North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Attorney: Gavin A. Brown
Location: Waynesville
Bar membership: Member since 1972
Disciplinary action: Suspended from the practice of law for two years on Jan. 17 and shall not be reinstated before the end of that period.
Background: In 1998, Brown prepared a general warranty deed, later recorded, conveying real property. In 2016, when the property was being sold again, the new buyer’s attorney notified Brown of an error in the deed, and Brown prepared a new deed correcting the error. Brown obtained the notary seal belonging to a notary public and, without her knowledge or consent, affixed the seal to the corrected deed and forged the notary’s signature on the deed. The forged signatures and seal purportedly certified that the president of the company that had sold the property in 1998 had personally appeared and executed the deed. In fact, the company president had not appeared and was unaware of the error in the earlier deed. In September 2018, Brown pleaded guilty to the felonies of forgery of a deed and using a notarial seal without authority and was placed on supervised probation for 24 months.
Previous discipline: Brown was admonished in 2010 for neglecting a client matter and failing to communicate with a client.
