Florida Breast Implant Attorney Gets Disbarred

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http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,,TCP_16736_4902533,00.html Tequesta attorney disbarred, arrested By MICHELLE SHELDONE michelle.sheldone@... Posted at 5:26 p.m. August 8, 2006TEQUESTA — A Tequesta attorney has

been disbarred and arrested on charges including grand theft of more than $100,000 in unrelated cases. Edwin Glenn Drake, 45, who the Florida Supreme Court said failed to competently represent a client, was arrested July 27 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. He was released on a $15,000 bond. Drake was among seven disbarred attorneys throughout Florida. Nine others were suspended. Formal Florida Bar complaints were filed last year, after Drake appears to have abandoned his practice in 2004. He was said to be out of town until Friday. Supreme Court records show Drake advised a client that her class action suit against a silicone breast implant company was about to be settled. Then, with no forwarding law office information, he was unreachable and did not respond to the Florida Bar's investigative query attempts, records show.

He did the same in the case of a client who had hired him for a personal injury action against a railroad company, the report says. Other clients reported that Drake never provided them settlements from cases finalized in 2003 and 2004, the document cites. In reviewing trust accounts subpoenaed to Wachovia Trust, the Fifteenth Judicial Court Grievance Committee discovered all activity in the account had stopped Feb. 26, 2004. Between Jan. 1, 2001 and April 30, 2004, a Florida Bar Staff Auditor learned that Drake used trust account money to pay personal bills and that, by the time the account was closed, it was short $362,122, according to the report.

The Supreme Court suspended Drake in November 2004, providing him 30 days to notify his clients of the suspension and file an affidavit with a list of those he had notified. Again, the attorney failed to reply, according the report. "Respondent's abandonment of his law practice, with no notice to his clients and no return of client files or money, caused great public harm," the document states. A Supreme Court referee's May 4 report, uncontested by Drake, includes an $8,081 assessment for Florida Bar costs that accrues if not satisfied within 30 days. Florida Bar Public

Information and Bar Services did not know on Tuesday whether that assessment had been paid.