Jorge Borunda (Bar No. 24027205) exploited his fiduciary position to engineer a scheme that financially devastated his client while enriching himself by over a million dollars.

Borunda represented Caroline Allison in a trust dispute, initially under an hourly agreement with no arbitration clause. After running up fees and withholding material information — including that opposing counsel was signaling settlement — Borunda pressured Allison into a private meeting with no record, then induced her to convert her $10,000 legal debt into a $1.352 million contingency fee arrangement. He never advised her to seek independent counsel before signing, despite his sworn affidavit later claiming otherwise. That lie is on the record.

The conversion wasn’t just unconscionable — it was calculated. Borunda knew the estate was worth approximately $18 million and that settlement was imminent.  Borunda then brought in a third attorney Rich Allison never hired, never agreed to pay, and never signed a contract with — yet that attorney was ultimately awarded $600,000 from her assets.

At mediation, three attorneys cornered two exhausted clients past 10 p.m. and coerced them into signing an agreement they explicitly said they were not ready to sign. The agreement surrendered approximately $5.8 million in marital trust remainder rights — a fact Borunda never disclosed, because disclosure wasn’t in his financial interest.

Borunda then claimed contingency fees against trust assets his clients never personally received, assets legally protected as an irrevocable spendthrift trust. Three independent experts — including former Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct Chair Lillian Hardwick — concluded Borunda violated his fiduciary duties, charged an unconscionable fee, and entered a transaction with a client without meeting the legal requirements to do so.

When confronted, Borunda smirked: “Caroline, I made you a multimillionaire.”

He made himself one first.