Lawyer Under Investigation Quits Bar : Law: Allegations include using large sums of money from client’s estate for personal investments.

Donald Bruce Black, a Laguna Beach lawyer under investigation for using large sums of money from a client’s estate to finance his own real estate ventures, has resigned as a member of the State Bar of California, halting his 33-year legal career.

Black, 61, submitted his resignation even as state bar investigators were looking into allegations that he misappropriated a client’s money and willfully disobeyed a court order to explain how he spent millions of dollars over three decades.

Black said Tuesday that he resigned for medical reasons, saying that his failing eyesight and a host of other health problems made it virtually impossible for him to practice law. He vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

State bar investigators, who are responsible for oversight of the state’s 140,000 lawyers, are looking into allegations that Black had “converted or misappropriated” money from a client’s multimillion-dollar estate, according to documents filed in State Bar Court.

Investigators were also probing a complaint by Orange County Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour that Black had willfully disobeyed a court order to account properly for millions of dollars spent from the same estate.

And in a separate complaint pending before the state bar, Newport Beach lawyer Patricia V. Spencer alleged that Black “scheme(d) to defraud” her client in a real estate transaction.

A prominent Laguna Beach lawyer who served as president of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, Black also headed several civic organizations in South County. He was an unsuccessful candidate for City Council.

His recent problems came to light last December when Judge Seymour removed him as trustee of a multimillion-dollar estate.

Saying that Black had used his client’s money as “a lending vehicle for his own needs,” Seymour noted that the lawyer could not properly account for millions of dollars he had spent over the past three decades from the estate of Arthur Newton Gage Jr.

In one transaction, Black lent himself $770,000 from the estate to buy commercial property in Laguna Beach. Black acknowledged using the money, but contended he was authorized to do so.

In July, 1993, the state Supreme Court suspended Black from practicing law for eight months and placed him on probation for four years. That suspension followed a State Bar Court hearing in Los Angeles during which Black was found guilty of five other misconduct charges involving “multiple acts of wrongdoing.”

Records show that Black had apparently failed to comply with a Supreme Court order in June, 1993, to return unearned fees and pending files to his clients while he was under suspension.

Last year, 108 lawyers with charges pending against them resigned from the bar, statistics show.

Susan Scott, a spokeswoman for the bar, said Black’s resignation becomes final only if it is accepted by the Supreme Court. If that happens, Black must wait five years before applying for reinstatement to the bar, and such applications are not routinely granted, Scott said.

Black still has not accounted for all the money in the Gage trust, which gave Black broad and absolute powers over millions of dollars in assets.

On Tuesday, Black said he was spending all his time preparing a proper accounting, which he plans to file before the end of November.