PER CURIAM.
The Arkansas Bar Association has filed a petition with the Court stating that there are attorneys licensed to practice law in Arkansas who continue to ignore the provisions of Rule 1.15 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct by commingling and using clients' funds without appropriate trust accounts.
The Rule states in pertinent part:
"A lawyer shall hold property of clients or third persons that is in a lawyer's possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer's own property. Funds shall
be kept in a separate account maintained in the state where the lawyer's office is situated, or elsewhere with the consent of the client or third person."
The Comment to the Rule states in pertinent part:
"A lawyer should hold property of others with the care required of a professional fiduciary. . . . . All property which is the property of clients or third persons should be kept separate from the lawyer's business and personal property and, if monies, in one or more trust accounts. Separate trust accounts may be warranted when administering estate monies or acting in similar fiduciary capacities."
The ABA proposes that the Court require certification by attorneys each year, when paying the licensure renewal fee, that the attorney has complied with and will continue to comply with all ethical rules concerning the maintenance of a trust account into which a client's funds or those funds in which a client may have an interest will be deposited pending proper disposition of said funds. The ABA submits that in this way attention would be focused on the importance of complying with Rule 1.15.
By an earlier Per Curiam the Court referred the Petition to the Committee on Professional Conduct for review and advice, and the Committee has responded that it concurs with the ABA's position.
Having now thoroughly considered the matter, the Court directs that henceforth when paying the annual Arkansas Supreme Court license renewal fee, an attorney shall certify that he or she has complied with and will continue to comply with all ethical rules concerning the maintenance of a trust account into which a client's funds or those funds in which a client may have an interest will be deposited pending proper disposition of said funds.
Further, willful failure to provide said certification shall constitute grounds for discipline under the provisions of Section 1 of the Procedures of the Arkansas Supreme Court Regulating Professional Conduct of Attorneys at Law.
NEWBERN, J., dissents and DUDLEY, J., joins in the dissent.
DAVID NEWBERN, Justice, dissenting.
It is inconceivable to me that a person who graduates from an accredited school of law and passes the Arkansas bar examination could be unaware of the requirements of Rule 1.15 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. It provides simple requirements for separating clients' funds from lawyers' funds and for record keeping. The Rule is no less accessible than any of the other Model Rules.
Nothing about Rule 1.15 suggests to me that it is in any particular way related to the annual renewal of an attorney's license. By selecting compliance with one rule for periodic certification we make it seem that the numerous other, and equally important, rules need not be kept in mind. It would be more appropriate to require a certification of past and future compliance with respect to all of the rules or perhaps a certification that the lawyer has reread the rules within 30 days prior to renewal of his or her license.
Lawyers should be held to exacting standards of compliance with all of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. To require this sort of "reminder" trivializes those rules.
I respectfully dissent.
DUDLEY, J., joins in this dissent.