A prominent corporate lawyer in Chicago has been accused by an Illinois disciplinary board of charging the firm for phony expenses, including about $70,000 in taxi trips, $35,000 in sporting events and a Thanksgiving celebration at his country club.
Lee M. Smolen, a partner at DLA Piper, the world’s largest law firm, was named in a complaint filed earlier this month by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Before recently joining DLA, Mr. Smolen was a longtime partner at Sidley Austin. The board said it was at Sidley where the false expense reporting took place.
Over a six-year period from 2007 to 2012, Mr. Smolen fabricated more than $120,000 in expenses submitted to Sidley, the commission said. The complaint, which accuses Mr. Smolen of fraud and deceit, asks that the case be assigned to a panel for additional investigation and to make a recommendation “for such discipline as warranted.â€
Mr. Smolen resigned abruptly from Sidley last fall, and joined DLA n February. Josh Epstein, a DLA spokesman, said in a statement said that the firm was aware of Mr. Smolen’s disciplinary matter when it hired him.
“After our own due diligence and a thorough review of the facts, the firm decided to give great weight to the total body of Lee’s work over his 25-plus years as a lawyer,†the statement said. “Lee is a well-respected attorney who has learned from his experience and taken all the necessary steps to move forward as a productive member of our team.â€
Neither Mr. Smolen, nor his lawyer, Robert Merrick, responded to a request for comment. Carter Phillips, the chair of Sidley Austin, declined to comment. The Legal Profession Blog first reported Sunday on Mr. Smolen’s case, which was filed June 14.
The disciplinary commission said that Mr. Smolen requested more than 800 reimbursements for taxi rides that he knew he had not taken. Other sham expenses included sporting events, at least $13,000 in restaurant gift cards, and $2,000 for ! meals at his country club.
Most of the expenses, the disciplinary commission said, were paid out of fees that the firm had collected from a major financial firm that is one of Sidley’s largest clients.
Lawyers at other elite law firms have come under scrutiny for possible financial misdeeds. In March, Theodore Freedman, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner, pleaded guilty to tax fraud for under-reporting his partnership income by more than $2 million over a four-year period. Carlos Spinelli-Noseda, a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, was disbarred in 2008 after admitting to misappropriating more than $500,000 from the firm and its clients.
Mr. Smolen, 53, served as global coordinator of Sidley’s real estate practice, joining the firm straight out of the University of Chicago Law School in 1985. In 2008, he was named to the executive committee of Sidley, whose partners, on average, made $1.8 million last year.
Sidley Austin, a storied Chicago firm founded in 1866, also played an importat role in President Obama’s biography. In 1988, Michelle Robinson was a young Sidley lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when she was asked to mentor a promising summer associate named Barack Obama. They married four years later.
