On Aug. 9, 2022, Amber Bunch voluntarily surrendered her law license to the Georgia Supreme Court amid allegations she withdrew a client’s settlement funds for personal use.
She did not inform her employer — the University of Washington.
Bunch, 37, was hired as UW’s assistant director of name, image and likeness education in December 2021, before shifting into a football-specific position — director of football NIL strategy — the following August. She resigned from that post in March.
“We were unaware of any of the former employee’s legal issues prior to her resignation in March 2023,” a UW spokesperson said in a statement. “Additionally, the former employee was cleared for employment at UW following a satisfactory criminal conviction history background check.”
Bunch, too, says she was unaware of the extent of her legal issues. On Feb. 15, 2022, a judge in Fulton County, Ga., ordered Bunch, who was already on staff at UW, to pay $179,200 to the former client — $28,000 in compensatory damages, $100,000 in punitive damages and $51,200 in attorney fees.
That ruling has since followed Bunch to Seattle. In a petition filed May 8, the former client, Nikki Robertson, asked the King County Superior Court to enforce the unpaid judgment. Robertson requested $199,363.68, accounting for the original judgment plus $20,163.68 in 444 days of “post-judgment interest.”
Bunch told The Seattle Times in a text message Saturday that she was only recently made aware of the judgment in Georgia, as well as the ensuing petition in King County Superior Court. Thus, she did not inform UW of any prior or pending litigation during the hiring process or throughout her employment; she left the school of her own accord.
“I left UW because my husband and I have decided to try for another baby and we could not afford to do that away from family and in a state that is sooo expensive,” Bunch said via text. “It had NOTHING to do with this and UW was a great place to work while I was there. I would never do anything to cause such a great place any embarrassment. I left for that reason. I was not asked to leave.”
Five months before Bunch’s hire, the NCAA suspended amateurism rules related to name, image and likeness, or NIL — allowing college athletes to profit off endorsement deals, autograph sales, sponsored social media posts, training lessons/camps, appearances, personal merchandising and more.
At Washington, Bunch was tasked with providing education and guidance to Husky athletes, coaches and staff members surrounding that evolving and lucrative landscape — first as UW’s assistant director of NIL education, then as director of football NIL strategy.
“It’s student-focused and putting the athlete first,” Bunch said of her football role last August. “So my goal, as opposed to having a bunch of programs that aren’t really beneficial to the guys, is finding those pieces that they really need.
“The biggest one we’ve identified is financial literacy. We want our guys who want NIL to make sure they’re doing it the right way and that they’re prepared for things like taxes, paying their bills and transitioning from college to the pros.”
But Bunch — who, as a representative of UW’s athletic department, was prohibited from fostering or negotiating NIL deals — dealt with financial issues of her own.
According to court records, Robertson retained Bunch, a member of Georgia’s state bar since 2016, for a personal injury suit against an uninsured motorist in December 2017. After receiving a settlement of $100,000 in April 2018, Bunch deposited the settlement check into a trust account designated for client funds.
But rather than promptly delivering the money to Robertson, Bunch withdrew funds for personal use. In her decision in the State Court of Fulton County, Judge Patsy Y. Porter found that as of June 29, 2018, there were “no settlement funds” in the trust account.
Court records also show that Bunch filed for bankruptcy in November 2018, though her case was dismissed the following year for a “failure to make plan payments.”
Meanwhile, Porter found that Bunch repeatedly lied about the whereabouts of her client’s money. After Robertson cut ties with Bunch in March 2020, Bunch provided USPS tracking numbers for two packages allegedly containing settlement funds that she claimed to have sent in May of that year. However, according to court documents, those packages never arrived, and the USPS website showed they were never sent.
Per Porter, it was only when criminal authorities had been contacted that Bunch sent $66,749.36 to Robertson on Jan. 14, 2021, nearly 31 months after receiving the settlement. Bunch was hired by the UW later that year.
In voluntarily surrendering her law license, Bunch admitted that she failed to safeguard the settlement funds and allowed the balance in her trust account to fall below the amount she should have held for Robertson; she failed to maintain records reflecting the balance held for her client and maintained personal funds in the account alongside Robertson’s settlement money; she withdrew funds for personal use; and she paid Robertson in January 2021 out of pocket, rather than with settlement funds from the trust account.
While recommending that the Georgia Supreme Court accept Bunch’s surrendered license, special master Delia T. Crouch indicated that Bunch — who has not been charged with a crime — had committed at least six violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.
Crouch determined that, “although relatively inexperienced in the practice of law, Bunch demonstrated personal conduct that was antithetical to the standards required of those licensed to practice law in this state and that warranted and compelled disbarment.”
When asked last August why she transitioned into a career in college athletics, Bunch told The Times: “With COVID, once life shut down for everybody, it gave me an opportunity to take a step back and really figure out what I wanted to be doing. So thankfully, with the support of my husband, I went to him and said, ‘I think this is the perfect time to have a total career shift in the opposite direction.’ ”
Following Bunch’s resignation, the UW posted an opening for its “director of football name, image and likeness” position on March 22. That position has yet to be filled.
Meanwhile, the petition Robertson filed in King County Superior Court — which stated, “on information and belief, defendant Bunch resides in King County” — may run into a hitch.
“I do not live in King County,” Bunch told The Times in a text. “We are out of the country temporarily.”
She declined to comment further last week. A text message, phone call and voicemail requesting additional comment on Tuesday were not returned.