Photo credit: igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com.

A man claiming to be an in-house lawyer was charged Tuesday with falsely claiming to hold a law degree, according to The Boston Globe.

And while it sounds a little crazy, his case is far from one-of-a-kind.

In the past two decades, there have been multiple in-house counsel—or people posing as in-house counsel—who haven't been completely honest about their credentials. Sometimes the lack of transparency seems tied to mistakes that appear innocent enough, but other times, these individuals were downright deceptive.

Either way, the lesson for lawyers is clear: be honest about qualifications and make sure licenses are up to date. Here are four instances where individuals, for one reason or another, were not quite the in-house lawyers they appeared to be:

1. David Scher

The 35-year-old Newton, Massachusetts, man tops our list as the most recent case.

David Scher made headlines this week after he lied about having a law degree and claimed he worked as in-house patent counsel for a company in Abington, Mass. And it was far from his first run in with the law.

According to the Globe, Scher faced a forgery and larceny conviction last year, after he stole a laptop from a locker at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. After Scher was found guilty, he stole a physical document stating his conviction from the clerk's office and replaced it with a forgery that said he was not guilty. He then attempted to have his conviction erased with Massachusetts' Department of Criminal Justice Information Services via the forged record.

Scher has represented himself in a number of controversial legal cases, including a lawsuit against his own parents, the Globe reported. He previously was a successful real estate agent, and did attend law school at Suffolk University, though he did not graduate.

2. David W. Harleston

David W. Harleston was the GC of media company Al-Jazeera America in 2015, when The New York Times discovered the successful lawyer was actually unlicensed. There were no records showing Harleston was licensed to practice in New York state, where he was based, or anywhere else in the country.

Despite his lack of certification though, Harleston was no slouch. He graduated from Yale Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1984.

The New York State Board of Law Examiners said he even passed the bar in the state in 1986. But Harleston never sought admission from the Appellate Division and never underwent a fitness or character test, both of which are required in New York. It's still unclear whether or not this was intentional, or simply an honest mistake.

Regardless, he never actually registered as an attorney in New York. In 2015, the Office of Court Administration said Harleston wasn't found in its attorney registration or in the registration of in-house counsel.

Following the Times' article, Harleston was suspended from Al-Jazeera America. According to his LinkedIn, he now serves as the president of DWH Strategies.

3. Jonathan Moss

Jonathan Moss joined Gucci America in 2002 as a legal associate. While he graduated Fordham University School of Law and passed the California bar in 1993, Moss voluntarily changed his California bar status to inactive in 1996—a fact he hadn't shared with Gucci when he got hired there.

And in Gucci America v. Guess, his lack of a license could have lost his company an entire case. He was then in-house counsel for Gucci, yet had an inactive licensing status with the California State Bar. A magistrate judge said that because he was not a licensed attorney, none of his communications relevant to the case were subject to attorney-client privilege.

In an affidavit, Moss stated, “I did not believe that my inactive status in California limited my ability to practice law in any other jurisdiction where such practice was permissible.” He had continued to pay the California bar's membership fees.

The ruling was eventually overturned, but the stains on Moss' reputation remained, at least at Gucci. The company fired him in 2010 after it discovered he was unlicensed.

4. Dennis T. O'Riordan

During his career highs, Dennis O'Riordan served as in-house counsel at a number of banks in London, including Nomura and Sumitomo Finance, where he was GC. He was also once the head of legal and tax for the Republic National Bank of New York.

Then, an investigation by the Bar Standards Board, which regulates barristers in England and Wales, discovered O'Riordan's career had been built on lies. He'd climbed his way through the industry on the premise that he had received two bachelor's degrees and a doctorate from prestigious Oxford University, where he also claimed he'd been an Eldon Scholar. In the United States, O'Riordan claimed he earned a master's degree at Harvard University and bar admission in New York.

That's some pretty massive deception, but O'Riordan got away with it until 2014. When his resume exaggerations were uncovered, O'Riordan was forced to leave Paul Hastings, where he was a partner at the time, and was disbarred.

Photo credit: igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com.

A man claiming to be an in-house lawyer was charged Tuesday with falsely claiming to hold a law degree, according to The Boston Globe.

And while it sounds a little crazy, his case is far from one-of-a-kind.

In the past two decades, there have been multiple in-house counsel—or people posing as in-house counsel—who haven't been completely honest about their credentials. Sometimes the lack of transparency seems tied to mistakes that appear innocent enough, but other times, these individuals were downright deceptive.

Either way, the lesson for lawyers is clear: be honest about qualifications and make sure licenses are up to date. Here are four instances where individuals, for one reason or another, were not quite the in-house lawyers they appeared to be:

1. David Scher

The 35-year-old Newton, Massachusetts, man tops our list as the most recent case.

David Scher made headlines this week after he lied about having a law degree and claimed he worked as in-house patent counsel for a company in Abington, Mass. And it was far from his first run in with the law.

According to the Globe, Scher faced a forgery and larceny conviction last year, after he stole a laptop from a locker at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. After Scher was found guilty, he stole a physical document stating his conviction from the clerk's office and replaced it with a forgery that said he was not guilty. He then attempted to have his conviction erased with Massachusetts' Department of Criminal Justice Information Services via the forged record.

Scher has represented himself in a number of controversial legal cases, including a lawsuit against his own parents, the Globe reported. He previously was a successful real estate agent, and did attend law school at Suffolk University, though he did not graduate.

2. David W. Harleston

David W. Harleston was the GC of media company Al-Jazeera America in 2015, when The New York Times discovered the successful lawyer was actually unlicensed. There were no records showing Harleston was licensed to practice in New York state, where he was based, or anywhere else in the country.

Despite his lack of certification though, Harleston was no slouch. He graduated from Yale Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1984.

The New York State Board of Law Examiners said he even passed the bar in the state in 1986. But Harleston never sought admission from the Appellate Division and never underwent a fitness or character test, both of which are required in New York. It's still unclear whether or not this was intentional, or simply an honest mistake.

Regardless, he never actually registered as an attorney in New York. In 2015, the Office of Court Administration said Harleston wasn't found in its attorney registration or in the registration of in-house counsel.

Following the Times' article, Harleston was suspended from Al-Jazeera America. According to his LinkedIn, he now serves as the president of DWH Strategies.

3. Jonathan Moss

Jonathan Moss joined Gucci America in 2002 as a legal associate. While he graduated Fordham University School of Law and passed the California bar in 1993, Moss voluntarily changed his California bar status to inactive in 1996—a fact he hadn't shared with Gucci when he got hired there.

And in Gucci America v. Guess, his lack of a license could have lost his company an entire case. He was then in-house counsel for Gucci, yet had an inactive licensing status with the California State Bar. A magistrate judge said that because he was not a licensed attorney, none of his communications relevant to the case were subject to attorney-client privilege.

In an affidavit, Moss stated, “I did not believe that my inactive status in California limited my ability to practice law in any other jurisdiction where such practice was permissible.” He had continued to pay the California bar's membership fees.

The ruling was eventually overturned, but the stains on Moss' reputation remained, at least at Gucci. The company fired him in 2010 after it discovered he was unlicensed.

4. Dennis T. O'Riordan

During his career highs, Dennis O'Riordan served as in-house counsel at a number of banks in London, including Nomura and Sumitomo Finance, where he was GC. He was also once the head of legal and tax for the Republic National Bank of New York.

Then, an investigation by the Bar Standards Board, which regulates barristers in England and Wales, discovered O'Riordan's career had been built on lies. He'd climbed his way through the industry on the premise that he had received two bachelor's degrees and a doctorate from prestigious Oxford University, where he also claimed he'd been an Eldon Scholar. In the United States, O'Riordan claimed he earned a master's degree at Harvard University and bar admission in New York.

That's some pretty massive deception, but O'Riordan got away with it until 2014. When his resume exaggerations were uncovered, O'Riordan was forced to leave Paul Hastings, where he was a partner at the time, and was disbarred.