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Final Copy 288 Ga. 787 S10Y1629, S10Y1631. IN THE MATTER OF SAMUEL WARREN CRUSE (two cases).

PER CURIAM. These disciplinary matters are before the Court pursuant to the Report and Recommendation of the special master, Paul H. Threlkeld, who recommends that Respondent Samuel Warren Cruse (State Bar No. 000960) be disbarred. We agree. Disciplinary action against Cruse was initially pursued as reciprocal discipline based on Cruse having been barred from the practice of law in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, but this Court dismissed that effort based on its holding in In the Matter of Stubbs, 285 Ga. 702 (681 SE2d 113) (2009) that reciprocal discipline applied only to disciplinary actions taken by other licensing jurisdictions as opposed to individual courts. See In the Matter of Cruse, 285 Ga. 673 (681 SE2d 156) (2009) (dismissed). Approximately three months later, the State Bar filed a Formal Complaint in State Disciplinary Board Docket ("SDB") No. 5329

(S10Y1629) charging that, in his representation of a client, Cruse violated numerous disciplinary rules. Cruse acknowledged service of the Formal Complaint in October 2009 and then filed a petition for voluntary discipline seeking to resolve both SDB No. 5329 and a pending disciplinary matter involving an unrelated client, SDB No. 5686 (S10Y1631), which matter had not yet progressed to a Formal Complaint. Although it is unclear what specific violations the State Bar alleged against Cruse in SDB No. 5686, he admitted in his petition for voluntary discipline that he represented a client in a discrimination case against her federal employer in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia; that the client paid him $9,000 in attorney fees in the case; that as the result of a discovery dispute, the district court imposed a monetary sanction on Cruse and his client; and that in the course of paying the sanction, he commingled his funds with those of his client. In September 2005, the district court granted summary judgment to the employer, finding that the client's case was "perhaps the most frivolous and least warranted suit that it ha[d] ever encountered." The client tried to contact Cruse about progress in her case, but was unable to do so since he relocated his office without informing her. Cruse 2

did not furnish the client a copy of the summary judgment order until after time for appealing it had passed. In this matter, Cruse admitted that he failed to keep the client properly informed about the progress of her case; that he failed to provide competent representation to the client; and that his charged fee was not reasonable. Thus, Cruse admitted that, with regard to SDB No. 5686, he violated Rules 1.1, 1.4, 1.5 (a), and 1.15 (I) (a) and (c) of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, Bar Rule 4-102 (d). With regard to SDB No. 5329, Cruse admitted in his petition for voluntary discipline that beginning in 2005, he represented a client in a Federal Employees' Compensation case. He did not have a written fee agreement, but the client paid him a fee of $4,000 in advance. Cruse states that he appealed the client's case to the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board, which rejected the appeal. Cruse admits that he never obtained approval of his charged fee from the Secretary of Labor, as required by federal law. Thereafter, the client sued Cruse in the Magistrate Court of Richmond County to recover the $4,000 fee and on January 11, 2007, the court entered judgment against Cruse for $4,000 on the ground that he had not obtained "approval of the fee in question pursuant to 5 USC

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