Gary Dubin, once a well-known foreclosure attorney, has been disbarred by both state and federal courts. Now an attorney who was representing him against a civil lawsuit has withdrawn from the case, citing Dubin’s inability to pay his fees.

Dubin was disbarred by order of the Hawaii Supreme Court at the end of 2020, and the Federal District Court in Honolulu, along with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, followed.

Dubin, always a tenacious street-fighter of a lawyer, filed motions seeking reconsideration, followed by multiple appeals, which created delays in declaring his disbarment final.

Honolulu attorney Keith Kiuchi took over Dubin’s active cases when he was disbarred, including cases in which Dubin and his law practice were defendants. The total number of cases passed to Kiuchi was about 200.

However, in a motion filed in court late last year in one of those civil lawsuits against Dubin, Kiuchi sought and gained approval of the court to withdraw as Dubin’s counsel. That motion to withdraw was granted in court earlier this month.

In a declaration attached to his motion, Kiuchi said he had written Dubin in October 2022 asking to be paid for work on this case or else he would withdraw as counsel.

“Mr. Dubin responded by e-mail that he was unable to pay me for past work and that he would be unable to pay me for future work,” Kiuchi stated. He also said Dubin planned to close his law offices by the end of 2022.

“If I continue to represent Mr. Dubin I believe that I will not get paid, which would represent an unreasonable financial burden upon me under Rule 1.16(b)(6),” Kiuchi said in his declaration.

Dubin, 85, has apparently been in failing health since a couple of falls, the latest in May 2022, both requiring hospitaliation. The second fall resulted in a three week hospital stay, followed by time in rehabilitation.

Real estate records show Dubin sold two adjacent properties in the Haiku Plantation subdivision over the past 15 months. The first sold on an agreement of sale for $2.1 million in May 2022, and the other for $2.15 million in March 2023.

Dubin was first licensed to practice law in Hawaii in 1982.

The Hawaii Supreme Court’s disbarment order spelled out the issues it had considered in making its decision.

In its disbarment order, the Supreme Court found Dubin had violated rules of professional conduct by “by knowingly misrepresenting the truth on a government form on which he certified the information thereon was true,” and then “signing the names of his clients, without their permission, in the endorsement section of a $132,000.00 settlement check made out to them alone and depositing it in his client trust account, thereby gaining control over those funds,” and then “overcharged the clients a minimum of $19,885.00.”

The court found, in another client’s case, Dubin “withdrew $3,500.00 of the client’s funds at a time when, based upon Respondent Dubin’s own accounting, Respondent Dubin had not yet earned those funds.”

The court ruled that in these cases, Dubin “inflicted actual, serious, injury upon the clients and upon the profession and…inflicted injury on the public at large and the integrity of the profession.”

In addition, the court noted it had considered several aggravating factors, including that Dubin “has two prior disciplines, evinced a dishonest or selfish motive, demonstrated a pattern of misconduct, committed multiple offenses, refused to acknowledge the wrongful nature of his conduct, and has substantial experience in the practice of law.”

At the same time, the court found “the record contains many positive comments from clients, and Dubin has contributed positively to the development of the law.”

Although Dubin frequently described his legal career as unblemished, some others referred to him as “Dubious Dubin.”

His name is woven in and out of the tale of a Nuuanu home which was much in the news after a fatal police shooting at the property in April 2021.

“The squatters next door,” 1/20/2020

“The hotel next door,” 10/12/2021

“A history of dubious deals, Part 1,” 3/5/2022

“A history of dubious deals, Part 2,” 3/6/2022