Lawyer who described fishing trip in response to overdraft inquiry resigns from bar
A Connecticut lawyer has resigned from the bar after he was accused of telling ethics investigators that their trust account inquiries weren’t a priority, and he had been enjoying a fishing trip while they pressed for information. (Image from Shutterstock)
A Connecticut lawyer has resigned from the bar after he was accused of telling ethics investigators that their trust account inquiries weren’t a priority, and he had been enjoying a fishing trip while they pressed for information.
Lawyer David J. Kurzawa of Northford, Connecticut, submitted his resignation in a New Haven, Connecticut, court filing dated Aug. 2 and made public Aug. 9, Law360 reports. He had been placed on an interim suspension in July for failing to comply with an audit.
Kurzawa was accused of failing to keep adequate financial records, leading to an overdraft in his client trust account, according to the application for the interim suspension. Two checks bounced, according to an amended presentment filed in December 2023. As of March 2022, Kurzawa’s trust account had a negative balance of about $1,080, according to the Connecticut Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel.
Kurzawa explained that the checks bounced because a client had stopped payment on a $1,070 check deposited into the account. The Statewide Grievance Committee responded that even if the $1,070 check cleared, the trust account would still be slightly in the red.
The Statewide Grievance Committee gave Kurzawa a June 10, 2022, deadline to provide more documentation.
Kurzawa responded on that date with an email that read: “I was on vacation, landlocked salmon fishing at East Grand Lake in Weston, Maine, three of us caught about 50 fish, all of which went back into the lake alive, except for one dinner, 3 fish 20 to 22 inches long, they were delicious. Egg batter, then breadcrumbs fried in Peanut Oil. Hot Peanut Oil dissolves any soft bones left in the fish after they are filleted. Then lemon juice on the fried fish. You want to die for. Anyway, I was away. I will send you my response to this terrible offense next week.
“I have a real estate closing early next week and my client is going on vacation an[d] I have to have certain documents signed before he leaves. It’s a matter of priorities and you are not one of them at this time. I tell my children all the time (twin daughters and a son) that they are surrounded by idiots. Also, a law school classmate, who was brilliant, use to say that you can teach them to read and teach them to write, but you can’t teach them to think.”
In June 10, 2022, letter, Kurzawa wrote: “Sometimes math and I don’t get along. There was no intent to misappropriate any funds, never did, never will.”
In his resignation affidavit, Kurzawa said he denied some or all of the material facts in an ethics presentment, but he acknowledged sufficient evidence to prove violations of ethics rules on trust accounts and responses to ethics inquiries.
Kurzawa told the ABA Journal that he did not want publicity. He has wanted to retire for a long time, he adds, but the ethics inquiry pushed back the timeline.
“It wasn’t a big thing,” he says, “but I’m done.”
Kurzawa had no prior record of discipline. He was admitted to the bar in 1978.
