Attorney previously convicted for sending false threats voluntarily, admits to spending thousands in client funds for personal use
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An attorney, who previously lost her ability to practice law after sending herself fake threatening emails while working for the state, has voluntarily surrendered her Bar Association membership again after admitting to spending more than $100,000 in client funds for personal use and other ethics infractions.
On Monday, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court allowed attorney Julia Ezell to resign from the Oklahoma Bar Association pending disciplinary action, after Ezell admitted to the court she spent tens of thousands of dollars that belonged to her clients, and may have forged a client’s signature.
Ezell’s attorney said her actions are a result of her struggles with opiate addiction, and she is now sober and working to make things right.
In an affidavit Ezell filed with the state Supreme Court last month, Ezell wrote she was aware of three separate grievances that had been filed against her with the Oklahoma Bar Association.
One grievance accused her of forging a client’s signature. Another grievance, which Ezell self-reported, accused her of spending more than $120,000 in funds from her attorney-client trust account on personal use. A third grievance accused her of writing thousands of dollars in bad checks from that trust account.
In the affidavit, Ezell admitted to all three accusations.
She wrote that she “likely did sign” a client’s name on a legal document “to ensure it was timely filed.”
She also wrote “the trust account overdrafts were a result of poor record keeping, failure to promptly deposit retainer fees into my trust account, and my unintentional use of an IOLTA check to pay an employee’s salary.”
In response to the grievance concerning her use of attorney-client trust account funds for personal use, she wrote, “I self-reported that I had converted approximately $123,177.78 in client funds for my personal use from late fall of 2022 through August 15, 2024.”
Legal expert Tim Gilpin says lawyers should know they cannot spend money from their trust accounts unless it has been properly earned.
“Every lawyer in the state who receives client funds, like for an injury settlement or for escrow, or a real estate deal or a client pays a big retainer, but you take it out as you earn the money,” Gilpin said. “It has to go into what's called an attorney-client trust account. And that's a special account you set up with the bank that's labeled as such, and that you're under the ethics rules and consideration.”
News 4 first reported about Ezell back in July 2018, when she worked as General Counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
That month, she reported to police that someone sent her threatening emails a couple of days before she was set to present some controversial emergency rules on medical marijuana sales to the state board of health.
But, after investigating, authorities determined Ezell sent those emails to herself through an email account she created.
She ended up pleading guilty to several charges, including making a false crime report.
Those convictions have since been expunged from her record.
After leaving the health department and a brief suspension of her legal license, Ezell spent the past few years practicing as a private attorney.
Ezell’s attorney, Ed Blau, says, while it’s not an excuse, there is an explanation behind the actions Ezell admitted to this week.
“For the past several years, Ms. Ezell struggled with opiate addiction,” Blau said. “And within the past year, she realized that some things that happened while she was in the midst of her addiction were improper.”
He says she’s been clean for at least a year and a half and is now trying to do the right thing.
“And the only way that she could move through her addiction and make it right for everybody is to self-report to the bar, which she did, and then ultimately resign or license,” he said.
He says she’s already reimbursed all the money she spent from her client trust account and made the choice to self-report the improper spending.
“She felt that self-reporting to the bar, some of the things that she did were improper was the only way to both make it right for clients, but make it right for herself as an addict in recovery,” Blau said.
On Monday, the supreme court approved her request to resign from the bar association.
Her license to practice law will be suspended for at least five years.
It will be up to the Supreme Court to decide if she’s fit to practice once that time is up.
“I'm completely confident that after five years, as long as she stays sober as anybody with addiction issues, she'll be able to come back and be a fantastic attorney,” Blau said.
Ultimately, it’s a decision Gilpin says the Supreme Court will likely not take lightly — given Ezell’s history.
“When she worked for the state, making up threatening emails, being disciplined and during that discipline, being on a suspended criminal sentence and then going back to practicing law is unusual,” Gilpin said. “And then taking a client's money out of a trust account, and forging the names, is egregious behavior that you may not see very often.”