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Aaron Spolin, a Princeton-educated lawyer and former McKinsey consultant who signed thousands of inmate clients seeking release under a new criminal justice reform law, was released from a California courtroom for the second time last week. was indicted.
The 18-count complaint filed Thursday comes on the heels of an initial disciplinary complaint in August that accused Spolin and Westside’s firm of trying to convince desperate families to hire him. , provides further examples of how the lawyers allege the use of deceptive marketing and outright lies.
One of the alleged violations concerned a 2023 press release on Spolin’s website in which Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a commutation of the sentence of one of its customers. In fact, the man told the Times last year that he had pushed for the cuts himself, but that Spolin was not doing anything about it. At the time, Mr. Spolin’s company urged families to pay more than $9,000 for reduced-cost treatments, which experts say have a slim chance of success.
In another case cited by the court, Spolin’s attorney told Wesner Charles Jr., a Los Angeles man serving a 27-year-to-life sentence for attempted carjacking and burglary, that reform laws would He can be released,” he said. Within 6-8 months.
Spolin billed the family $19,000 without informing them that Charles and others convicted of violent crimes did not meet the requirements for consideration. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office wrote “no less than nine letters” to Mr. Spolin advising him not to litigate such cases, said Cindy Chang, a supervising attorney in the court’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel. he writes.
Charles maintained his innocence, but was later released with the help of another lawyer.
The remaining new charges concern three other incarcerated men from Los Angeles whose families paid between $11,500 and $21,700 for futile legal services.
If found guilty, Spolin, 39, could face penalties ranging from probation to disbarment by the state Supreme Court.
Spolin’s attorney, Erin Joyce, previously told the Times that her client “has fully cooperated with the state court and will continue to do so.” He looks forward to resolving this issue in the near future. ”
Joyce wrote in a filing last month that she was informed by the Crown Prosecution Service that “they were going to file a series of charges.” [Spolin]causing multiple incidents in a row. ” She acknowledged that the state attorney general’s office is conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into Mr. Spolin’s conduct, but denied that he committed any crime.
She wrote that Mr. Spolin had “for more than a year” “refused paid representation” in the types of resentencing cases the bar association blamed, adding that “he has also amended his firm’s blurb. Or deleted…” he wrote.
After working in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Mr. Spolin moved to Los Angeles and established a practice focused on representing inmates under numerous laws aimed at reducing mass incarceration.
He told the Times last year that he used techniques he learned as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. to streamline his business. He ran his company out of a co-working space, used legal document templates and paid lawyers from the Philippines and other parts of the developing world about $10 an hour.
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