Supreme Court disbars Wichita attorney over dealings with company

The Kansas Supreme Court ordered the disbarment of Wichita attorney Rickey Edward Hodge, Jr. in an opinion filed this week.

The order follows a unanimous recommendation for disbarment by a panel of the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys, which looked into accusations involving “conflict of interest, client exploitation, and self-dealing.”

The panel, the court opinion said, “made lengthy findings of fact and concluded Hodge violated the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct … while representing a financially distressed Wichita-based landscaping company,” Complete Landscaping Systems.

“Highly summarized, Hodge attempted to purchase the company’s assets, as well as an 80-acre ranch held by the company’s majority shareholder,” the court opinion said, while advising and representing the company and its majority owner beginning in 2013 over a judgment against the company in Texas.

The panel determined that Hodge violated several parts of the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct, including conflict of interest arising from entering a business transaction with a client, using information to the client’s disadvantage and engaging in conduct adversely reflecting on a lawyer’s fitness to practice law, the court opinion said.

“We hold that clear and convincing evidence establishes multiple instances of attorney misconduct and agree disbarment is appropriate,” the court said in its opinion.

This story was originally published December 29, 2017 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Supreme Court disbars Wichita attorney over dealings with company."