A California lawyer cashed in on criminal justice reform by fanning the hopes of inmates' families

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long long article about attorney raking in $10,000 and more from families and submitting boiler plate junk applications for re-sentencing.
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Spolin, a Princeton-educated former McKinsey consultant, bought up online search terms so that people googling the laws saw ads touting the firm’s expertise. He mailed pitch letters directly to some of the state’s 100,000 prisoners introducing himself as a former prosecutor now “in the top 1% among California criminal lawyers” and informing them they might be eligible for “sentence shortening under various new laws.”

Nearly 2,000 individuals signed on with Spolin, according to the online resume of a former office manager. He became a celebrity inside prisons, his name passed around in exercise yards from Folsom to Calipatria, and in Facebook support groups for wives and children. Families of limited means borrowed against their homes, took out high-interest loans, dipped into 401(k)s, worked double shifts, ran public fundraisers and amassed credit card debt to pay Spolin fees that could run north of $40,000.

A Times investigation found that Spolin built a booming enterprise by fanning false hopes in some families desperate to get their loved ones home. He encouraged people to spring for pricey legal services that he knew or should have known had little or no chance of success, the newspaper found.


He told families of men incarcerated for murder and other violent crimes that progressive L.A. Dist. Atty. George Gascón could move to free them in less than a year under one new resentencing law. None of Spolin’s attempts, for which families paid about $10,000 each, appear to have been successful, and Gascón’s office told The Times it generally does not consider such offenders to be good candidates for resentencing.

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The Times found that Spolin’s firm relied on the work of some low-paid contract lawyers who were not licensed in California and had little or no experience in criminal appeals. Among those helping draft legal memos and court filings were lawyers from the Philippines and other developing countries making about $10 an hour.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-21/embargo-false-hopes-of-freedom