New charges have been levied against a San Francisco attorney who is accused of continuing to practice law even after being disbarred.
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San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin filed charges against Russell Robinson in November of last year for continuing "to engage in the unauthorized practice of law and willfully failed to comply with the California Supreme Court’s disbarment order."
Since then, new victims of Robsinson have come forward, and Boudin has built a second case against him, according to an announcement from the DA's office on Tuesday.
"My administration is committed to holding accountable those who abuse their power to take advantage of people in need," said District Attorney Chesa Boudin in the statement. "The public should be able to trust lawyers to follow the law, but here a disbarred attorney exploited his clients by continuing to practice as an attorney. We are glad that our initial announcement filing charges helped identify additional victims, so we can seek justice for everyone he has wronged."
Robinson's license was suspended in June 2019, and was formally disbarred two years later.
But during that time, Robinson allegedly continued working as an attorney, and has since been charged with lying to a client in order to be hired, and then filed a lawsuit on that client's behalf with the California Superior Court. Working on that particular case, Robinson allegedly submitted several false documents with forged signatures.
The charges against him include the unauthorized practice of law, grand theft, identity theft and forgery.
Now, new victims have come forward and accused Robinson of falsely presenting himself as an attorney when he was hired. One victim was falsely arrested, and Robinson was hired for the case. He filed a federal suit on the victim's behalf, but it was dismissed in October 2018.
However, Robinson kept up a charade that the case will still ongoing, pretending he had court hearings scheduled and settlement offers received. The victim found out that Robinson was no longer allowed to practice law after the first round of charges were filed against him in November, and that none of the activities he’d claimed to be doing in the last couple of years related to case were true.
Another victim has also come forward with a similar story, in this case, it was a civil suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, which was stayed in November 2018. Robinson only told the victim in this case that he was not eligible to practice law in December of last year.
Based on the new evidence, along with the November charges, Robinson is facing several new felony counts, including the unauthorized practice of law and two counts of failure to comply with disbarment.
His arraignment is set for April 25, 2022.
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