The Philadelphia Lawyer

A criminal defense attorney who took the marketing of his legal services to a degree prohibited by ethics rules was suspended for one year by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The suspension will be followed by a year of probation.

The attorney “reached out” by letter to clerical assistants assigned to bail matters, introduced himself as a “Philadelphia lawyer,” and sought a “mutually beneficial business relationship.”

He also went to the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia and requested that a court employee “take a stack of [his] business cards and keep them at the Information Center…to give…out to persons who needed a lawyer…”

He offered the court employee a payment fee for referrals.

As a result, he was struck from the court-appointed attorney list. (Mike Frisch)