NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) – Jacksonville, Florida attorney Stacy Michele Young faces disbarment for allegedly cashing checks that belonged to her former Shreveport law firm following a recommendation issued May 28 by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee.
Among the charges against Young were that she engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, and deceit, according to the eight-page recommendation issued by LADB Hearing Committee No. 17. "She stipulated she acted intentionally," the recommendation said. "Her conducted harmed her former law firm, creditor clients and debtors."
The hearing committee also recommended Young be ordered to pay all costs in the matter.
The recommendation was signed May 21 by committee Chair Barry W. Dowd and was issued about a week later. Attorney member John M. Rice and public member John M. LeGrand Jr. concurred in the recommendation.
Young was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 6, 1989, according to her profile on the Louisiana State Bar Association’s website. No prior discipline before the state bar is listed in Young's profile and a search of the LADB's online database of disciplinary decisions and rulings also turned up no prior record of discipline. No attorney by Young's name is listed on The Florida Bar's website.
Allegations against Young stem from a complaint the office of disciplinary counsel received in March 2018 from her former Shreveport law firm, which she left in 2013, alleging she received Caddo Clerk of Court refund checks that should have been mailed to the firm.
"Most of these were collection cases," the recommendation said. "Upon receipt of the checks in Florida, rather than properly returning the checks to the Shreveport firm, (Young) kept the checks, endorsed, cashed them and then converted the funds to her own use."
Young allegedly cashed 89 checks over a two year period totaling more than $10,200. "Some of those funds appear to have belonged to the firm while other funds properly belong to clients," the recommendation said.
Young's mother has since reimbursed the full amount of the converted funds, according to the recommendation.
During a hearing in March, Young testified "that health problems and stress led her down this unfortunate path" and the head of her former law firm "genuinely desired that she not be punished harshly," the recommendation said.