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1. Posted by Will - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 19 hours, 35 minutes ago

   It’s pathetic that an “attorney” can represent clients for 10 plus years, and no one ever bothered to check and see, if, the guy was even licensed.  There is no excuse for such lack of oversight.  Given the type of cases that he tried, it wouldn’t be surprising to see many of the defendants who were convicted appeal their cases based on ineffective counsel claims.  Once again, it’s going to be the taxpayers who foot the bill for the negligence of our judicial system. 

   In many respects this situation reminds me of the non-sense that’s taken control of Wallstreet.  As an example, attorneys are required to do their due diligence, but law makers and judges don’t seem to have the same responsibilities.

2. Posted by greg - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 19 hours, 29 minutes ago

   I think this is prime example of how we are essentially a trusting country. We take people at face value, unless there’s something to tip us off that all is not what it seems to be.

   All you need are two or three clients to buy into the ‘lawyer’ persona, and an overworked OC or two who tut-tut-tut about how much of an idiot you are but never complain or investigate. After a while you gain a reputation, and you’re off and running. Happens a lot more than people realize. After all, how do you think actual, new, lawyers get business?

   It would be nice to check out everyone, but the truth is, most people don’t have that kind of time.

3. Posted by sb - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 19 hours, 9 minutes ago

   I don’t know about anyone else, but in my state we have PINs assigned by the bar association, and our names and information are in the computer system.  It would be awfully difficult to get around that, I would think.  In the computer age, there really isn’t an excuse for not checking up on whether someone is actually an attorney.  If I’m called by someone asking weird questions, I look them up; it takes a few seconds, a Google search and maybe a call to another attorney’s office in their alleged city of practice.

4. Posted by DR - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 17 hours, 57 minutes ago

   It baffles me that this could happen on the federal district court level.  I’m admitted to three district courts in two states, and cannot file a single piece of paper without my registration number.  Those three district courts are now requiring electronic filing, and you can not file electronically without being registered.  But then again, the electronic filing thing is fairly new, so I guess that there could be failure on the part of the clerks prior to electronic filing to verify that the attorney was actually admitted.

5. Posted by DA_2_B - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 16 hours, 8 minutes ago

   Just goes to show how useless law school actually is.

6. Posted by Russell Fontenot - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes ago

   Before a lawyer appears in court to represent a client, his or her background is examined by a committee appointed by the Clerk of Court under authority of the presiding Judge.  In this case, who did not do their job?

7. Posted by Bill - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 11 hours, 39 minutes ago

   Will if lawyers are reuird to do due dilgence how come none of them (as well as all the courts and US Attorneys took the simple step of seeing where he was licensed and doing a 5 minute internet search or phone call to verify before vouching for his charater and good standing?

8. Posted by Bill - 2 months, 1 week, 5 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes ago

   DR - no filing or application or Pro Hac Vici Kieffer did ever had a state ot attorney number on it.  He wouldn’t even provide the info to clients who asked for it.  The state says we can’t investigate because he is not licensed.  Great policies all the way around.

9. Posted by Brian Levy - 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes ago

   Maybe he should be teaching in law school if he was that respected.  Knowledge and experience is still more important than superficial standards.  If he was that good in court and respected why should the lack of a license suddenly change that and deny him his accomplishments.

10. Posted by teresa jackson - 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes ago

    Outraged that an unlicensed but otherwise apprarently cempetent nonlawyer is, ahem, practiicing w/o a license, well hold onto your hats folks.  what about the steady if now small stream of legal work that is heading over to INDIA from major/national U.S. firms.  Not all of these attorneys are licensed in a U.S. state.  Nodbody is fuming over that.  Just add that to the litany of problems unregulated commerce brings, when the conservative mantra of “less government” and less regulation reigns.  Let’s just take government oversight completely out of the picture okay, and take our chances on drinking clean water, investing in company stocks without disclosure/fraud protections, inhaling air near unregulated petrochemicals companies, buying cars toys and houeshold goods without consumer rules, imprisoning convicts or schooling children without consitutional guarantees, eating produce and meats harvested and packaged without food safety guidelines.  Having a competent nonlawyer represent you is a scary prospect, but not the end of the world.  With a little ENFORCEMENT of existing bar licensure requirements, this hoax might have been avoided.  So might the banking debacle and all the rest to come.