TALLAHASSEE (Florida Record) — Fort Myers attorney Stephanie Brunner has been placed on emergency suspension following an April 8 Florida Supreme Court order over trust account allegations, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
"Brunner was placed under emergency suspension for misappropriating client funds and failing to maintain required trust account records," the state bar said in its April 30 announcement of the discipline and the state Supreme Court's order.
In its four-page order, the court approved the state bar's petition for emergency suspension, to accept no new clients from the date of the court's order and to stop representing any clients 30 days after the date of the court's order. Brunner also was ordered to inform her clients, opposing counsel and courts of her suspension, to stop disbursing or withdrawing funds from trust accounts and to comply with any state bar audit.
Florida court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion does not alter the effective date of Brunner's suspension.
Brunner was admitted to the bar in Florida on June 7, 1996, according to her profile at the state bar website.
In a previous discipline, Brunner was admonished by a court referee and ordered to pay $954 in restitution to a former client following a March 2015 state Supreme Court order. The court also ordered Brunner to pay $2,040 in costs.
In that matter, Brunner was alleged to have violated professional conduct rules regarding fees and costs, safekeeping property and trust account records and procedures, according to the consent judgment filed with the court at the time. The judgment also includes Brunner's conditional guilty plea.
Those allegations stemmed from Brunner allegedly withdrawing unused advanced fees from her trust account and depositing them into her operating account as payment of attorney fees.
Brunner subsequently acknowledged that she owed the funds that were later paid to the client in restitution.