Former Floyd County attorney’s law license suspended a second time

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A former Floyd County attorney who had been previously disciplined by the Iowa Supreme Court and removed from office has had his law license suspended for 30 days.

The state high court ruling, issued Friday, found that Jesse Marzen violated the court’s ethical rules in a number of areas, most importantly by filing tax returns for a client which he knew contained false or incomplete information.

The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board brought four complaints against Marzen involving his representation of a Charles City couple regarding preparing business records and tax returns for the couple’s classic car business, and regarding handling of the estate of the father of one of the clients.

The board recommended that Marzen’s law license be suspended.

The Iowa Attorney Grievance Commission reviewed the board’s work, and concluded that Marzen committed some but not all of the violations identified by the board, and recommended that Marzen receive a public reprimand.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Marzen’s license should be suspended for 30 days.

The court found that Marzen had submitted “tax returns known to be materially incomplete and inaccurate” to taxing authorities, and that he had given those returns to his clients to take to a bank in support of a loan application.

“We appreciate the position Marzen faced when his clients failed to provide the information required to complete the tax returns. But that does not excuse Marzen’s actions of intentionally mailing materially inaccurate returns to the IRS and (Iowa Department of Revenue) without following up with amended returns,” the court wrote.

The court also found that Marzen had failed to inform his clients that he had transferred part of the work on the estate of the father of one of the clients to another law firm, and failed to get consent to do so.

By transferring the case, Marzen had also revealed information about his clients to the other law firm without his clients’ knowledge or permission.

The court also ruled that Marzen had violated the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct by falsely telling the attorney at the other law firm that his clients had given him permission to transfer part of the case.

The Supreme Court also found that Marzen had attempted to charge a finance fee for past-due legal bills, even through no mention of a finance fee had been included in his fee agreement with the clients.

The Supreme Court wrote that, in deciding punishment, it takes into consideration mitigating circumstances.

“We use prior discipline as an aggravating factor because an attorney did not learn from his or her prior misconduct,” it wrote, but it also said that Marzen’s clients were not materially harmed by his actions. Even though they had to hire another attorney to complete work on their taxes, they ended up paying Marzen only about half of his legal fees.

“Based on Marzen’s violations and the aggravating factors in this case, we agree with the board that Marzen’s license should be suspended,” the court wrote. “We are most troubled by Marzen’s willingness to provide knowingly inaccurate tax returns for his clients to give to their bank in support of a loan application. This, coupled with Marzen’s prior disciplinary record, warrants a thirty-day suspension.”

Marzen had his law license suspended by the Iowa Supreme Court for a minimum of six months in 2010 for having a sexual relationship with a client in 2006 and revealing information about that client to an area television station during an election campaign.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors removed him from office, saying that having a valid law license was a qualification of the job. Marzen appealed the decision to Iowa District Court, which ruled that the supervisors had acted within their authority.

The Iowa Court of Appeals dismissed a further appeal, saying a decision at that point would have no effect on the controversy because another election had taken place in November 2010 and another person had been elected to fill the Floyd County attorney position.

Marzen applied to get his law license renewed after the suspension and he resumed practice in March 2012.

The Supreme Court opinion said that Marzen was not practicing law or taking on clients prior to the suspension, but his license had been still active.

A website for Marzen Law Office PLLC lists offices in Waverly, West Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.