How not to practice law: pay your bar dues with a check from your client's account

I continue to be amazed by the items that make it to my ongoing "how not to practice law" posts. Here is the latest. Let's assume you have to pay your bar dues. Simple, right? Write check, sign check, mail check. Done. Unless you are dumb enough to do it using your client's money and let the bar know it in the process!

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today that 12 attorneys in Pennsylvania are under investigation because they paid their annual fees with checks drawn on a trust or escrow account, prompting an immediate inquiry from Disciplinary Counsel. In a footnote, the report calls the move the ethical equivalent of wearing a big "Please kick me" sign.

UPDATE 7/31/11:  Here is a report on another lawyer who paid his bar dues with money from a client's trust account...

Thanks to Legal Profession for the information.