'Lawyer' of the Day: Howard O. Kieffer
Who is Howard Kieffer? Well, if you Google him, this bio on the Association of Federal Defense Attorneys will be one of your first hits:
Howard Kieffer is a nationally-recognized BOP and post-conviction specialist based in Santa Ana, California, just south of Los Angeles. He frequently works as a consultant with defense attorneys nationwide and has lectured at numerous conferences, including programs presented by NACDL, the ABA and AFDA.Mr. Kieffer is the founder and moderator of BOPWatch, a Yahoo-based online news service that provides daily coverage on BOP topics and general news pertaining to federal criminal enforcement. To visit or sign up for BOPWatch, go to the following web address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BOPWatch/
According to the Denver Post, Kieffer's expertise on the Bureau of Prisons comes from being inside one... serving time for grand theft and filing false tax returns. He may be headed back to prison soon for misrepresenting himself as a licensed attorney.
Kieffer claimed to have a law degree from Antioch School of Law (nope), claimed to be a member of the ABA and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (nope), and claimed to be admitted to practice law in North Dakota (nope). He did manage to gain membership to the Federal Bar Association.
A California man misrepresented himself as a licensed attorney in at least 16 cases at 10 federal courts since 2004, including the case of an NHL player who pleaded guilty to hiring a hitman to kill his agent and a murder-for-hire trial involving an Aspen woman, according to records obtained by The Denver Post.Clients and lawyers knew Howard O. Kieffer, 52, as a capable attorney specializing in federal sentencing and plea negotiations through the Santa Ana, Calif.-based Federal Defense Associates legal office, where he worked as executive director.
Sometimes practicing law is more about balls than a law degree. More on how Kieffer duped just about everybody, after the jump.
One of the tipsters who sent this in reports:
this is crazy - i practice in federal criminal court - this guy is well known as a sentencing/bop expert- turns out he's not really an attorney at all. he even tried a case in denver in federal court...
Kieffer took his fake attorney road show across the country:
Federal court records show that, beginning in 2004, Kieffer was retained to work on cases in Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Colorado.In a majority of the cases reviewed by The Post, Kieffer came in as a post-conviction specialist asking for reductions in sentences where people had already pleaded guilty to charges such as possession of child pornography, marijuana distribution and wire fraud.
In all of the cases where a judge has rendered a decision, court records show the motions Kieffer filed to modify sentences were denied.
All of his motions were denied. Nice. One can claim to be an attorney, but training helps in making someone a good attorney.
Kieffer was able to get pro hac vice admittance in various jurisdictions because he was well known on the legal conference speaking circuit. Attorneys who sponsored him in Missouri and Georgia had met him when he spoke on panels at conferences organized by the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Moral of the story: be warier at legal conferences?
Evidence against "attorney" [Denver Post]
Feds probing "attorney" who tried case here [Denver Post]
(27) Comments
First booyah
The dreaded NTT education.
first to say that this guy rocks!!
Shouldn't he be "Non-Lawyer of the Day"?
the Elite are issuing opinions left and right and this is what we're discussing?
...still waiting to hear about guns...
10:38 - I think the term is "the Elect."
At least he got to go to court. Some associates at big firms would sell their first born to be in court as much as this guy. Like the litigation partner who has never tried a case. LOL
At least he got to go to court. Some associates at big firms would sell their first born to be in court as much as this guy. Like the litigation partner who has never tried a case. LOL
It doesn't say much for our legal profession that you don't need to go to law school or take the bar to be a decent attorney. I want my $150,000 back from my alma mater.
It doesn't say much for our legal profession that you don't need to go to law school or take the bar to be a decent attorney. I want my $150,000 back from my alma mater.
Seems like a good attorney - law degree or not. Back in the day, you didn't have to have a law degree - you just had to be an apprentice for a year or two, and then you could hang out your own shingle. I doubt I know more than this guy - even with my top ten law degree.
Heard a great story from a partner about a guy like this. Some people are just fantastic (and pathological) liers.
I believe they went to law school at Harvard. After graduation, the guy got a job with a big Boston firm. He took the bar, but soon found out that he didn't pass. That didn't keep him from telling the firm and partners that he did pass. He kept practicing. He forged/created a bar admission number, and even wrote and signed court papers by himself.
A couple of months pass, and one of the partners quickly grew suspicious. The partner came to the guys office and called him out about not passing the bar. The guy then called a friend of his on the phone, PRETENDING that he was on the phone with a judge. He tried to play it off, and told the partner that the judge was going to send him the corrected information on his bar admission. Partner saw through this, and fired the guy.
Well, this made its way to his bar file, which pretty much blackballed him for character and fitness purposes. That didn't stop the guy from moving to California, stealing the identity of a local attorney, and practicing law there. He even got a job with a large firm (I believe Wilson Sonsini), and practiced with them for a few months. At that point, his lies unraveled again.
For his encore, the guy applied to business school at one of the Ivy League schools. In his application, he discussed a "non-profit corporation" he "created" and "operated" for the past few years, which did something with providing aid to children in underdeveloped countries. Of course, the non-profit was non-existent. The Ivy Business School didn't do their homework though (apparently), and offered the guy a large scholarship and stipend. The guy took it. Well, true to form, he got busted by the school a few months later and was prosecuted for fraud.
No one from school had seen the guy for years. The lawyer who told me this story saw him recently on a subway platform in NYC. He tried to get the guy's attention to say hello, and when the guy saw and recognized him as a former classmate, he turned and ran away as fast as he could.
I believe this story ended up on the cover of the ABA Journal a few years back, and I may have botched some of it, but the gist is there.
@10:49 AM
Apparently you should ask for your money back, since they didn't teach you reading comprehension. The guy was a terrible lawyer. He probably lied his ass off and people (especially the people he was retained by) were desperate enough to believe him.
Anyway, I can't stand frauds like him. I know too many stories of people who falsify record to get ahead, and I hope he's prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
11:10: Too bad he took the scholarship/stipend. Business schools, like most of us, don't like you cheating them out of their money. If you graduate, and cheat OTHERS out of their money, on the other hand, you can get a building named after you...
Not terribly shocking that his motions for sentence reductions were denied-- those are almost always denied. Even a good lawyer can't do anything where the law and facts and law are against him.
Kieffer gives new meaning to "jailhouse lawyer".
If find it interesting that Kieffer selected North Dakota as the state he was suposedly licensed in.
Let me guess: Their bar records were not on-line and readily available.
@10:49 AM: Apparently the guy was not so bad as a "lawyer". Other lawyers (lots of them) paid to hear him speak about sentencing (which is complex) and no one (including a lot of prosecutors and federal judges suspected for a long time.
I am just glad that Kieffer did not "become" a surgeon. Maybe after he is paroled.
What might motivate someone to commit such fraud? If he’s intelligent enough to practice law without formal study, why couldn’t he ace an LSAT and go to law school?
11:42: The guy had fraud and tax evasion convictions. That stretches the bounds of "Morally Fit"
Shades of Dorsey & Whitney!
@ 11:42 - Perhaps the $100,000 of debt he saved himself. Not to mention, his prior convictions for grand theft and filing false tax returns would most likely have prevented him from getting in to law school, and/or taking the bar.
21st!
Blackjack!
@11:42. Doing well on the LSAT says nothing about your abilities as an attorney.
More generally, I agree that he should be prosecuted for fraud but as a general matter I feel that the attorney licensing process really means nothing. A number of countries don't give lawyers a monopoly on legal advice and things work quite well.
poop
y'know, this harks back to the days when you didn't have to go to law school to be a good attorney. Granted that current law schools teach you what you need to know, but someone who jumps into the legal profession and does a good job after so many years maybe shouldn't be labeled a "con-artist."
I am one of the unlucky, desperate ones who paid kieffer in excess of 20,000 to represent my son. He took my money and my son's life in his hands and I am really angry. He also attempted to extort another 6.000 after he had been caught. If not for my daughter's dilligence I would be out that amount also. Now he will get to play golf for a few years. How fair is that!~
I am one of the unlucky, desperate ones who paid kieffer in excess of 20,000 to represent my son. He took my money and my son's life in his hands and I am really angry. He also attempted to extort another 6.000 after he had been caught. If not for my daughter's dilligence I would be out that amount also. Now he will get to play golf for a few years. How fair is that!~
I am one of the unlucky, desperate ones who paid kieffer in excess of 20,000 to represent my son. He took my money and my son's life in his hands and I am really angry. He also attempted to extort another 6.000 after he had been caught. If not for my daughter's dilligence I would be out that amount also. Now he will get to play golf for a few years. How fair is that!~