Board recommends former Niles law director serve six-month law-license suspension

Staff report

NILES

The Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Conduct has recommended a six-month law-license suspension for former Niles law director J. Terrence Dull. The Ohio Supreme Court will make the final decision.

The board found that Dull engaged in misconduct related to a former client when he failed to disclose his lack of professional liability insurance in 1996, failed to hold the client’s property separate from his own property and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

Dull, who was admitted to the bar in 1976, served as Niles law director from 1987 until recently and has been a private-practice attorney.

The disciplinary matter pertains to the Joseph S. Scaglione trust, which Dull prepared in 1996 and for which Dull served as trustee.

The board said Dull spent $37,000 that he was supposed to be holding for the trust. Dull eventually paid the $37,000 back, as well as another $11,550 in “loss of opportunity.”

In November 2015, the client asked Dull for some of the money to buy a car, and Dull informed the client he no longer had any of the remaining $37,000, the board said. Dull’s daughters helped Dull pay back the money, the board said.