Fake Lawyer Who Cribbed From Cravath Pleads Guilty
John Lambert, whose phony law firm website borrowed from lawyer profiles at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, is to be sentenced in November.
August 07, 2019 at 05:22 PM
2 minute read
John Lambert was accused of masquerading as a lawyer from the phony law firm ‘Pope and Dunn’.
John Lambert, a North Carolina man accused by federal prosecutors of pretending to be a lawyer and fleecing “clients” who came across his fake law firm Pope & Dunn, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and could face a sentence of 15 to 21 months behind bars.
Prosecutors accused Lambert of taking at least $16,000 under false pretenses from people who thought they were hiring a lawyer. He pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday afternoon to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The alleged loss amount appears to have risen since Lambert was charged. The plea deal refers to a loss of $40,000 to $95,000 and includes a provision calling for $46,654.50 in restitution. Though the charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, Lambert’s lawyer Gary Peters said his plea deal includes a stipulated guidelines range of 15 to 21 months.
The guilty plea comes less than four months after Lambert, 23, was charged with pretending to be a lawyer named “Eric Pope” and soliciting business online. Several fake lawyer profiles on an archived website of the supposed law firm Pope & Dunn used language taken from profiles of lawyers at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Law.com later reported that Lambert co-founded a group called Students for Trump that was active during the 2016 elections and made appearances on national TV. Lambert seemed to have stepped away from the group by early 2017; prosecutors claim his scheme ran from August 2016 to April 2018.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 18 before U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York.
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