A West Los Angeles lawyer who signed up hundreds of prisoners as clients by convincing their desperate families he could free them faces State Bar of California disciplinary charges that could result in his disbarment, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Bar accused Aaron Spolin, a 39-year-old Princeton-educated former McKinsey consultant, of 18 violations of the rules of professional conduct and of the state business code. “Offering false hope to those in dire straits for one’s own financial gain is contrary to a lawyer’s responsibilities,” Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona, the bar’s top prosecutor, said in a statement in response to the charges.
In mass mailings to prisons, Spolin told inmates serving decades behind bars that they might be eligible “for sentence shortening under various new laws.” He bought up online search terms so loved ones Googling the reforms were directed to his website. In subsequent phone calls, he offered a rosy picture of inmates’ chances at freedom. He eventually accumulated nearly 2,000 incarcerated clients, becoming a virtual celebrity on California prison yards. Families, many of limited resources, forked over fees starting at $3,000 and ranging upward of $30,000. The Times revealed last year that Spolin’s claims of success were false or overblown, and many of the legal strategies he urged families to pursue had no chance of succeeding. The work his firm performed was underwhelming and cookie-cutter. He relied on low-paid contract lawyers with little or no experience in criminal appeals, including some in the Philippines and other developing countries making about $10 an hour. An attorney for Spolin, Erin Joyce, said in a statement, “Mr. Spolin has been fully cooperative with the State Bar and will continue to cooperate. He looks forward to resolving this matter in the near future.”
Interviewed last year, Spolin acknowledged giving some clients overly optimistic assessments of their chances at freedom, but predicted the justice system would eventually come around and embrace greater reforms.
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