LOS ANGELES, CA – Aaron Spolin, a high-profile attorney known for representing incarcerated people seeking release under new criminal justice reform laws, is facing additional charges from the State Bar of California, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The 18 counts filed this week follow a previous round of charges filed in August, shedding more light on how Spolin and his Westside law firm allegedly misled desperate families with deceptive marketing tactics, as reported by Harriet Ryan in the Los Angeles Times.
Ryan wrote Spolin, a Princeton graduate and former McKinsey & Co. consultant, gained attention for signing up thousands of those incarcerated seeking release through California’s criminal justice reforms.
However, the State Bar’s new filing accuses Spolin of using misleading advertising to convince families to pay for legal services under false pretenses, the Times said, adding one of the primary allegations is a 2023 news release on Spolin’s website that claimed Gov. Gavin Newsom had commuted the sentence of one of Spolin’s clients.
According to the client, however, the commutation was pursued independently by the incarcerated with Spolin having no involvement in the process, noted the Times, reporting, at the time, Spolin’s firm was charging families more than $9,000 for services related to commutation requests, despite the low probability of success.
The Los Angeles Times article also lists another instance, an attorney working for Spolin allegedly promised a Los Angeles man, Wesner Charles Jr., that a reform law could “get him out” in six to eight months.
Charles, who was serving a 27-year-to-life sentence for attempted carjacking and robbery, was charged $19,000 for these services, according to Cindy Chan, a supervising attorney in the bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel.
Unbeknownst to Charles’s family, individuals convicted of violent crimes did not meet the criteria for consideration under the reform laws, the Times wrote.
The LA County District Attorney’s office had advised Spolin multiple times that such cases would not be acted upon, although Charles was eventually released, but through the assistance of a different attorney, according to Ryan’s report.
The Los Angeles Times said the charges filed by the State Bar also cite multiple other instances where Spolin’s firm charged families hefty fees, ranging from $11,500 to $21,700, for legal services that led nowhere.
If found guilty of these allegations, Spolin faces penalties that could range from probation to disbarment by the California Supreme Court, the State Bar said.
Spolin’s attorney, Erin Joyce, responded to the charges to the Times, stating Spolin has been fully cooperative with the State Bar and is committed to resolving the matter. Joyce also acknowledged there is an ongoing criminal investigation into Spolin’s practices by the state attorney general, but denied that he had committed any crimes.
Joyce noted Spolin “has refused paid representation” for the type of resentencing cases the bar has criticized him for “for well over a year,” and “he has also modified or removed his firm’s advertising statements,” according to The Los Angeles Times piece.
“They intend to serially prosecute (Spolin), bringing multiple cases in succession,” said Joyce in the Times story that added, according to Spolin, his time at McKinsey taught him to streamline operations, which he applied to his law firm.
He reportedly, reported the Times, ran his practice from a co-working space, using templates for legal documents, and employed lawyers from the Philippines and other developing nations at minimal hourly rates.
