Disbarred N.Y. Lawyer, 81, Accused of UPL Under Assumed ID, Could Be Jailed
Even after he was disbarred in 2006, Bertram Brown apparently didn’t want to stop practicing law.
So the elderly Columbia Law School graduate allegedly didn’t. Brown, 81, has now been criminally charged—he reportedly faces mandatory jail time if convicted—and is accused of repeatedly representing clients in New York under another attorney’s identity, according to the New York Post and a New York Law Journal article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
“There is an issue of a man who just doesn’t want to stop,” attorney Darmin Bachu, who is representing Brown, tells the Post. “He wants to continue being a lawyer. He won’t give it up.”
There is also a question whether Brown, who is frail and suffering from colon cancer, is mentally competent, Bachu says, arguing that prison is not the right place for his client regardless of the outcome of the criminal case.
The longtime Manhattan practitioner used a former associate’s identity to represent two real estate clients in 2007, but was given probation for doing so, according to the two publications. This time he reportedly faces jail time if convicted, because of his prior felony record, the Post reports.
Additional details are provided in an April 13, 2006 written opinion of the Appellate Division disbarring Brown.
