Federal judge excoriates lawyer, accusing her of abandoning clients, unethical behavior

Parents sued Aberdeen School District over abuse allegations

A federal judge in South Dakota has rebuked a Minnesota attorney, accusing her of attempting to extract attorney fees from her clients that she was not entitled to receive and acting unprofessionally.

Judge Charles Kornmann also accused Margaret O’Sullivan Kane of abusing her clients, opposing counsel and her fellow lawyers while setting up what Kornmann called the “most unusual attorney fee agreement I have ever seen.” Kornmann, who is 85, spent 28 years in private practice before being appointed to the federal bench in 1995.

Kornmann’s opinion, which was released this month, concludes several years of litigation against the Aberdeen School District. The opinion, in which Kornmann denied attorney fees to Kane, was unusual in its bluntness, accusing the St. Paul lawyer of abandoning her clients days before their trial was scheduled to start.

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