JEFFERSON CITY (St. Louis Record) — Suspended Lebanon attorney Jeffrey Bryan Allen has been disbarred following a Jan. 9 Missouri Supreme Court corrected order following multiple professional misconduct allegations.
The court found Allen violated professional conduct rules, including those regarding diligence, communication, fees, trust accounts and property and truthfulness, according to the order.
The high court also ordered Allen to pay $2,000 to the advisory committee fund, in addition to all costs in the matter. Allen has been represented in the matter by Jefferson City attorney Sara G. Rittman, according to information about his case on the Missouri Courts website.
Allen was placed in interim suspension in late July following a state Supreme Court order handed down that month. His interim suspension had been effective immediately and followed a Missouri chief disciplinary counsel motion "advising that there is probable cause to believe respondent, Jeffrey B. Allen, has committed professional misconduct and, therefore, poses a substantial threat of irreparable harm to the public."
Neither the interim suspension nor the disbarment order provided any additional details about why Allen was disciplined but a local news report in August indicated Allen faced "multiple accusations of inappropriately handling his client's money."
KY3 News met with "more than a dozen who had either hired Jeffrey Allen or knew someone who did" outside the locked doors of his legal office in Lebanon. Several of the former clients "shared several stories of money taken with services rendered too slowly, or not at all" and that "he locked up his office, leaving without posting any notice of his suspension," the local news outlet reported.
"Allen's actions are believed to have negatively affected at least 30 people," the news report said. "So far eight people have come forward in the state's Supreme Court case claiming to have records and evidence of a range of financial mishandling."
Those allegations included Allen settling cases without informing his clients, depositing client settlement funds into his personal account and forging documents, according to the news report.