Dolden Wallace Folick, LLP

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Dolden Wallace Folick, LLP, a BC insurance-focused law firm, admitted professional misconduct under a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement for failing, in 332 instances totaling $103,851.70 between October 2018 and March 2021, to deposit client overpayments into trust as soon as practicable, contrary to Rule 3-58. The overpayments were tracked in a 'general retainer' module but retained in general accounts, a practice in place since 1994 and not flagged in prior audits. No clients lost funds. The firm corrected its procedures and agreed to pay a $30,000 fine. No dishonesty was found.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money

Mitigating factors:

• No prior Professional Conduct Record
• No clients were short or missing funds; all client money properly accounted for
• Practice was administrative, not done to benefit the firm
• Prior compliance audits had not identified the practice as non-compliant
• Firm took prompt corrective action upon discovery, including transferring funds to trust and updating procedures
• Staff completed trust accounting training