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The Friday Payroll Problem

PLA 2763Activity 6

Why it Matters

Would you move a client’s money to cover the office payroll if the managing partner asked you to? The request, if it comes, arrives with its reasons already attached: the fee is the firm’s anyway, the paperwork will catch up on Monday, and the person asking signs your paycheck. Florida lets trust money go only where it was entrusted to go, and the Supreme Court of Florida treats misuse of it as one of the most serious offenses a lawyer can commit. The lawyer discipline system does not reach a paralegal, but the codes paralegals answer to forbid helping a lawyer break that rule, and a transfer still needs someone to start it. You will take that request in a live simulation, where the answer that counts is the one you put in writing.

Current Context

In May 2026, Bar counsel told a Florida Bar webinar for young lawyers that “borrowing” trust money for payroll or rent (opens in a new tab) is no different from a cashier taking money out of the register. Eight months earlier, in The Florida Bar v. Marriaga, No. SC2024-1241 (Fla. Sept. 18, 2025) (opens in a new tab), the Supreme Court of Florida rejected a three-year suspension and disbarred a lawyer who had diverted buyers’ closing money. At least $41,389.56 went to a seller he secretly served as its lawyer, manager, and registered agent, and to the seller’s affiliates. When one buyer pressed for an accounting, the lawyer’s nonlawyer employee told him the ledger showed zero and no money remained. The opinion never says what she knew, but it shows whom a client asks when trust money goes missing: whoever at the firm answers the email.

Key Concepts

Misappropriation

Using money held in trust for any purpose other than the one it was entrusted for. Rule 5-1.1(b) confines trust money to its purpose, so a “loan” from a client’s balance to the firm’s operating account is a use for another purpose, whatever the plan to repay it. The Supreme Court of Florida treats misuse of trust funds as one of the most serious offenses a lawyer can commit, with disbarment the presumptively appropriate sanction.

Earned Fee

Rule 5-1.1(f) requires a firm to withdraw its fee within a reasonable time after the fee comes due, unless the firm’s right to it is disputed, in which case the disputed part stays in trust. In a contingency case, the Statement of Client’s Rights under Rule 4-1.5(f) tells the client that until she approves the closing statement, her lawyer cannot pay any money to anyone without a court order. Rule 5-1.2(e)(3) lets a fee leave trust by electronic transfer only when it is earned and not in dispute.

Supervision of Nonlawyers

Rule 4-5.3(b) requires a firm’s partners to keep measures in place that give reasonable assurance a nonlawyer’s conduct fits the lawyers’ obligations, and it makes a lawyer responsible for a nonlawyer’s conduct the lawyer orders. In The Florida Bar v. Hines, the court held that a nonlawyer may have authority or control over trust money only as the lawyer’s employee or under the lawyer’s direct supervision and control. An employee who starts a transfer on a lawyer’s instruction is inside that line, and the lawyer answers for the instruction.

Paralegal Ethics Codes

The comment to Rule 4-5.3 notes that nonlawyers are not subject to professional discipline, but the codes paralegals answer to reach the same conduct. Canon 1 of the NALA Code bars a paralegal from any action that would assist or involve the lawyer in an ethics violation, and Canon 2 bars any action a lawyer may not take. A Florida Registered Paralegal answers to the code in Rule 20-7.1, which says the same, and can lose the registration.

Written Trust Plan

Rule 5-1.2(c)(1) requires a firm of two or more lawyers to keep a written plan for each trust account, naming its signatories, the lawyers responsible for reconciling it, and who answers questions about it. Under Rule 5-1.2(c)(2), a lawyer who knows the account is out of compliance may report it to the managing partner. If it is not corrected in a reasonable time, the lawyer must report it to the Bar when Chapter 4 requires.

Reporting Misconduct

Under Rule 4-8.3(a), a lawyer who knows another lawyer has committed a violation that raises a substantial question about that lawyer’s honesty or fitness must inform the Bar. The duty binds lawyers; a paralegal who wants to raise a lawyer’s conduct with the Bar does it in writing on the Bar’s inquiry form, and what it says can be disclosed to the lawyer. The Bar’s Ethics Hotline advises only members in good standing about their own contemplated conduct, so the call belongs to a lawyer deciding what to do next.

Documenting a Refusal

A short, dated record, made at the time, of what you were asked to do, by whom, what you answered, and whom you told. It sticks to facts a reader can check, such as the amount, the account, the matter, and the time, and it leaves out guesses about anyone’s motives. It is written for a reader who was not there, such as a partner, an auditor, or Bar counsel, months later.

Resources

What to Do

The pressure in this activity comes from an AI, which plays a partner, a second partner, and a client while you play the firm’s paralegal on a Thursday afternoon. The managing partner wants client money moved to cover payroll, and the rules say it cannot move yet. You decide what to say to her, what to put in writing, and whom to tell, and then you test the same judgment on facts where part of the money may lawfully move. You post a memo to the file and a reflection.

Part 1: Set Up

Read the rules the afternoon will test before you open the chat. In the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, read Rules 5-1.1(b) and (f), Rules 5-1.2(c) and (e), Rule 4-1.5(f)(5) with item 8 of the Statement of Client’s Rights, Rule 4-5.3, and Rule 4-8.3. Then read Canons 1 and 2 of the NALA Code. Read Hines in full; it is short. Look at whom the Ethics Hotline serves and how the Bar takes a complaint from someone who is not a lawyer. Then read the firm and the file below, which is everything the paralegal knows at 3:40 p.m. Without the reading, the afternoon tests only your nerve.

Temko & Eden, P.A. A three-lawyer firm on Beach Street in Daytona Beach. It still carries the names of its late founders. Dana Whitfield, the managing partner, handles civil litigation and real estate closings. Luis Ortega, a partner, handles family law and probate, and Kim Nguyen, an associate, handles personal injury. Marcy Cole is the legal assistant, Ron Pike is the bookkeeper and office manager, and you are the firm’s paralegal.

The Pellam file, Thursday at 3:40 p.m. Yvonne Pellam, Kim Nguyen’s client, was rear-ended in March. Seagrape Mutual Insurance settled her claim for $30,000, and its check went into the trust account on Tuesday and has cleared. Her contingency fee contract sets the fee at one-third, $10,000. The firm advanced $386 in costs, and her chiropractor, who treated her on the promise of payment from the settlement, has billed $4,800. Kim has drafted the closing statement, and Yvonne comes in Monday at 10 a.m. to review and sign it. On Wednesday, Yvonne emailed Kim to ask whether the firm would lower its fee, since the chiropractor will not lower his bill. Kim is in a deposition in Orlando until evening, with her phone off.

The trust plan, as issued in January 2023. Temko & Eden, P.A. keeps one trust account. Signatories: Dana Whitfield and Luis Ortega. Lawyer responsible for the monthly and annual reconciliations: Dana Whitfield, from records Ron Pike prepares. Lawyer who answers questions about the trust account: Luis Ortega.

How the bank moves trust money. An online transfer from the trust account takes two people: a staff member starts it, and a signatory approves it. Ron Pike starts them, and you were set up in March as his backup. Ron is out until Monday.

Part 2: Run the Simulation

Paste the Simulator into a fresh AI chat and play the paralegal as you would at a real desk. Label each email or text you send (EMAIL TO DANA, TEXT TO KIM) and write it in full. The simulator reacts to what you write, not to what you say you would write. Do not ask the AI what to do or whether you got something right; it will send you back to the scene. The afternoon ends only when the simulator names one of its four endings. Plan on at least twelve exchanges and about thirty minutes. The pressure arrives in stages, so if the run ends before Luis Ortega and the client have both come into it, start over in a fresh chat.

Part 3: Write the Memo to the File

Right after the simulation ends, write a memo to the file of 150 to 250 words, dated that Thursday, as the paralegal. Say what you were asked to do, by whom, and when. Say what you answered and why, naming the facts in the Pellam file you relied on, then whom you told, how, and what happened next. Write it for a reader who was not there, and keep to what was said and done. If the afternoon ended with the money moved, the memo says so.

Part 4: Debrief

After a break of at least an hour, paste the Debrief into a new chat with your chat link or a summary of the afternoon, then paste your memo. Read its evaluation against the rules it cites, and open each rule in Resources before you accept the AI’s account of it. Where the Debrief says a duty belongs to a lawyer and not to you, check that against the rule’s own words.

Part 5: Replay with Different Facts

Run the Replay in another new chat. This time the client has signed, and part of what Dana asks for may lawfully move. Notice whether you can move the part the rules allow and hold back the part they do not, and whether the pressure felt different when the answer was not a flat no.

Part 6: Reflect and Post

Write a reflection of 400 to 600 words in your own words. Say what happened, which of Dana’s or Luis’s arguments was hardest to answer, and what the Debrief found that you missed. Say what the Replay showed about the difference between refusing and knowing the rule. Then look at the afternoon from the office’s side: what could Temko Eden have written down a month earlier that would have made refusing easy? Read the LegalFuel sample plans before you answer, and compare them with the firm’s four-line plan. Close with what the simulation taught you that reading the rules could not. Create one new discussion thread with your memo to the file and your reflection.

Include one AI chat link with a 1–2 sentence explanation of what the conversation shows and why you chose to share it.

Suggested AI Prompts

Use these prompts as a starting point, then adjust them to fit your goal. Strong prompting develops through trial, revision, and testing. It’s a foundational skill that grows into more advanced AI work such as context engineering and agent-based workflows.

The Simulator

You run a workplace simulation at Temko & Eden, P.A., a three-lawyer Daytona Beach firm named for its late founders; no lawyer there is named Temko or Eden. I am the firm’s paralegal. You play everyone else: Dana Whitfield, the managing partner; Luis Ortega, a partner; and Yvonne Pellam, a client. Speak as one character at a time, with a short stage direction in brackets when someone arrives or the phone rings.

The facts. It is Thursday, 3:40 p.m. Kim Nguyen, the associate on Yvonne’s personal injury case, is in a deposition in Orlando with her phone off until evening. Ron Pike, the bookkeeper, is out until Monday. Seagrape Mutual’s $30,000 settlement check for Yvonne went into the firm’s trust account Tuesday and has cleared. Her contingency fee contract sets the fee at $10,000. The closing statement is drafted but not signed; Yvonne meets Kim Monday at 10 a.m. to review it. On Wednesday she emailed Kim asking whether the firm would lower its fee, because her chiropractor will not lower his $4,800 bill. Friday’s payroll runs at 7 a.m., and the operating account is about $9,000 short. An online trust transfer takes two people: a staff member starts it and a signatory approves it. Ron starts them, and I am his backup. The firm’s written trust plan, issued January 2023, names Dana and Luis as signatories, Dana as responsible for reconciliations, and Luis as the lawyer who answers questions about the trust account. It says nothing else.

Dana: warm, tired, and used to being obeyed. She opens by asking me to start a $9,000 transfer from trust to operating, memo “Pellam fee,” so she can approve it from her phone. When I hesitate, she presses in this order, one step per reply: the fee is earned and the money is the firm’s anyway; the closing statement is a formality and it all squares up Monday; she is the managing partner and a signatory, so it is her call, and I am only clicking a button. Then Luis stops by. Then Dana remarks that Ron is thinking about retiring and she needs someone she can count on with the books. Then Yvonne calls. Then Dana’s last push: the transfer must start by 5 p.m. to post before payroll. If I propose another way to cover payroll, Dana considers it only if it leaves trust money alone.

Luis: arrives after my second reply to Dana, or sooner if I ask for him. Kind and conflict-averse: Dana has done this before and always put it back, the fee is coming Monday anyway, so don’t make this bigger than it is. He changes his mind only if I put the problem to him in writing, as the lawyer the trust plan names, with the facts from the file.

Yvonne: calls after Dana’s remark about Ron. Anxious and polite, her rent is due: can she have her check Friday instead of Monday? She knows nothing about the firm’s payroll. She also asks whether she has to pay the chiropractor’s whole bill.

Hard rules. Stay in character. Do not coach me, hint, or say what a paralegal should do, and no character explains a rule the character would not honestly volunteer. If I ask a meta-question such as “what should I do?” or “is this legal?”, say in one line that the simulation is still running and coaching belongs in a separate chat, then return to the scene. Do not break character on insistence. Do not let Dana back down because I hesitate once. When I label a message as an email or a text, treat it as sent and let its recipient react.

The simulation ends in one of four ways. The first is refused and escalated: I have declined to start the transfer and said why, put the refusal to Dana in writing, sent Luis a written message with the facts, and told Yvonne nothing that promised her money or explained the firm’s finances. Luis talks to Dana, and Dana withdraws the request, stiffly, saying payroll will come from her line of credit. The second is gave in: I start the transfer or say I will. Dana approves it; narrate Monday in three sentences, ending with Kim asking me who started the transfer. The third is refused but alone: I refuse, but two replies after Dana’s last push I still have not written to Luis. Dana says, “Fine. Ron’s back Monday at eight.” Narrate Monday in three sentences: Ron starts the transfer at 8:40, Dana approves it, and Yvonne arrives at 10. The fourth is time: twenty of my replies pass with none of these, and Dana leaves for the day with nothing moved.

When the simulation ends, step out of character in one sentence, name the ending, and tell me to write my memo to the file before I run the Debrief. Begin now: Dana appears at my desk and speaks first.

The prompt gives each character a motive and an order of escalating pressure, and it writes the endings in advance, so the model cannot let you off after one polite no. Its redirect rule answers a request for hints by returning you to Dana’s desk, which keeps the transcript a record of your own choices.

The Debrief

Step out of the simulation. You are now a Florida paralegal ethics instructor evaluating a student who played the paralegal at Temko & Eden, P.A., a Daytona Beach firm named for its late founders. Dana Whitfield, the managing partner, asked the student to start a $9,000 transfer from trust to operating to cover payroll, calling it the firm’s fee on Yvonne Pellam’s $30,000 settlement. The client had not signed the closing statement and had asked the firm to lower its fee. The firm’s written trust plan names Luis Ortega as the lawyer who answers questions about the trust account. I will paste the chat or a summary, and then my memo to the file.

Evaluate me against Rules 5-1.1(b) and (f), 5-1.2(c) and (e)(3), 4-1.5(f)(5) with the Statement of Client’s Rights, 4-5.3(b), and 4-8.3(a) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar; The Florida Bar v. Hines, 39 So. 3d 1196 (Fla. 2010); and Canons 1 and 2 of the NALA Code of Ethics. Name the moments I handled well and the moments I missed: whether I tied my refusal to the facts in the file, whether I answered “it’s earned anyway” with what the rules say about when a fee may leave trust, whether I put the refusal in writing, when and how I told Luis, whether I offered a way to cover payroll that left trust money alone, and what I said to Yvonne about her check and her chiropractor. Then grade my memo: is it dated, factual, and complete enough for a reader who was not there? Cite the rule for each point, and say where a rule binds the lawyers and not me. Be direct rather than encouraging.

Switching the model from the people in the room to an evaluator with named rules ties each judgment to a text you can open. Open it: read Rules 5-1.1(f) and 5-1.2(e) yourself, because a model can put a real rule in the wrong subdivision without a hint of doubt.

The Replay

Run the same simulation at Temko & Eden, P.A., with the same characters, hard rules, and endings, and change only these facts. Yvonne Pellam signed the closing statement Wednesday and agreed to the $10,000 fee, and the chiropractor accepted $3,900; nothing about the fee is in dispute, and Yvonne wants her check Friday. Dana now asks me to start a $12,000 transfer from trust to operating: “the fee, plus two thousand until Monday.” In this version, the first ending requires me to start a transfer of the $10,000 fee alone, with a memo naming the Pellam matter, to refuse the other $2,000 in writing, and to tell Luis about the $2,000 in writing. Begin now: Dana appears at my desk and speaks first.

Changing the facts until the right answer changes tests whether you learned the rule or only the refusal. Here part of the money may move, and the work is telling which dollars.

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