Morgan Lee Nusbaum

This is a review of attorney Morgan Nussbaum Jones with offices on Alvarado Rd. in La Mesa, CA 91942. I retained Ms. Jones’ firm to represent me as plaintiff in a divorce proceeding. After the final judgment had been entered, but before the divorce had become final, Ms. Jones abruptly withdrew f...rom representing me, without any explanation or advance notice. When she withdrew, the court had reserved the issue of spousal support for future determination, and the divorce would not become final for almost three more months. The California State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct (“Rules”) provide that a lawyer shall not terminate a representation until the lawyer has taken reasonable steps to avoid reasonably foreseeable prejudice to the rights of the client, such as giving the client sufficient notice to permit the client to retain other counsel. I received no such notice from Ms. Jones to give me time to retain new counsel to represent me on the issue of spousal support, which the court had reserved for future determination and which either party could raise at any time until the divorce would become final. After she withdrew from representing me, I expected that Ms. Jones would promptly return the balance of the funds that I had paid into her firm’s client trust account, since she would have no further involvement in the case. The Rules provide that upon termination of representation, a lawyer promptly shall refund any part of a fee paid in advance that the lawyer has not earned. In fact, Ms. Jones waited three months before returning the balance of these funds to me. Compliance with these Rules is mandatory, and they cannot be overridden by any provision inserted by a lawyer into a client fee agreement, After Ms. Jones withdrew from representing me, a paralegal and another attorney in her firm both charged additional time to my account. I did not authorize those charges, yet those charges ended up reducing the amount of the check I eventually received from Ms. Jones.