“A prominent San Francisco attorney who represented the young, sick and poor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of stealing $2 million of his clients’ settlement money to support a lavish lifestyle that included a six-bedroom mansion and a 73-foot yacht.” At its website, the successful San Francisco law firm of Tehin + Partners boasts of having “achieved an exceptional record of performance in litigation and trial through our 20 years + experience as a contingency fee-based plaintiff’s law firm”, not to mention “A Legal Philosophy That Sets Us Apart”. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a full helping of grotesque details (Stacy Finz, “S.F. attorney charged with bilking underdog clients”, Jul. 16)
It bears repeating that of all the institutions to which the temporal wealth of poor people is entrusted, law firms are among the least regulated; when outside authorities finally step in to clean up the mess, as here, it is typically after the fact, rather than in a preventive way through the sorts of regular disclosure and auditing requirements that banks or pension funds must meet. Nikolai Tehin lists among his affiliations Board of Directors, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Update Apr. 24, 2005: judge sentences Tehin to 14-year sentence.
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