Hiring Suspended Lawyer Alleged To Assist Unauthorized Practice

The Illinois ARDC filed an amended complaint charging that the lawyer hired a former lawyer who had been struck from the roll of attorneys as a result of a criminal conviction. It is alleged that he paid the former lawyer on an hourly basis with the provisio that he "would only receive payment once a case had settled" and that the arrangement aided the unauthorized practice of law. In another matter, it is alleged that the lawyer improperly offered to share legal fees with non-lawyers. That offer is alleged to have been an attempt to  bribe a witness in a matter that involved the International Brotherhood of Teamsters president James Hoffa's knowledge of a local union's ties to organized crime. (Mike Frisch)