Fort Knox For Pot: Better Not Call Matt

July 29, 2016

The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board Hearing Panel has disbarred an attorney.

Fox 17 West Michigan had a report on the nature of his practice.

A commercial property owner in Grand Rapids said attorney Matthew Herman vandalized and stole property from his building. Landlord Eric Butler said his contractor estimates $93,000 in damages and stolen property.

Herman, who has also been accused of ripping off his legal clients, ran a medical marijuana business inside Butler’s property on Butterworth in Grand Rapids. Butler said Herman sublet space to pot growers.

“They were throwing numbers around, Matt was, that he was drawing $4,000 to $6,000 per pod, per month. That’s a huge cash flow,” Butler told FOX 17.

However, the landlord said Herman failed to keep up on rent and utilities. Butler said he learned through the city that Herman cut corners on doing upgrades.

“I started getting letters from the building code inspectors, and oh my God,” Butler said.

“He built this whole place up… them not knowing anything. I mean, electrical, plumbing, heating, the whole gambit, all of this stuff was put up illegally,” Butler said, adding that no permits were pulled as required.

The property owner said he filed a police report with the Grand Rapids Police Department for the vandalism and theft. Butler wants Herman charged criminally, but he said a detective told him it’s a civil issue.

“I understand about civil issues. [I’ve] been renting to people for a lot of years. This is not your typical civil matter. This is a matter of larceny where they actually took big parts of the building out of here and removed it for their own gain. That’s stealing,” Butler said.

Herman also owned the law firm West Michigan Legal Group in Grand Rapids. To many of his clients’ surprise, that office is now closed. The Problem Solvers reached out to Herman for an interview about the Grand Rapids property. He didn’t respond.

The Problem Solvers retrieved court records showing Herman is also being sued by a company that owns a property in Portage. The suit states Herman owes more than $200,000 in unpaid rent, late fees and improvements.

The same source had this report that the attorney borrowed his marketing slogan from “Better Call Saul.”

This story quotes the attorney as turning the warehouse into the “Fort Knox for Pot.” (Mike Frisch)

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Bar Discipline & Process