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Warren attorney placed on one year of probation for violations
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Warren attorney Nancy Yakubek has been placed on one year of monitored probation regarding her law license for violating rules of Ohio attorney professional conduct 15 times between 2010 and 2013 in bankruptcy cases.
The Ohio Supreme Court announced this week that she was suspended from practicing law for one year but that penalty is “stayed” on the conditions that she serve the one-year probation, attend a continuing-legal-education seminar on law-office and case-file management and engage in no further misconduct.
The Supreme Court said Yakubek, who was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1983 and has an office on North Park Avenue, failed to properly handle four bankruptcy matters for clients who retained her services between 2010 and 2012.
The court said Yakubek started bankruptcy proceedings for a woman in one case but failed to submit proof in a timely manner that her client completed her required financial-management course, which resulted in the closure of one client’s case without a discharge of her debts.
In the case of another woman, Yakubek failed to take action to protect her after a foreclosure action was filed against her. Yakubek failed to respond in time to numerous calls from the client, but the client ultimately was not financially harmed by Yakubek’s actions, the court said.
Yakubek never filed bankruptcy petitions on behalf of two other clients and didn’t return numerous phone calls from them regarding the status of their cases.
The result was that several default judgments were issued against the clients. Yakubek also failed to return their paperwork and unearned fees until after they filed grievances against her, the court said.
Yakubek’s actions and inactions violated professional rules regarding performing with reasonable diligence, keeping a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter and others.
Yakubek had no previous disciplinary record and cooperated with the investigation, the court noted. And, Yakubek testified that she has done extensive free legal work.
Yakubek and the attorney who investigated the matter agreed that Yakubek’s misconduct, which ended in early 2013, occurred while she was trying to practice solo and full-time while also providing care to her ill father and sister.