Lawyers Can Deposit Small Sums of Own Money into Trust Accounts

It’s O.K. for New York lawyers to deposit “reasonably adequate” amounts of their own money into client escrow accounts to avoid having them shut down due to inactivity or insufficient funds, the state bar’s ethics committee advised Oct. 29.

But this “is no license to pad the account with the lawyer’s money,” the committee warned.

State ethics rules require attorneys to keep client funds separate from personal or business funds, it said. But the rules do allow attorneys to provide a “cushion” from their own money that’s “reasonably sufficient” to maintain the account, the committee said.

There’s no set deposit ...