A local attorney will not be allowed to practice law for at least five years after the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission found he committed professional misconduct and commingled his personal money with money from his clients.
Andrew A. Szakaly Jr. submitted his resignation to the state Supreme Court on Dec. 6.
Szakaly will be ineligible to petition for reinstatement of his license for five years from the date of the order. He has been practicing law in Indiana since 1975.
According to court documents, Szakaly violated Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct when he gave a couple legal documents and advice about property in Florida. He does not have a license to practice law in any state other than Indiana.
He also did not abide by the couple’s objectives in drafting their wills, the complaint says. He entered into business transactions with the couple, who are in their 90s, without advising them of the opportunity to seek independent legal counsel, and then failed to obtain written consent from his clients about the terms of the transaction and his role in it.
He violated a fourth rule by communicating directly with the couple about their transactions after being informed they were being represented by a different attorney, court documents say.
Szakaly had met the couple when they moved to Nashville in 1972. They consulted with Szakaly about legal questions and participated in several real estate deals with him before moving to Florida full-time in 2000, according to the disciplinary complaint.
Szakaly drafted deeds, promissory notes and real estate mortgages about Florida property the couple wished to sell. He sent the documents to the couple and advised them what to do with them, including how to sign them.
When the couple returned to Indiana in 2014, they had Szakaly update their wills and healthcare directives. When the documents were executed, the couple contacted him about a specific bequest that was $50,000 and should have been $250,000. Szakaly told the couple he would fix the amount, but failed to do so, the complaint states.
From May 2009 to January 2015, Szakaly and the couple entered into no less than eight business transactions. The complaint also states Szakaly modified the terms of various transactions that “decreased” his responsibility on the “underlying debt.” He also modified an interest rate on outstanding loans and extended the repayment period for 20 years.
In May 2016, another attorney began representing the couple and notified Szakaly that they wished for him to pay off his debts to them.
That’s when Szakaly reached out to the couple directly and said that such a payoff would be “difficult,” the complaint states.
The disciplinary commission also discovered that Szakaly had mismanaged his “interest on the lawyers trust account” he held at People’s State Bank.
The complaint states that Szakaly initiated cash withdrawals from that trust account from 2012 to 2016, which meant he “commingled his personal or business funds with the funds of his clients” in violation of the rules of professional conduct.
He also made multiple payments online or at the bank from the trust account that were not based on “written withdrawal authorization,” the complaint states.
The complaint states that Szakaly also disbursed money from the trust account before money for clients was available, which the disciplinary commission called “the criminal act of conversion.”
It also states Szakaly made deposits and disbursements from the trust fund for business or personal purposes, like office rent and the sale of a vehicle.
He also deposited his own money into the account to offset “reconciliation discrepancies,” commingling his money with his clients’ money.
The complaint also states that Szakaly kept personal and business funds in his trust account. From 2011 to 2017, there were consecutive months where he kept more than $40,000 in unattributed funds without making any disbursements, the complaint states.
From 2012 to 2016, Szakaly left large sums of money in his trust account for one or more years without disbursing them to any party, including money that appeared to be for clients or other beneficiaries, the complaint said.
He also didn’t keep detailed trust account records, failing to note several deposits of client money into the fund from 2011 through 2017.
The complaint also notes that there were at least 60 times when Szakaly’s trust account journal was off by an average of $5,000 to $7,000 each month.
The trust account violations broke multiple rules from the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law and the Indiana Rules for Admission to the Bar and the Discipline Attorneys, the commission said.
“In general, the respondent (Szakaly) continually failed to safeguard all client funds in his trust account,” the complaint reads.
The state Supreme Court order issued on Dec. 6 states that his resignation means Szakaly can no longer practice law and “does not relieve respondent from any liability he might have for his misconduct under civil or criminal law.”
Szakaly served as Brown County deputy prosecuting attorney in 2018. He also served Nashville government as town attorney in 2016 and 2017. He was a deputy town attorney in the late 1970s as well as a deputy prosecutor for the county, and served as the elected county prosecutor from 1987 to 1990.
Until last week, Szakaly was serving as the registered agent for the Maple Leaf Building Corporation, meaning that he received its mail. Board members voted Dec. 20 to replace him with Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center Executive Director Dana Beth Evans. President Robyn Bowman said appointing Evans would keep everything “under the same hat” since she also serves as the registered agent for Maple Leaf Management Group.
“While this attorney disciplinary matter was the first of my 43-year legal career, I felt it was best for all parties to bring it to a rapid conclusion. I am pleased that no client lost anything as a result of my actions,” Szakaly said when asked for a comment last week.
“I am thankful for the opportunities given to me during my career and hope to be useful in the future.”
