EDITORIAL: Take the money and run

Because the dissolution of some estates can entail complicated paperwork involving taxes and other obligations, many people must hire an attorney to navigate probate issues.

But they don’t expect the lawyer to be a thief.

Las Vegas police are currently investigating Robert Graham, a local attorney accused by the State Bar last week of stealing millions of dollars from clients before shuttering his Summerlin practice. Records showed that Mr. Graham had far less in his bank accounts than the $13 million he should have been holding for various clients, an attorney for the bar wrote in the complaint.

Mr. Graham, who has practiced law in Nevada since 1992, was a fixture in local TV advertising spots intended to drum up business for his firm.

The red flags flew when Mr. Graham ignored a Nov. 17 order from District Court Judge Gloria Sturman to turn over $1 million he owned to an estate. When the money never materialized, an attorney for the estate went to court on Dec. 9 and secured an order from Judge Sturman to freeze various accounts in which Mr. Graham’s firm held client funds.

Let’s hope Judge Sturman’s prompt action increases the chances that those clients will eventually be made whole.

Mr. Graham deserves the presumption of innocence, of course. But in an interview with the Review-Journal’s Jeff German, he expressed remorse. “Each year, things got worse and worse, and I tried to bail myself out and just couldn’t,” he said, later adding, “There’ll be a time when I can fall to my knees and ask [my clients] to please forgive me. I’ve been sidetracked. How I ended up here, I’ll never know.”

He refused to answer Mr. German’s questions about the missing money.

Mr. Graham’s whereabouts remain unknown, but his attorney said he poses no flight risk and is willing to cooperate with the authorities. Just to be safe, however, Judge Sturman on Wednesday indefinitely extended the order barring Mr. Graham and his wife from gaining access to eight accounts that may hold cash reserved for clients. Judge Sturman noted that the attorney appeared to use the trust accounts as his own bank.

Mr. Graham isn’t the first attorney to be accused of stealing money from the people who put their trust in him. Nor will he be the last. Attorneys in a variety of fields — probate, personal injury, real estate, tax law — are typically entrusted to handle money, sometimes vast sums of money, for their clients. Improprieties too often come to light only after the fact. But asking courts or state agencies to more actively monitor these funds would be an expensive and complicated task.

Perhaps simply requiring a client’s signature before allowing withdrawals from such accounts might be a worthwhile reform.