'Harvard Lawyer' Now Has New Title: Inmate
Young, attractive and clean-cut, Charles Brady certainly looked the part of the Harvard-trained land use and zoning attorney police say he claimed to be. Even a number of fellow practitioners reportedly were fooled by the 26-year-old stepson of a former Florida legislator.
However, Brady, despite regularly practicing law and collecting retainer fees in excess of $50,000, was not in fact a lawyer, authorities say. After being arrested last week at his Fort Lauderdale apartment, he is now being held in lieu of $350,000 bail, on six counts of unlicensed practice of law and organized fraud, writes the Miami Herald. It says that Brady never even graduated from college, let alone law school.
The newspaper says police had to track down Brady’s victims, because many apparently never realized that he was not the attorney he purported to be.
Among them, according to the Herald, is Zachariah Zachariah, a prominent physician who is a member of the state university system’s board of governors. It reports that Zachariah met Brady at an Oct. 23 fundraiser for presidential candidate Fred Thompson, and says that Brady “introduced himself to Thompson as a practicing attorney” at the event.
Attorney Lawrence Livoti represents Brady, and says his client denies the charges and plans a vigorous defense. According to Livoti, his client “has never presented anything to show he is an attorney,” but may possibly have been mistakenly assumed to be a lawyer. He says Brady works as a consultant and paralegal for his stepfather’s law firm, the Herald reports.
“I believe Mr. Brady was perceived as being an attorney,” Livoti tells the Herald. “It’s not a crime if you don’t correct them.”
