Estate Planning Attorney Convicted of Taking $370,000 From Elderly Client

Jeffrey Elverman was a partner at the Quarles & Brady firm in 2000 when Dorothy Phinney (now 94) hired him to help with her estate planning. Elverman was Phinney’s attorney-in-fact, and Phinney signed $370,000 worth of checks over to Elverman from 2003 to 2004. A Milwaukee County judge appointed a community services agent as Phinney’s guardian in 2008 after the judge found Phinney incompetent. The guardian filed a civil suit against Elverman for over $600,000, and that case is still pending.

At trial, prosecutors produced records indicating that Elverman and Phinney met, on average, for an hour a week. The prosecution noted that to justify $370,000 in fees, Elverman would have had to work 30 hours every week at a $150 an hour rate. Elverman’s attorney claimed that Phinney understood her finances well enough to know she wanted Elverman to handle them even though Phinney could not name the president or identity a stapler.

Elverman did not testify at his trial, and he faces up to five years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine if found guilty.

See Ex-Partner of Big Law Firm Convicted of Taking $370,000 From Elderly Client, ElderLawAnswers, Dec. 16, 2011.