Legal Profession - Noto Law School

Fake Lawyer Manages To Get Clients

April 6, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Legal Profession

Michael Nelson, a career con artist, stole the identity of a New York attorney, started a law firm and stole $35,000 from clients for legal services he never carried out before he was caught. At least he doesn’t have to worry about malpractice.

The law scam was elaborate and well thought out. While between prison sentences, the con artist created the fake law firm and rented office space. He hired both attorneys and clerks, and based his new firm on a firm that really existed in Seattle. He found his clients online.

Maybe he could get work at Solo Practice University and troll for recent graduates online when he gets out of prison this time.

Friends Want Your Legal Advice, Just Not Your Bill

February 3, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Legal Aspects, Legal Profession

Two readers wanted to know why I’ve never written about how difficult clients can be. I don’t write about clients because I’ve never had one. But I do have friends constantly asking me for legal advice, they just don’t want to pay me for it. As every law student/lawyer knows, by Thanksgiving break of your first year you’ll start getting requests for free legal advice.

You will be asked to draft wills, listen to landlord/tenant complaints, divorce issues,etc. After a few drinks with your friends, one will pull you aside and whisper something like, “So if I meet someone in the bar, and they say they’re 21, and then after I sleep with her, I find out she’s 16, it’s the bar’s fault for not checking, right?”

It really doesn’t matter if you know the answer or not, because no matter what you tell them, you’re screwed. If you give them advice that they don’t want to hear, they’ll say they saw the same sort of thing on Boston Legal and the character didn’t get arrested on TV. If you tell them you don’t know the answer, your friends will get angry. But you’re a LAWYER, they will sputter, how could you not know?

I’ve decided there is the only one right answer when giving free legal advice. From now on, I will just smile and say, “It depends.”