Supreme Court suspends license of Norwood attorney whose paralegal embezzled $200,000

A Norwood attorney had his law license suspended for a year, with six months stayed, for professional misconduct including not properly overseeing a paralegal who embezzled $200,000 from his law office.

Before Edward Kathman can return to practicing law, he must complete 24 hours of classes in professional ethics and law office management, according to a unanimous opinion from the Ohio Supreme Court announced Wednesday.

Kathman hired the paralegal, Jillian Gorman, in 2015 and her job duties were related to personal injury cases. Kathman allowed Gorman to write checks to clients to distribute settlement money. 

There was "minimal or no oversight" by Kathman, the opinion says. He gave Gorman a laptop that was not connected to his law office and allowed her to work outside of the small office space.

In 2017, Kathman discovered that Gorman had written several checks from his client trust account payable to herself, the opinion says. He demanded that she return the laptop and discovered that it was "inoperable" and couldn't recover any data from it.

He ultimately fired Gorman, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to theft and forgery. She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay back the money. As of October 2020, she had paid only $2,535, the opinion says.

In 2020, the Cincinnati Bar Association filed a complaint against Kathman with the state Board of Professional Conduct. The complaint surrounded Kathman’s failure to supervise Gorman as well as misusing an account that held his clients' money, and multiple instances of advancing money to clients.

In one case, Kathman allowed a client to pay him for legal services through PayPal. But someone gained access to Kathman's PayPal account, and through that, his client trust account. 

"That person effected various payments out of the (trust account) that were…unauthorized by Kathman or any client," the opinion says.

If reinstated, Kathman will be monitored for a year by an attorney, who will provide guidance in managing his law office and as well as compliance with the rules for managing his client trust account.

This is the second time Kathman has been sanctioned by the Ohio Supreme Court. In 2001, the court suspended Kathman for six months for misconduct that included improperly sharing legal fees with a nonlawyer and aiding a nonlawyer in the unauthorized practice of law.