SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Longtime Novato attorney Theodore Carl Lindquist III faces suspension and probation following an Aug. 1 California Supreme Court order, according to a recent State Bar of California announcement and court documents.
Lindquist was alleged to have commingled client and personal funds.
The Supreme Court handed down a stayed one-year suspension and a year of conditional probation with the first 60 days spent on suspension. Conditions of Lindquist's probation include passing the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination as previously recommended by the California State Bar Court's hearing department. He also was ordered to pay costs.
His discipline will be effective Aug. 31, according to an announcement recently posted on the state bar's website.
Lindquist was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 7, 1995, according to his profile at the state bar website. Lindquist had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to his profile.
Allegations against Lindquist stemmed from an overdraw on his personal account in December 2014 and the bank's subsequent close of the account after he failed to repay that debt, according to the stipulation filed with the state bar court in March. Lindquist was unable to open personal checking accounts in other banks because of his negative credit report, and in December 2015 he began using his client trust account as his private account "because it was his only bank account at that time," the stipulation said.
Lindquist was alleged to have repeatedly issued electronic payments from his client trust account between November 2016 to November 2018 when there were insufficient funds in the account to pay them. Lindquist also allegedly issued more than 100 payments for personal expenses from the CTA between August 2017 and March 2018, according to the stipulation.
In October 2018, Lindquist resolved the debt from the closed bank account and the following month opened a new personal checking account and a new business operating account, and stopped using his client trust account for personal transactions.