A Philly lawyer has been suspended for four years for lying to two clients for a decade

A Philadelphia attorney’s law license has been suspended for four years after the state disciplinary board found that he lied to a couple for nearly a decade by repeatedly saying he had filed a civil suit over the death of their son in a state prison when he had done no such thing.

Gary Silver, who has practiced criminal defense law in and around the city for more than 30 years, “egregiously and dishonestly” misled the couple, the disciplinary board wrote in its opinion, speaking with them 40 or 50 times over the years and, each time, leading them to believe the suit had been filed and was slowly advancing through the courts. At times he even asked them to send him new documents.

In reality, the board said, not only did Silver fail to file a complaint, but he also missed the statute of limitations to do so — and then declined to tell his clients the truth because his inaction and misrepresentations could have exposed him to a disciplinary inquiry and disrupted his law practice.

“Silver placed his personal interests above his clients’ interests and selfishly lied to his clients for eight years because he wanted to avoid professional discipline,” the board wrote.

The board added that although Silver eventually acknowledged his misconduct and expressed remorse, he did so only after the couple, John and Susan McClellan had consulted another attorney, who discovered that no suit had ever been filed. And Silver — who had previously been disciplined three times, including for mishandling communication with clients — told the disciplinary board he might never have revealed the truth had he not been caught.

“Silver inflicted these problems upon himself by his steady avoidance of simply doing the right thing and being honest with his clients,” the board said.

Silver declined to comment when reached by phone this week.

Attempts to reach the McClellans were unsuccessful.

Both testified during the board’s inquiry.

John McClellan told the board he was “heartbroken” and “felt like [he] was made a fool of.”

Susan McClellan said that after she learned the truth, it “felt like I lost [my son] all over again.”

“When you lose a child, it feels like your heart is just squeezed that you can’t breathe, and to find out that nothing was done on his behalf, it just — it’s just like that devastated me,” she said.

» READ MORE: A nightclub owner is suing a disbarred Philly-based lawyer for faking court orders and judges’ signatures

The disciplinary board gave this account of what happened:

The McClellans’ son, John McClellan Jr., died by suicide in May 2011 while he was incarcerated at the State Correctional Institute at Cresson. The circumstances around his death raised questions about whether psychologists at the prison had done enough to help him, so the McClellans approached Silver about a lawsuit that fall.

Silver had never handled that type of suit, but he agreed to represent the couple, and in 2012, he engaged an attorney who specialized in civil actions to draft a complaint.

But Silver never filed it. And in May 2013, the statute of limitations expired.

Still, Silver didn’t tell the McClellans about those issues. In fact, John McClellan continued to provide letters and documents to Silver for years, and Silver continued communicating with the couple every few months, sometimes asking them to send him the new materials they said they’d obtained.

“On those occasions … Silver told Mr. McClellan that all was proceeding well,” the board wrote.

In 2021, a decade after their first encounter, the McClellans set up a meeting with Silver at his law office to seek updates and request to review case files. Silver agreed, then didn’t attend, but told the couple his secretary could provide the complaint. They were given a draft that had been signed by Silver but never filed in court.

A few months later, the McClellans spoke with another attorney, Robert Lynch, who began trying to learn what happened. Silver ultimately admitted to Lynch that he had never filed the suit, calling it a “huge error” and saying he hoped that Lynch would be able to represent the couple.

Lynch agreed, and approached the Department of Corrections seeking a settlement of about $675,000 — the amount the agency had spent to settle another lawsuit involving another man’s suicide at the prison.

But because of Silver’s inaction and the expired statute of limitations, Lynch could not file a lawsuit to seek documents or testimony from the agency that could help their case or take the matter before a judge or jury, steps that can cause officials to agree to pay large settlements.

So the Department of Corrections offered to pay the McClellans $25,000 each — an offer it said was nonnegotiable.

They accepted.