People v. Scabavea.
No. 24PDJ034. 11/15/2024. Opinion Imposing Sanctions.
February 5, 2025
Following a sanctions hearing, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge disbarred Mark Edward Scabavea (Missouri attorney registration number 61533) from the practice of law in Colorado, effective December 20, 2024.
Scabavea, a Missouri-licensed lawyer practicing in Colorado federal courts, engaged in misconduct in two clients’ cases. In one of the matters, Scabavea abandoned his client’s criminal case approximately three weeks before the client’s jury trial without moving to withdraw and without another lawyer entered on the case. To protect the client, a lawyer who was helping Scabavea on the matter rushed to enter her appearance and successfully moved to continue the trial. Scabavea performed no additional work on the case. In addition, he failed to produce an accounting after the client requested one.
In the second matter, Scabavea agreed to help his immigration client obtain a work visa. Scabavea failed to provide his client with written information about the fee, save for one text setting forth a flat fee of $4,125 and a retainer of $1,500. Scabavea did not deposit his client’s retainer in a trust account, and he knowingly converted the funds. Though Scabavea alleged that he completed work on his client’s work visa application, he never sent the client the necessary paperwork. After his client obtained new counsel, Scabavea failed to surrender the forms he allegedly completed and the documents his client provided him. He also failed to refund his client’s unearned advance retainer.
Scabavea’s conduct violated Colo. RPC 1.3 (a lawyer must act with reasonable diligence and promptness when representing a client); Colo. RPC 1.4(a) (a lawyer must reasonably communicate with the client); Colo. RPC 1.5(h) (a lawyer who represents a client on a flat-fee basis must describe in writing the services the lawyer will perform, the amount the client must pay and the timing of those payments, the amount the lawyer will earn upon completing specific tasks or events if the lawyer is to earn any portion of the fee before the representation concludes, and the amount or method of calculating fees the lawyer will earn if the representation is terminated before the lawyer completes the specified tasks or events); Colo. RPC 1.15A(a) (a lawyer must hold client property separate from the lawyer’s own property); Colo. RPC 1.15A(b) (on receiving funds or other property of a client or third person, a lawyer must promptly deliver to the client or third person any funds or property that person is entitled to receive); Colo. RPC 1.16(d) (a lawyer must protect a client’s interests on termination of the representation, including by returning unearned fees); Colo. RPC 8.4(c) (it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation); and Colo. RPC 8.4(d) (it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice).