Claims Of Deception, Illegal Practice Of Law Unfounded, Says NY-Licensed Attorney In Response To Connecticut AG Probe Into Loan Modification Firm

In East Berlin, Connecticut, the Connecticut Law Tribune reports:

• Kent Gross said he can’t be done with Connecticut soon enough. For him, it’s become impossible to do business here. The New York-licensed attorney said [First Legal Group, a] company he helped set up in East Berlin to assist homeowners facing foreclosure has been unfairly targeted by state grievance officials and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

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• “To come out and say we misled people and that no work was done on the files is ridiculous,” Gross said from Florida last week. “There’s proof that we did work, and it’s voluminous.” He said an online case management system accessible by clients provides that proof. Gross, the managing attorney for First Legal Group, said there were actually 38 Connecticut clients who paid $69,000 in fees. He said the company would start refunding money and returning case files to clients late last week, and he stressed his cooperation with the Statewide Grievance Committee and the Attorney General’s Office.

• And the claims of illegally practicing law in the state are unfounded, Gross said. “None of us are Connecticut lawyers and none of us said we are,” Gross said. “I basically don’t practice law. I deal with the executive officers at banks to work on modifications.”(1)

For more, see Modifying Loans Or Scamming Homeowners? (Attorney-run, Florida-based foreclosure service comes under fire in Connecticut).

(1) According to the story, Chief Disciplinary Counsel Mark Dubois revealed the company’s business practices in a lawsuit filed by his ofice stop First Legal Group, a Florida-based outfit, from operating in Connecticut. Dubois also raised the specter of possible larceny charges. Dubois targeted Gross and Florida attorney Nicola Zagarolo as the leaders of the company. Two Connecticut attorneys got involved with the business after Dubois first contacted First Legal Group in July, Dubois said. Hartford attorneys Evan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Cates worked as local counsel to provide “limited legal services,” designed to make the operation seem more legitimate in case clients needed to make court appearances, Dubois said. Both attorneys are recent law school graduates who passed the bar last summer. Their contract provided $100 payments for every Connecticut client the company attracts and to receive an additional $100 for each court appearance. Both attorneys backed out of the arrangement when they began to feel uneasy about the business model.