Supreme Court Disbars Washington Attorney Stephen Monro for Using Client Trust Accounts as a “Piggy Bank”
On March 5, 2026, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the disbarment of attorney Stephen Kenneth Monro.
The 56-page opinion, authored by Justice Mary Yu, outlines a pattern of exploitation spanning several years, in which Monro stole from vulnerable clients, collected unreasonable fees, and repeatedly lied to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
In total, Monro was found to have committed 14 separate counts of serious professional misconduct.
A Convenient Ransomware Excuse
Monro’s financial malfeasance first came to light in December 2016, when KeyBank notified the ODC that Monro’s client trust account had been overdrawn.
Monro attempted to blame the discrepancies on a December 2016 ransomware attack that encrypted his firm’s electronic records. But an investigation revealed a much darker reality: Monro had been siphoning client funds long before the cyberattack occurred.
Between January 2015 and January 2017, there was not a single day when Monro had enough money in his general accounts to pay the clients whose funds he had improperly removed from trust. When initially confronted with the overdraft by the ODC, Monro’s counsel lied, claiming the issue was merely a timing error with deposits.
Exploiting a Special Needs Orphan
Perhaps the most egregious example of Monro’s misconduct involved the “Estate of JK.” After JK was tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident, the victim’s sole heir was a minor child with special needs who had been placed into dependent care.
Before Monro was even hired, the at-fault driver’s insurance company, Allstate, had already offered to settle for the policy limit of $100,000. Yet, Monro took the case on a contingency fee.
When the $100,000 settlement arrived, Monro manufactured over $56,000 in bogus “hourly fees” for investigating claims he had no records for, and ultimately disbursed $107,580 to his law firm and his son.
This brazen theft completely depleted the estate, leaving zero money for the special needs child. It was only after the ODC opened its grievance investigation that Monro belatedly acknowledged his “unfair” fee and finally paid the child the $72,550 they were owed.
Forged Initials and Cover-Ups
Monro’s deception extended deeply into his workers’ compensation and personal injury cases. In the case of a client identified as “SA,” Monro took $164,882.30 in attorney fees from a settlement, which was roughly $50,000 more than he was entitled to under their agreement.
To cover his tracks, Monro pulled a bait-and-switch. He presented SA with the second page of a settlement document to sign, deliberately concealing the first page that detailed his exorbitant fee grab.
Even worse, Monro or someone in his office forged SA’s initials on a fake fee agreement and submitted the fabricated document to the Department of Labor and Industries. When ODC investigators demanded his files, Monro provided the fraudulent documents and lied under oath during his deposition.
In another case, Monro withheld over $61,000 belonging to L&I from a client’s settlement, using the money instead to fund payments for unrelated clients and personal expenses before eventually bouncing a check to the state.
No Accountability, Only Excuses
Throughout the disciplinary process, Monro refused to take accountability. He fought the disbarment recommendation all the way to the Washington Supreme Court, arguing that the standard of proof used in attorney discipline cases—a “clear preponderance of the evidence”—violated his constitutional due process rights.
The Supreme Court rejected his legal maneuvering. Justice Yu’s opinion emphasized that a lawyer’s trust account is not a personal “piggy bank” for their business or personal expenses.
By misusing client funds, forging documents, and continuously lying to investigators, Monro irrevocably broke the public trust. The Court concluded that disbarment was the only proportional and appropriate sanction.
For the vulnerable clients who relied on him, the Supreme Court’s decision brings a final measure of justice—and ensures Monro will never practice law in Washington State again.