According to court records, Mr. VanEmden filed a court action in 1984 against the corporate customer and an agreement was reached wherein the corporate customer apparently paid the monies due to the corporate client to Mr. VanEmden or to his law firm, VanEmden, Bush & VanEmden in 1985.

Apparently attorney George VanEmden decided all of the monies collected belong to him, as he did not pay any of the monies collected to his corporate client.

Presumably the payments to Mr. VanEmden on behalf of his corporate client were made by check payable to the corporate client. Did Mr. VanEmden endorse the check/checks made payable to the corporate client? CLR has been informed that the corporate client at no time gave Mr. VanEmden any authority to endorse any checks for deposit, and certainly did not authorize Mr. VanEmden to deposit any corporate monies in any bank account not the property of, or in the name of, the corporation.

The corporation filed charges of unethical conduct against attorney George J. VanEmden with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. In 1997, twelve years after Mr. VanEmden collected the monies, the corporate client received a partial payment of the monies collected by VanEmden.

The Illinois Code of Professional Responsibility/Rules of Professional Conduct require that all contingency agreements must be in writing. CLR has been informed that at no time did the corporate client enter into a written contingency agreement with VanEmden. In the disciplinary case, In re LINDA LEE SPAK, Docket No. 87237 (1999), the Illinois Supreme Court stated that "We therefore hold that respondent is guilty of misconduct for failing to reduce a contingent fee to writing in violation of Rule 1.5(c)." Why was attorney George VanEmden not also charged with misconduct of violating Rule 1.5(c)?

Attorney VanEmden apparently decided that he would pay himself a contingency fee which was never agreed to and which was in direct violation of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct.

CLR suggests that Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission ("ARDC") attorney, Elizabeth A. Granoff, who was the ARDC attorney involved in the disciplinary action, engaged in actions in collusion with, conspiracy with, and in connivance with, attorney George J. VanEmden in the ARDC coverup of the violations of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and became a participant in this scheme of violation of the Code of Professional Conduct.

As of December 8, 2000, Mr. VanEmden still retains monies from his corporate client. How many other clients does attorney VanEmden retain their funds without the client's permission?

Why did the ARDC not bring charges of conversion of client's funds against attorney George J. VanEmden?

CLR believes that the monies unlawfully retained by attorney George VanEmden are "ill-gotten gains", and that any entity which benefits, directly or indirectly, from these "ill-gotten gains" are not lawfully in possession of these monies.

In addition to engaging in a fraud upon his client, he also engaged in a "fraud upon the Illinois Supreme Court".

Just as a person who is in possession of property which has been stolen is not the legal owner of the property, a person who is in possession of "ill-gotten" gains is not the legal owner of those "ill-gotten" gains. The stolen property must be returned to the legal owner; the "ill-gotten" gains should be returned to the legal owner.

The title to personal property requires a chain of proof as does the title to real property.

In criminal law the hardest case for a defense attorney is the one he must contend with in a case where his client, the defendant, is accused of being "in possession of stolen property". In such a case the only valid defense is proof of ownership of the goods in question. The burden is on the party who may have "ill-gotten gains" in their possession to prove that they have not received any "ill-gotten gains".

A possible recipient of these "ill-gotten gains" is:
Judith VanEmden
Deborah (Debbie) VanEmden
Howard Louis VanEmden

 email: clr@clr.org

Last updated October 12, 2007