It used to be that a “criminal attorney” was a lawyer who defended people accused of crime. This was never an ambiguous term, and defense lawyers bore the moniker with pride. Regrettably, that same description, “criminal attorney,” is also an apt description of a lawyer who has been convicted of, or admitted to, a crime.
While criminal conduct by and among lawyers is not new, it is increasing in frequency and broadening in scope. We needn’t look far to prove that. Recent editions of the Law Journal have featured articles about a judge who was sentenced to prison for harboring a known fugitive, a lawyer sentenced for taking money from destitute immigrant clients by threatening them with deportation, and an in-house corporate attorney who admitted to using his attorney trust account to bilk his only client out of millions.
