Washington Supreme Court Suspends Seattle Attorney Over Abusive Litigation and Trust Account Violations

The Washington State Supreme Court ordered a nine-month suspension for attorney Sean Patrick Kuhlmeyer, ending a disciplinary investigation into a pattern of frivolous litigation and the mishandling of client funds.

The order, filed on August 27, 2025, requires Kuhlmeyer to serve a 24-month probation period upon his reinstatement to the practice of law.

The first set of violations originated from Kuhlmeyer’s own dissolution proceedings, which began in 2017. Kuhlmeyer, who had no experience in family law, represented himself because he claimed that he could not afford to hire counsel.

Following a binding arbitration decision in May 2018 that awarded primary custody of his child and the family home to his former spouse, Kuhlmeyer launched a relentless legal campaign to undo the results. He filed repetitive and frivolous motions to vacate the arbitrator’s decision, repeatedly violating court-issued case management orders that were designed to limit his filings.

A trial court explicitly warned him that his pursuit of frivolous litigation was frustrating the administration of justice and consuming judicial resources.

The misconduct escalated in 2020 when Kuhlmeyer filed a tort case for damages against his former spouse and her attorney. A judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice in 2021, explicitly ruling that Kuhlmeyer had engaged in “an ongoing and present pattern of abusive litigation.”

As a result, the court barred him from filing any new cases or motions for six years without prior judicial approval.

Trust Account Mismanagement

Alongside the family law disputes, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel investigated Kuhlmeyer’s financial practices following a notice of insufficient funds from his bank in January 2019.

An audit covering August 2018 through December 2020 revealed that Kuhlmeyer failed to maintain complete check registers or perform monthly trust account reconciliations.

The audit detailed several severe violations regarding the preservation of client property:

• Kuhlmeyer caused massive shortages in his client trust accounts, at one point reaching a deficit of at least $83,910.48.

• In August 2019, he withdrew over $100,000 in client funds in the form of a cashier’s check made payable to his own law firm. He stated this was an attempt to protect the client funds from being garnished in connection with his ongoing divorce.

• In a separate personal injury matter, Kuhlmeyer mistakenly collected a duplicate attorney fee of $23,448.97. Because the clients did not have those funds on deposit, other client funds were used to cover the disbursement, further compounding the account shortages.

Mitigating Factors

The Disciplinary Board noted several mitigating factors that influenced the nine-month suspension rather than disbarment.

Most notably, the Board stated that Kuhlmeyer suffers from personal and emotional problems and PTSD.

Kuhlmeyer’s mental health counselor claimed that Kuhlmeyer’s PTSD likely triggered fight-or-flight responses, which directly affected his behavior, his decision-making, and the issues he chose to litigate.

Path Forward

Kuhlmeyer’s nine-month suspension took effect in September 2025. Reinstatement is conditioned upon the payment of $750 in administrative costs.

Once reinstated, he will be subject to a strict 24-month probation period. The probation terms require him to submit to periodic reviews of his trust account practices, provide quarterly financial records to ODC auditors, and strictly comply with the rules governing client funds.