The State Bar has accepted, and the Justices of the Georgia Supreme Court concur with, the voluntary surrender of the law license of Clarkesville attorney Lorne Howard Cragg.
The disciplinary matter, according to Cragg’s petition for voluntary surrender of license, is based on misappropriating client trust funds for personal use.
“In his petition, Cragg, who has been a member of the Bar since 2004, admitted that he received client funds and that he should have preserved those funds in his trust account, but that he misappropriated those funds for his personal use and did not otherwise account to his clients for the funds,” according to Supreme Court of Georgia documents.
Cragg had been a partner at Lorne H. Cragg, Attorney at Law, since May 2009.
“[Cragg] further admitted that the bank at which he maintained his attorney trust account notified the State Bar about checks he had written on the account, which checks had to be returned as the account held insufficient funds to pay the checks,” court documents state. “Finally, Cragg admitted that he provided false and misleading information to the Office of General Counsel during its investigation of this matter.”
That type conduct violates the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, the maximum penalty of which for a single violation of any of those rules is disbarment.
“Given his admissions, Cragg requested that the Court accept his petition for the voluntary surrender of his license, which would be tantamount to disbarment,” according to court documents.
Tantamount is defined as equivalent to or the same as.
Cragg ran unsuccessfully for Habersham County probate judge and was the second-highest vote-getter in the 2016 Republican Primary.
The decision by the Supreme Court of Georgia was reached Jan. 29.
