PHOENIX – Tucson attorney Zachary W. Schon has been disbarred from the practice of law after the firm he worked for became aware of his misconduct. Schon had worked for Farhang & Medcoff as an independent contractor.
The consent agreement between Schon and the State Bar of Arizona was accepted by the Presiding Disciplinary Judge of the Arizona Supreme Court who ordered that he be disbarred from the practice of law, effective May 13, 2019.
According to the Bar, Schon was handling criminal matters as an independent contractor in Tucson when it was alleged that he stopped communicating with clients, missed court hearings, and accepted clients without notifying or compensating the law firm. His misconduct resulted in actual harm to clients, including arrest warrants being issued against them, their driver’s licenses being suspended, and trials being reset without notification.
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The firm learned of Schon’s misconduct and met with him to discuss withdrawing from the practice of law for an indefinite length of time, to which he agreed. Cases were reassigned or referred out to other law firms. Schon also agreed to compensate the law firm for their financial losses of approximately $36,000, but he stopped communicating with them and failed to reimburse them.
Because Schon failed to follow the law firm’s policies when opening, closing, and maintaining client files, it was unclear which files he was working on when he left the firm.
Schon was also ordered to pay $1,217.46 to the State Bar of Arizona for the costs and expenses associated with disciplinary proceedings.