Illinois Supreme Court Disbars One, Suspends Eleven in Latest Disciplinary Filing

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on March 16, 2021. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

DISBARRED

• Christopher Steven Jones, Colorado Springs, Colorado

  Mr. Jones was licensed in Illinois in 1997 and in Florida in 2000. The Supreme Court of Florida entered an order holding him in contempt and disbarring him for his failure to comply with a Florida Bar rule requiring him to notify his clients, opposing counsel, and tribunals of an earlier suspension, and requiring him to provide the Florida Bar with a sworn affidavit listing the names and addresses of all persons and entities that were furnished with a copy of the earlier suspension order. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and disbarred him.

SUSPENDED

• Jose Arvizu Bracamonte, Phoenix, Arizona
  
  Mr. Bracamonte was licensed in Illinois in 1979 and in Arizona in 1988. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge of the Supreme Court of Arizona entered an order suspending him, on a reciprocal basis, for 45 days, effective retroactively to July 15, 2020, based upon an order of discipline from the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Bracamonte filed asylum applications without an indicated basis for asylum, he canceled asylum interviews or advised his clients not to appear for asylum interviews, and he failed to demonstrate a clear intention to pursue an asylum claim, causing prejudice to his client. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and suspended him for 45 days, nunc pro tunc, to July 15, 2020.

• John Christopher Carver, Bushnell, Florida

  Mr. Carver, who was licensed in Florida in 1990 and in Illinois in 1991, was suspended for 90 days by the Florida Supreme Court. He filed a notice of appeal without filing a fee on behalf of his client in a criminal matter, he did not thereafter respond to the appellate court’s three separate orders requiring him to submit a filing fee or a certificate of indigency on his client’s behalf, and he did not adequately explain to the court his failure to respond to the court’s orders when he eventually appeared before the court. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and suspended him for 90 days. The suspension is effective on April 6, 2021.

• Ryne DeGrave, Chicago

  Mr. DeGrave, who was licensed in 2015, was suspended for one year and until further order the Court for striking his then-wife in the face during an argument, which led to injuries requiring surgery. Mr. DeGrave was charged and convicted of one count of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony, and was sentenced to 60 days in prison followed by a two-year term of probation.

• Oscar Antonio Gonzalez, Chicago

  Mr. Gonzalez, who was licensed in 2012, was suspended for one year and until further order of the Court. Over an eight-month period, he used more than $16,000 in funds belonging to a bar association of which he was then president, without authority, by withdrawing funds from the association’s bank account and charging personal expenses to the association’s credit and debit cards.

• Jan R. Kowalski*, LaGrange Highlands

  Ms. Kowalski, who was licensed in 2007, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court. Ms. Kowalski, along with five other defendants, including her brother, attorney Robert Michael Kowalski, was the subject of an eighteen-count second superseding indictment which charged that Ms. Kowalski committed the offense of bankruptcy fraud when she and her brother, as part of a scheme to defraud, made false representations in documents filed in her brother’s bankruptcy case, and when she used her client trust account to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her brother’s creditors and the bankruptcy trustee.

• Robert Michael Kowalski*, Chicago

  Mr. Kowalski, who was licensed in 1990, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court. Mr. Kowalski, along with five other defendants, including his sister, attorney Jan R. Kowalski, was the subject of an eighteen-count second superseding indictment which charged that Mr. Kowalski committed the offenses of bankruptcy fraud, tax fraud, and conspiring to embezzle at least $29 million from a bank.

• Michael Jerome Moore, Chicago

  Mr. Moore, who was licensed in 1986, was suspended for one year and until further order of Court. He committed the criminal act of aggravated battery on one of his neighbors, a woman over 60 years of age. He also made false statements regarding his conduct to the investigating detective. Mr. Moore did not participate in the disciplinary hearing.

• Nathaniel Jay Pomrenze, Northbrook

  Mr. Pomrenze, who was licensed in 1984, was suspended for five months and until further order of the Court, with the suspension stayed in its entirety by two years of conditional probation. In the course of representing a client, Mr. Pomrenze became involved in a dispute with another attorney. During a telephone call with that attorney, Mr. Pomrenze threatened great harm to the other lawyer’s client if the client filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Pomrenze or if he submitted a complaint to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

• John Henry Salgado, Frankfort

  Mr. Salgado, who was licensed in 1993, was suspended for one year with all but the first 30 days stayed by a one-year period of conditional probation. He converted over $38,000 that he was supposed to hold for a third party in a real estate transaction by giving it to another client without the third party’s consent. At the time of the conversion, Mr. Salgado was not maintaining the appropriate trust accounting records. The suspension is effective on April 6, 2021.

• Burton Douglas Stephens, Jr., Rock Island

  Mr. Stephens, who was licensed in 1975, was suspended for one year and until further order of the Court. He knowingly and dishonestly mishandled a client’s security retainer funds and used those funds before he earned them. He also failed to return unearned fees to the client; neglected a second client matter, resulting in the entry of a default judgment against the client; and failed to respond to requests for information and a subpoena to appear for a sworn statement.

• Rufus James Tate, Jr., St. Louis, Missouri

  Mr. Tate was licensed in Missouri in 1995 and in Illinois in 1996. The Supreme Court of Missouri indefinitely suspended him, with the suspension stayed by probation for two years, for depositing client funds into his firm’s operating account, commingling his own funds with other funds in his firm’s trust account, and preparing a release requiring a client to withdraw her grievance to an attorney disciplinary agency in exchange for settlement funds. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and suspended him for one year and until further order, with the suspension stayed by two years of probation, nunc pro tunc, to December 24, 2013, subject to the disciplinary conditions imposed in Missouri.

CENSURED

• Joshua Nathan Levy, Raleigh, North Carolina

  Mr. Levy was licensed in Illinois in 1999 and in North Carolina in 2001. The Grievance Committee of the North Carolina State Bar entered an order censuring him for conduct during his association with a bankruptcy law firm. He did not supervise non-lawyer employees of the firm who spoke with consumers about their potential bankruptcy matters, he did not supervise the handling of funds that clients paid to the firm, and he did not ensure that appropriate records were kept concerning the firm’s bank account. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and censured him.

REPRIMANDED

• Lee Jackson, Los Angeles, California
  
  Mr. Jackson was licensed in Arizona in 2011 and in Illinois in 2014. The Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee of the Supreme Court of Arizona admonished him and placed him on probation for two years for failing to adequately communicate with clients and failing to act with reasonable diligence in representing clients in a home construction defect matter. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline, reprimanded him, and placed him on probation for two years, nunc pro tunc, to October 31, 2019, subject to the disciplinary conditions imposed in Arizona.

*The order was entered by the court before the March 2021 term, but not included in any prior release.