Biglaw

Attorney Sentenced To 7 1/2 Years In Prison For 'Systematically Defrauding' Biglaw Firm

The judge was unimpressed with his excuse.

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A former Cooley attorney, James Brien, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for “systematically defrauding” the law firm and another former employer, the English governmental agency Commonwealth Secretariat, for over £640,000 ($886,000). His scheme involved diverting payments made by both the Commonwealth Secretariat and Cooley to his own bank account.

At the Commonwealth Secretariat, Brien switched payment details for money owed to a consultant, Phil Simmons, to his own bank account. He followed that up with more fictitious invoices, to receive a total of £146,000 from that employer. He left the agency in 2018 over an unrelated disciplinary issue.

As reported by Roll on Friday, that was far from the end of the story. He also was convicted of diverting funds to his own bank account while employed as special counsel at Cooley:

But the 48-year-old was also an expert fibber, and he managed to secure a job at Cooley by lying about the reasons for his departure.

Once he was in the door, the lawyer embarked on a new scam which saw him divert £403,000 paid by two clients to Cooley into his own account, followed by £90,000 from the Maldives government. His fraud only came to light when Simmons popped up and asked about a payment he was owed.

Brien was convicted of three counts of fraud and Judge Martin Griffiths called him “a strange person as far as I can see,” and “gave evidence with a capacity to lie, repeatedly.” And the judge referred to Brien’s blaming of an unknown hacker for the financial malfeasance as “complete moonshine.”

I guess the judge was happy to tell Brien how he really feels.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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