Attorney Cleve Burns of Provo, UT; ethical ogre

The State of Utah presented Cleve Covert Burns with a law license in 2016 after she graduated from West Virginia University School of Law

The Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme found Cleve guilty of engaging in the following misconduct.

• Engaged in conduct involving fraud, deceit, dishonesty, or misrepresentation
• Two months after resigning position with law firm, the firm discovered that Cleve took electronic data
• from the firm without the attorney’s consent, knowledge, or permission
• The files Cleve took were not his work product, and the majority were from cases that were several years old and/or that he had never worked on
• The documents taken by Cleve included, but were not limited to, medical records of certain clients, an adoption file, protective order files, the completed financial declarations of ten separate clients, victim medical records and a preliminary hearing transcript that was “under seal”
• Cleve also took client identifying information, social security numbers, birthdates, and account numbers that were part of the financial declarations, estate planning documents, and other documents
• The bulk of the material was taken by Cleve the day before he resigned his position with the firm
• When the firm’s attorney met with Cleve after his resignation, he denied taking anything
• The attorney and the firm were exposed to liability for the data breach and resulted in billable hour losses
• for reporting the incident to their malpractice insurer and affected clients

As a direct consequence of his misconduct, the apologists for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Utah Supreme Court punished Johnny by gifting him with a complimentary reprimand. 

As we speak (ca. October 2020), Cleve practices with Cleve Burns Legal Services PLLC at 3651 North 100 East Street in Provo, Utah.