Undue Gifts to Attorney Sparked Reform : Case Points to Need for Lawyers to Monitor Own to Ensure Wishes of Elderly Clients

More than 30 years ago the California Supreme Court said that lawyers should receive no more than “modest” gifts from the estates of their clients. Yet Laguna Hills attorney James D. Gunderson received $3.5 million from the $18-million estate of Merrill A. Miller.

This month Orange County Superior Court Judge Byron K. McMillan rightly ruled that Gunderson should repay the money, plus $500,000 in interest, to Miller’s heirs.

Miller was 98 when he signed the final version of the 1992 will that left the money to Gunderson. Court documents said Miller was also “blind and failing in his mental and physical capacities.”

Gunderson, who engaged a former law partner to act as the attorney of record to prepare the final version of Miller’s will, denied any wrongdoing and said Miller was a longtime friend who wanted the lawyer to share in his estate.

But as articles in the Times Orange County edition showed, Miller was not the only client of Gunderson’s to have left money, stocks and real estate to the attorney. In one case, the lawyer inherited nearly $250,000 in stock from the estate of a woman declared senile five months before he prepared her last will.

Media disclosure of these outrageous cases did spur reform. Gunderson surrendered his law license, saying he did so because of failing health. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department monitored the civil trial as part of its probe of Gunderson. In addition, the Legislature passed a law that essentially barred lawyers from accepting money from the estates of their clients. That codified the Supreme Court’s ruling and should help deter lawyers from imitating Gunderson’s actions. Judge McMillan’s decision should also make attorneys think twice before writing themselves into their clients’ wills.

The case also exposed the vicious preying upon the elderly, who may already be subject to physical and emotional abuse and also deprived even of having the last wishes carried out.

The former president of the Orange County Bar Assn. told a legislative committee that “many, many attorneys engage in predatory practices around our elderly communities.” That is some strong evidence that lawyers must pay closer attention to the conduct of some of their colleagues.