The Florida Supreme Court ruled April 10 to suspend Miami attorney Anett Lopez. The state’s high court issued the order following the attorney’s alleged failure to respond to an official state bar inquiry and for not producing requested accounting records.
The petition for contempt and order to show cause found on the attorney’s disciplinary record details the attempts made by the state bar to obtain documents from Lopez. Beginning July 27, 2015, Lopez was sent a subpoena to the mail address listed on her membership records requesting her trust accounts records. Lopez allegedly failed to provide the documents.
A second request was sent to the attorney’s bar membership email address asking for the records. Lopez was given 10 days upon receipt of the email to comply. The attorney did eventually send a letter Oct. 9, 2015, requesting a two-week extension to prepare the documents. However, according to the petition, she still did not produce them within the two-week time frame. A final attempt was made via email Nov. 19, 2015 to obtain the records but they were not provided.
On Jan. 27, 2016, Lopez was informed a hearing would take place regarding her noncompliance and no response was submitted. As a result, the Florida high scour issued an order stating she would be suspended from practice until she responded to the subpoena. The suspension was ordered to take effect 30 days from the April 20 issue date.
Lopez was admitted to the Florida State Bar in January 2005 and is a graduate of the St. Thomas University School of Law. She was suspended on two other occasions: in 2012 as a consequence of completing “improper notarial certificates” and misapplying funds; and in 2014 for issues involving her client trust account.