A former Bar Harbor state representative and lawyer has been disbarred after being accused of misusing her client’s money and not complying with a state investigation.
Lynne A. Williams, of Falmouth, was suspended from practicing law in January 2025 after a former client had alleged the previous fall that Williams failed to return $65,000 in escrow funds to him, according to a May 12 Maine Supreme Judicial Court order.
The order says that Williams, 76, did not cooperate during the investigation into the misused funds.
Williams, who had her own private practice in Bar Harbor and served on the town’s planning board before being elected to the Legislature, resigned from her state rep seat in April 2024 after four years in office.
Rather than deposit her client’s funds into an escrow account, bank records showed that Williams put the money into one of her personal Bar Harbor Bank & Trust accounts. Still, her bar registration paperwork claimed she personally held “no client funds other than advances for costs and expenses,” according to the order.
The order said a review of the lawyer’s financial statements revealed she had used her client’s money to “supplement her personal income.”
The funds were meant to pay off a mortgage for the client’s real estate, though — after the client learned that his payment was not due until 2032, later than he initially thought — he decided he wanted the money back.
Between September 2023 and October 2024, the client repeatedly requested that Williams return his funds. When Williams did respond to his requests, the attorney said she was working out of state and couldn’t transfer the money remotely, according to the order.
During that period, Williams, who had practiced law since 2002, was searching for a new job. She unsuccessfully applied to work as a public defender and later inquired on Facebook about openings at Bar Harbor restaurants and retail shops, according to the order. In October 2024, she indicated on social media that she was moving to southern Maine.
After dodging inquiries during the investigation by the Maine Board of Overseer of the Bar, which oversees the professional conduct of licensed lawyers in the state, Williams said she had been in and out of the hospital, the order says. The board’s counsel attempted to reach Williams multiple times by email and mail — though the physical and electronic addresses she provided to the bar returned as undeliverable, according to the order.
As of March 2025, she was residing in a Falmouth assisted living facility.
Williams did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News.
