A midwestern immigration attorney finds himself under fire for harassing clients and making misrepresentations to the court. Â The Minnesota professional responsibility board has charged the attorney with violating the rules of professional conduct and has given the man 20 days to respond.
The attorney, a native of Nigeria, has been practicing law in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since the late 1980s. Â According to a report in the Star Tribune, the ethics board alleges that the attorney violated the ethics rules on three occasions.
First, the board charges that the attorney overcharged a family from Russia on an asylum application. Â The attorney sued the family and won. Â However, the family complained to the Board who found that the litigation was frivolous and that his fees were unreasonable.
In the second case, a Nigerian immigrant hired him to convince the immigration service that his marriage was legitimate. Â When the immigrant challenged him on his legal fees, the attorney wrote back:
You have mistaken my kindness for weakness. Â I did not get where I am today, allowing people like you to punk me. Â Perhaps you need to be taught a lesson in life.
The Board charged the attorney with making improper disclosures about his client to the Court, failing to keep his client properly advised and for filing a frivolous claim for fees.
The final charge involved an alleged failure by the attorney to file key documents in a timely manner for an asylum hearing.
The attorney took the unusual step of forwarding the petition to the media and claims that the allegations "are false, mean-spirited and deliberately stated out of context with evil intent to inflict the highest damage to my reputations for reasons I know quite well."
Our office will follow this case and provide updates as they occur.