BOGUS ATT'Y TAKES A TRIP
The New York Post By LAURA ITALIANO - January 31, 2008 -- Brian Valery loved being a lawyer.
He worked as much as 70 hours a week at one of the city's top insurance-litigation firms for two years, helping some 50 clients win cases. Valery even earned an annual salary of $155,000. But there was one problem: Valery wasn't a lawyer. He hadn't even attended law school.
Valery, 33, of Massapequa Park, LI, stood yesterday before a Manhattan judge, who sentenced him to five years of probation for pulling off the elaborate masquerade. "I guess he got away with it so long because he was so talented, and so hardworking," said Valery's lawyer, Bob LaRusso. "He worked 60, 70 hours a week. He worked longer hours than I ever did."
The punishment came after it was discovered that Valery had fibbed his way up the ladder at insurance-litigation heavyweight Anderson Kill & Olick - going from a lowly, $21,000-a-year paralegal to earning $155,000 as a staff attorney.
By the time he got caught - after a friend saw his name in connection with a big liability case involving the painkiller OxyContin, and did some digging - he'd helped some 50 clients at the 130-lawyer firm.
Valery's ruse was as time-consuming as it was intricate. He'd begun by telling his trusting bosses he was attending Fordham Law School. Truth was, he didn't even possess an undergraduate degree. Bizarrely, Valery twice told his bosses he'd flunked the bar, only to give them the good news of his "passing" in 2003 - all of it untrue.
Yesterday, Valery was calm during his brief sentencing - but flipped out when he saw photographers waiting outside.
He nearly got run over by a car as he dashed across Lafayette Street, then slipped and fell to his knees while attempting to bob and weave evasively on the rain-slicked sidewalk. "Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" he shouted.
In addition to probation, Valery has to pay back $225,000 in ill-gotten salary to the firm, and serve 100 hours of community service.
laura.italiano@nypost.com
this guy wasn't even a lawyer and he actually won cases! That's great! As part of the deal they want him to give back his salary. The fancy law firm should pay it for him. All lawyers lie, so this guy just did as all the lawyers do! Some of the "real" lawyers or Judges were mad so they burned him because he was making them look bad.
ReplyDeleteImagine what we don't know about what's going on with attorney ethics, oversighta and other illegal activity?! wow.
ReplyDeleteShame on this man. He knew that in New York you need a law license to steal.
ReplyDeleteyea, when you get a law license anywhere you no longer need a gun to steal. Heard that the lawyers even steal from the MOB and get away with it! How did they do that?
ReplyDeleteI believe that you can fool any judge quite easily...they are busy playing under that robe....while wearing shorts and cowboy boots...i know, i worked with them like that! Holes in A robe is not a story for the movies...it exists in a judge who worked for OCA....WON'T TELL YOU WHAT ELSE WAS ON THE ROBE, BUT VERY FEW WERE PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS INCREDIBLE FAKE LAWYER!
ReplyDeleteHey, haven't you figured out that all LAWYERS are FAKES!
ReplyDelete5 years probation, paying back the money and community service
ReplyDeletethey gave him a free pass.
UPL - Unauthorized Practice of Law - used to be a tool to prevent suspended/disbarred lawyers from practicing.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, the greedy BARfia changed it to a weapon for use against competition from nonlawyers, some of whom are better than those with the "License to Steal" and definitely more trustworhty.
What does a J.D. degree do to some of these perps who think they have an absolute right to violate the law with impunity?
Hey, do like the "loriview" comment - love the "BVARfia" tag - it fits the state of the "BAR" - the S---bags use every trick they can to screw the average people - unfortunately most people don't every figure it out - the time will come, never forget!
ReplyDelete