Ohio attorney pleads guilty to UPL and grand larceny after practicing in New York for over 10 years
For more than a decade, Dennis McGrath practiced in upstate New York, providing indigent defense services under a taxpayer-funded assigned counsel program in Erie County.
There was just one problem: Although McGrath was admitted in Ohio, according to his attorney, he wasn’t licensed in New York.
On Tuesday, the 57-year-old University of Toledo law graduate pleaded guilty to unauthorized practice of law and grand larceny, reports the Buffalo News. McGrath admitted being paid nearly $165,000 in government funds to represent indigent clients between 2001 and 2013. He could get as much as 15 years when he is sentenced in March.
Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said McGrath told those in charge of the assigned-counsel program that he was admitted in New York. “Apparently nobody in the assigned-counsel program checked his credentials,” the DA said. “That’s how he got away with it.”
The issue came to light when a client complained about McGrath’s work to the Erie County Bar Association’s attorney disciplinary committee, the DA said. The committee checked McGrath’s bar status and found he wasn’t admitted in New York.
