Attorney with local ties disbarred

Rustin Rankin, a Fredonia attorney who worked as assistant Allen County attorney several years ago, has been disbarred from practicing law.
The penalty was handed down Friday by the Kansas Supreme Court, at the urging of Alexander Walczak, the Court’s deputy disciplinary administrator.
The disbarment centers on Rankin’s relationship and former business partnership with an elderly widow.
The woman, whose name was not released in the high court’s ruling, had become friends with Rankin after he assisted her with a real estate transaction in 2006.
The friendship grew, and Rankin became her attorney in 2007. The two entered a business relationship in 2009, forming Madden Ventures LLC, a real estate company.
Rankin testified previously he had stopped providing legal services to the woman in 2009, although records showed he continued to deposit funds and write checks on her behalf from his attorney trust account until sometime in 2012.
Additionally, records showed five transfers worth a combined $60,000 from Madden LLC to Rankin’s law office in 2010. Rankin alleged the transfers were not payments for legal services; but rather to pay various bills on the woman’s behalf as her friend and business partner.
The partnership effectively ended in 2012 when the woman notified Rankin that she was contacting a separate accountant to audit Madden LLC’s financial dealings. Shortly thereafter, Rankin turned himself in to the Supreme Court’s disciplinary administrator.
Rankin said relatively little money is missing, despite one hearing panel’s contention that Rankin held more than $169,000 of the woman’s money, which could not be accounted for.
Rankin disputed the number, saying all of the funds had been accounted for, but the woman did not save his receipts.
“I failed her, because I was her attorney, and she expected me to handle things correctly and better than I did,” Rankin told the court. “I should have done a better job. I should have kept a second copy (of the receipts.) I should have protected myself. It never dawned on me I should have protected myself because I was so close with this woman. … I should have not let that so affect my judgment as to not treat her as the client she was.”
Rankin and the woman reached an out-of-court settlement for missing funds from Madden Ventures LLC for $153,000. Rankin paid $53,000; a malpractice carrier paid the other $100,000.
A disciplinary panel last October considered Rankin’s testimony on the matter “inconsistent” and “cavalier.”
Rankin earned his law degree in 1999, and served as assistant Allen County attorney from 2000 to 2002. In addition to his law office in Fredonia, Rankin also owned a small office in Iola, and occasionally did legal business in the area.