A St. Louis attorney who let his client's personal injury lawsuit get dismissed and then kept that fact hidden for years has been disbarred by the Missouri Supreme Court. William Patrick Hogan, who practiced primarily in family law, criminal law and personal injury litigation, lost his law license after the court found he violated multiple rules of professional conduct tied to a mishandled Texas case and separate client trust account violations.
The case traces back to a December 2014 head-on collision in Texas, where Hogan's client was struck by an intoxicated driver and suffered significant medical debt from the crash, according to SCOMOblog. The client retained Hogan in early 2015 to pursue the personal injury claim, even though Hogan was not licensed to practice in Texas. As reported by Missouri Lawyers Media, Hogan brought on the Dean Law Firm as local counsel in December 2016 to handle the litigation on the ground.
That arrangement quickly became muddled. A co-counsel agreement allocated Hogan 90 percent of the recovered fees along with most of the work, but the client never signed that agreement. The fee split led the Texas firm to treat Hogan as the lead attorney even though he reportedly expected the local firm to handle the bulk of the litigation, per the same account from SCOMOblog.
Discovery Requests Went Unanswered as the Case Unraveled
The Dean Law Firm filed suit on the client's behalf, but Hogan failed to respond to discovery requests in the case. The firm was granted leave to withdraw in October 2017, and the Texas court dismissed the case in January 2018 for failure to prosecute and respond to discovery, according to Missouri Lawyers Media.
What happened next is what turned a litigation failure into a disciplinary catastrophe. Notice of both the firm's withdrawal and the court's dismissal went unread for more than three years because the communications were sent to an email address Hogan had provided but never checked, per the same SCOMOblog account. The client attempted to contact Hogan repeatedly between 2019 and 2021, unaware the case no longer existed.
Hogan has said he learned of the withdrawal and dismissal himself only in May 2021, at which point he told the client he had “dropped the ball” and offered to personally pay what the client would have recovered from the suit, Missouri Lawyers Media reports. But the client did not actually understand the dismissed case's legal status until hiring independent counsel in August 2021, according to the article from SCOMOblog. By then, the statute of limitations barred refiling entirely.
Court Found Concealment and a Dishonest Motive
The Missouri Supreme Court found that Hogan's years-long neglect caused actual injury to his client's interests, leaving the client with a time-barred claim and outstanding medical debts and credit problems. The court went further, finding that Hogan concealed the dismissal and time bar while misleading the client about supposed settlement negotiations, and that he demonstrated a dishonest or selfish motive.
The Texas case was not the only trouble. Hogan had already accepted a March 2021 admonition over his client trust account practices. A 2023 audit by the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel found he failed to promptly remove earned fees, failed to maintain satisfactory ledgers, failed to reconcile accounts monthly, and withdrew funds prematurely — violations of Missouri Rule of Professional Conduct 4-1.15, which requires monthly three-way reconciliations of client trust accounts and detailed records kept for at least five years after representation ends, according to The Missouri Bar. Statewide, the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel received 52 bank overdraft notifications in 2023 alone, notifications that frequently trigger broader financial audits of attorney accounts, the same Missouri Bar report notes.
Hearing Panel Recommended Disbarment, and the Court Agreed
The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel brought charges against Hogan covering both the accounting issues and the Texas personal injury matter. Hogan said he was remorseful at the hearing, and a hearing panel recommended disbarment. He argued he should receive no more than a stayed suspension, but the Missouri Supreme Court rejected that request and ruled disbarment was warranted, per Missouri Lawyers Media.
In reaching that decision, the court distinguished Hogan's conduct from a prior disciplinary case, In re: Gardner, which involved an isolated instance of negligent payment of an attorney fee and resulted in an indefinite suspension stayed subject to one year of probation in 2019. The court held that prior disciplinary sanctions are not dispositive and stated that discipline is a discretionary calculation based on the totality of circumstances. In its decision, the court cited aggravating factors including Hogan's long experience in legal practice, his failure to cooperate with disciplinary authorities, and a repeated pattern of commingling and concealment, according to The Missouri Bar.
The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, In re: William Patrick Hogan, No. SC101636, on September 1. Cheryl Nield represented the Chief Disciplinary Counsel's office, while Michael Downey and John Pawloski represented Hogan.
A Three-Decade Career Now Over
Hogan had practiced law in Missouri since graduating from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1994, following earlier work in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, according to a biography posted on about.me. He ran Hogan Law Group, LLC in St. Louis as a solo practice covering family law, personal injury and criminal defense before the disbarment.
Disbarment in Missouri is not a temporary setback. Under Missouri Supreme Court Rule 5.28, a disbarred attorney seeking reinstatement must wait a minimum of five years, retake and pass the Missouri Bar Examination, and undergo a full character and fitness investigation, according to McCready Law. For now, Hogan's three-decade legal career in Missouri is finished, and the client he represented in the Texas crash case is left with medical debt and no legal remedy against the driver who caused it.
