A Harford County Circuit Court judge has issued an injunction forbidding a Bel Air attorney from practicing law in Maryland, the first punishment under new rules allowing judges to deal swiftly with lawyers whose conduct threatens others.

Thomas J. McLaughlin faces disbarment after two judges found that he violated his professional duties by collecting more than $200,000 in fees without doing what he was hired to do - protect the assets of his clients' elderly relatives so they could qualify for Medicaid before entering nursing homes.

In all, 15 families in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Harford, Cecil and Prince George's counties hired McLaughlin - who used ads on Christian radio stations to attract clients - to protect the assets of relatives. Between November 1998 and July last year, he charged large fees for work never carried out, and did not return clients' calls and requests for information, court records show.

In some cases, clients who followed the advice he gave now face large judgments themselves, the records show.

"I've had misappropriation of funds or theft, but I've never had anybody take this much money from clients and do nothing," said John C. Broderick, assistant bar counsel with the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland, the court's investigative and prosecutorial arm. He said the case is like none he has seen in 16 years with the commission.

"These are people who worked all their lives and acquired a little bit of assets ... and they want to pass their estates on," Broderick said. "They trusted an attorney to properly and legally distribute those assets" so they would still be able to enter a nursing home when they need care.

"That's what makes this so bad, because these people were all vulnerable," he said.

Harford Circuit Judge Thomas E. Marshall issued the injunction, which was approved by the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, as part of a streamlining of the disbarment process. The injunction allows judges to stop lawyers from practicing when it is found that their conduct poses a threat of bodily harm or death, substantial harm to others' property or substantial harm to the administration of justice.

Broderick filed a petition seeking disbarment yesterday, based on Marshall's finding that the lawyer's dealings with the families constituted misconduct.

McLaughlin, of the 100 block of South Rogers St. in Aberdeen, failed to appear Tuesday for a second time before Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert Dugan for a disciplinary proceeding involving six of the aggrieved families, Broderick said. Dugan had already found that McLaughlin violated his professional duties in other cases involving some of the 15 families.

Esther L. Hall, 80, of Baltimore, whose husband, Edgar, was an Alzheimer's patient, turned to McLaughlin in May last year to help get the family's finances straight after her husband entered a Baltimore County nursing home.

"He had a way of gaining your confidence almost immediately. He was very smooth," Hall said. "I liked him."

But now, looking back, she sees some red flags. She said he told her many times, "I choose my clients."

Hall added, "I should have asked, 'What is your basis for who you choose to work for?'"

After paying $13,000 for "design" and $27,000 for "implementation," Hall found McLaughlin difficult to reach, court records show. In December, her husband died without McLaughlin's having begun the Medicaid application process or devising an asset protection plan for the family, records show.

After Hall asked McLaughlin to return unearned fees, she discovered his phone had been disconnected, and no repayments were made, records show.

Hall, a retired Baltimore County teacher, said McLaughlin "was constantly telling us about what a good Christian he was after he found Jesus Christ."

In the last phone conversation she had with him, Hall said, "His last words to me were 'God bless.'"

McLaughlin took out ads on Christian radio stations that led several clients to him, one from as far away as Prince George's County to his Bel Air office in the first block of West Pennsylvania Ave. That ad also attracted Brenda Stamps' mother to call McLaughlin just before she died. Stamps said her family met with McLaughlin a few times without hiring him and that his Christian "testimonial" was part of each conversation.

Then her mother fell ill and died, leaving Stamps and her four siblings worried about the family's finances because her father's health was also declining.

"We were definitely vulnerable," Stamps said. They retained McLaughlin, paid him $5,000 in November 1999 - and then heard nothing from him. Calls were not returned; appointments were canceled, sometimes just hours before the meeting, she said. The family eventually pressed him to return his unearned fee, and the parties agreed to a repayment schedule, Stamps said.

McLaughlin made one payment, in September last year, according to court records.

In some cases, McLaughlin's advice led to expensive claims against his clients.

Edmond and Alvina Eisenmeier of Baltimore hired McLaughlin in the late 1990s to protect the family's assets after Alvina Eisenmeier became a nursing home patient, records show. They paid him $40,000. According to a grievance commission filing, the couple "received no appreciable legal services. In fact, at the Defendant's instructions, the nursing home was not paid for a protracted period and subsequently his clients were sued for unpaid bills ... in excess of $150,000."

The $150,000 suit was settled several weeks ago in favor of the nursing home, said 88-year-old Edmond Eisenmeier, who said he will have to take out a mortgage on his house to repay the penalty.

McLaughlin, who was born in 1942, received his law degree from the University of Baltimore and was admitted to the state bar in 1987.

Broderick said he feels deeply about the cases but can't say too much more about them. "All of these people paid him exorbitant amounts of money," he said, "and they did it with the idea that he was going to help them."