Bar Group Sues Texas Lawyers Who Practiced With Businessman
A committee of the Supreme Court of Texas has filed suit in state court against five lawyers and a politically connected businessman, contending that they collaborated in the unlicensed practice of law.
Because the businessman, Mauricio Celis, is not a lawyer and operated a law firm in Corpus Christi, the actual attorneys who worked at CGT Law Group International aided and abetted his unauthorized practice and improperly shared legal fees with him, contends the Texas Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee in the Nueces County action. It is seeking a court order requiring the defendants both to return legal fees to clients and to turn over law practice records, reports the Caller-Times.
Celis allegedly has a controlling interest in the law firm, in violation of Texas law, explains the Associated Press.
Four of the five attorney defendants formerly practiced at CGT Law Group, according to the newspaper. The fifth defendant lawyer is also accused of improperly sharing legal fees with Celis.
The Nueces County suit follows several other legal developments concerning CGT. Among them: a grand jury in Nueces County indicted Celis last month on felony charges of perjury, falsely holding himself out as a lawyer, impersonating a public servant and theft. He has also been sued by the state attorney general. Meanwhile, three of the defendant attorneys in the new unauthorized practice case previously sued the committee for alleged harassment, and that Travis County action is pending.
Boyce Brown, an attorney with George & Brothers in Austin who represents the plaintiffs lawyers in the Travis County suit, says they did nothing wrong. “There was never one case where Mauricio Celis was the attorney,” Brown says. “We can’t see where [the committee] gets the power to interfere in attorney and client relationships.”
Questions about Celis’ status as an attorney apparently were first raised by another Corpus Christi practitioner, as detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.
