The Northeast MS Daily Journal reported yesterday that disbarred Jackson lawyer Vann Leonard will be sentenced on October 13 in federal court in Aberdeen for embezzling $327,585 from a bankruptcy estate. Leonard pleaded guilty in the case in February. The court sealed the file and Leonard returned to the practice law where he (allegedly) embezzled money from clients. Leonard has been in jail since May for embezzlement not related to the federal court charges.

Jackson Jambalaya has provided the only coverage of the Leonard saga in the Jackson area. Other JJ posts are here and here.

Leonard’s client trust account was overdrawn several times in the months leading up to the embezzlement from the bankruptcy estate. It is unlikely that Leonard would have still been practicing law at the time if Mississippi had a rule that required financial institutions to report to the Mississippi Bar when lawyers bounce checks from their trust accounts.

In 1988 the American Bar Association issued a model rule for trust account overdraft notification. Here is a link to the ABA rule. Mississippi should adopt the ABA model rule in order to protect the public from unscrupulous attorneys. If we had such a rule, there would be many fewer victims of Vann Leonard.