A Bar Harbor lawyer and former lawmaker, now living in Falmouth, was disbarred this week after an investigation by the state bar’s overseers. The oversight agency found that she misled a client, misused his funds and did not cooperate with the state bar’s investigation.

Lynne Williams ran a private solo practice in Bar Harbor starting in 2002. In 2025, the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, the agency that oversees the professional conduct of lawyers in the state, suspended her license to practice law following a complaint.

The complaint was from a former client who, in 2022, asked her to hold $65,000 in a trust to be used to pay off his mortgage. When it later became clear that the money was not owed until 2032, much later than the client initially believed, he requested that Williams return the escrow funds.

According to the overseer’s petition, over the next 13 months, Williams misled and deceived her client about why she could not return his money. Bank records indicated that Williams converted the client’s money to her own accounts and used them for her expenses.

The board said Williams, 76, did not sufficiently comply with its investigation. She relocated to an assisted living community in Falmouth in 2025.

Williams served as a representative for Bar Harbor, Mount Desert and Lamoine from 2020 until 2024, when she resigned from District 14 seat, citing “an unexpected professional opportunity that is not compatible with the Legislature.”

On May 12, a judge approved the overseer’s petition that Williams violated 10 of state’s rules of professional conduct for lawyers, including diligence, communication, safekeeping property, failures to respond to lawful requests for information, and misconduct that includes dishonesty, fraud and deceit.

Following the judge’s signoff, Williams is no longer allowed to practice law in Maine. Attempts to reach Williams Thursday were unsuccessful.