, he neglected his aunt’s probate matter and made misrepresentations to her son and another lawyer about the work that he claimed to have performed on the matter. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- Troy Lee Gleason, Chicago
Mr. Gleason, who was licensed in 2002, was suspended for six months and was ordered to attend the program offered by the Illinois Institute of Professional Responsibility. He altered credit counseling certificates that he attached to 17 different bankruptcy petitions in order to conceal from the bankruptcy court that his credit counseling certificates had expired due to his delay in filing the petitions. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- LeRoy Christopher Maye, Jr., Chicago
Mr. Maye, who was licensed in 2002, was suspended for six months and until further order of the Court. He failed to pursue a client’s expungement matter, converted filing fees, and did not return unearned fees. He also engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by continuing to handle more than a dozen legal matters after he had been removed from the Master Roll of Attorneys for not registering. He did not participate in the disciplinary proceedings.
- J. Christopher Murray, Chicago
Mr. Murray, who was licensed in 1985, was suspended for three months and until further order of the Court. He failed to cooperate with the ARDC during the course of a disciplinary investigation and he did not participate in his own disciplinary proceeding.
- Steven Lee Popuch, Chicago
Mr. Popuch, who was licensed in 1977, was suspended for 12 months. He aided a disbarred lawyer in the unauthorized practice of law and then made material misrepresentations to the ARDC in an attempt to impede an investigation into that activity. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
Mr. Regan, who was licensed in 1995, was suspended for 90 days, with the suspension stayed in its entirety by a one-year period of conditional probation. He failed to forward payment of a client’s property taxes, resulting in the client’s loss of his property to a tax purchaser. He also made a misrepresentation to his professional liability carrier when, despite knowing that he had he had neglected the property tax matter, he denied on his annual renewal application that he was aware of any circumstance that could result in a claim or suit against him or his law firm.
- Ronald Sherman Samuels, Chicago
Mr. Samuels was licensed in 1969. He was suspended for one year and until further order of the Court, with reinstatement further conditioned upon proof of certain restitution. He neglected a client’s wrongful termination case and did not refund unearned fees to that client and to a separate client that he represented in a criminal matter.
- Gregory James Silverman, Chicago
Mr. Silverman, who was licensed to practice law in 1995, was suspended for 60 days and was ordered to attend the program offered by the Illinois Institute of Professional Responsibility. He mishandled client funds and did not initially cooperate with the ARDC. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- Michael Allen Unger, Chicago
Mr. Unger, who was licensed in 1964, was suspended for 90 days and until he makes certain restitution. In a criminal case where his client had been charged with murder, Mr. Unger did not thoroughly investigate a potential alibi defense and abandoned that alibi defense at trial, conduct that the appellate court later determined amounted to the ineffective assistance of counsel. Further, in an unrelated post-conviction matter, he accepted legal fees to file a motion that he knew to be time-barred. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- Andrea Leigh Worrell, Downers Grove
Ms. Worrell, who was licensed in 1999, was suspended for one year. She engaged in a conflict of interest by having her stepfather, whom she was representing in a collection matter, execute documents which benefited her while he was a patient at various hospitals and nursing homes. Further, she engaged in attempt state benefits fraud and made false statements in relation to the preparation of an application for public aid for her stepfather. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
- William Allen Young, Danville
Mr. Young, who was licensed in 1958, was suspended for two years. He purchased a cashier's check for $6,185.15 payable to his client with funds that were held in trust for the client's minor daughter, and then he placed his client's endorsement on the cashier's check and converted the proceeds. The suspension is effective on April 11, 2011.
REPRIMANDED
- Scott Andrew Wineberg, Vernon Hills
Mr. Wineberg, who was licensed in 1992, was reprimanded. While working as an Assistant Public Defender representing parents in a custody proceeding, he made unauthorized copies of documents belonging to the guardian
ad litem for the child in a juvenile case. Specifically, the guardian
ad litem had left three pages of medical records relating to the case on a copier in the Public Defender’s office. Mr. Wineberg found those medical records, copied them, and took them for his own file.
CENSURED
- Guy D. Geleerd, Jr., Chicago
Mr. Geleerd, who was licensed in Illinois in 1989, was censured. While representing a plaintiff in a Livingston County medical malpractice action, he filed affidavits and medical reports and made inaccurate statements in pleadings and before a court in relation to those affidavits and reports.
