A nightclub owner is suing a disbarred Philly-based lawyer for faking court orders and judges’ signatures
James De Berardine, who owns NOTO nightclub, is suing his former lawyer, Jared Klein, for allegedly lying about filing lawsuits and forging court orders.
James De Berardine believed a contractor who did work on his nightclub owed him $20,000.
The owner of NOTO on Vine Street contacted his lawyer, Jared Klein, and asked him to file a lawsuit on his behalf. And Klein did in January 2019 — or so De Berardine thought.
Years passed, and the case didn’t progress. And then, in November 2022, De Berardine received an email from Klein that said, “at long last.” Attached was what seemed to be a Common Pleas Court order in favor of De Berardine for $20,000, signed by Judge Patricia A. McInerney.
In the email, Klein expressed optimism about pursuing payment from the contractor.
But the order was fake, according to a lawsuit filed by De Berardine last week. Judge McInerney, who appeared to have signed the 2022 order, retired in 2018. And court records show no lawsuit corresponding to the information provided in the allegedly forged judicial order.
The recent lawsuit, filed in Common Pleas Court by Jeffrey Goodman of the Philadelphia-based firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, accuses Klein of creating “dozens of fraudulent, fake, and forged Court Orders, default judgments, motions for sanctions, and settlement agreements.”
It is the latest of Klein’s troubles. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania revoked his license to practice law in the state in August. Court records do not detail the reason Klein was disbarred but show he did not fight it.
“As a lawyer, I’ll be honest, it doesn’t get much worse than forging judicial signatures,” Goodman said. “It’s something I’ve never seen before.”
De Berardine’s lawsuit also accuses the last two firms that employed Klein — Blank Rome and Nochumson — of “negligent and reckless” oversight that “allowed this misconduct to continue.”
Blank Rome, a national firm with a Philadelphia office that employed Klein starting in 2020, said in a statement that his employment there ended in November.
“Thereafter we reported him to the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board,” the statement said. “We cannot make any other comment about pending litigation.”
Klein joined Nochumson, a Philadelphia-based real estate law firm, in January, according to the complaint.
Alan Nochumson, who founded the firm, said he took action once he heard De Berardine’s concerns and Klein was no longer employed by the firm by the end of July.
“I contacted the Philadelphia Court System and the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, which ultimately led to Mr. Klein’s termination of employment and disbarment,” Nochumson said in a statement.
Klein, of Collingswood, could not be reached for comment. No lawyer was listed for him in court records.
‘Judge was in rehab’
De Berardine’s relationship with Klein began in 2018, according to the complaint. The owner of Meritis Group, which manages a 120-unit building on Vine Street, and Culloo Entertainment, among other companies, he retained Klein as his personal and business lawyer.
In the following years, Klein claimed to file lawsuits on De Berardine’s behalf even though he didn’t, allowing statutes of limitations to pass, the complaint says. Klein also shared with his client multiple court orders that showed rulings in favor of De Berardine in contract-dispute cases, but they were fake, the lawsuit contends.
In 2021, for example, Klein shared with De Berardine via email a wire receipt for $78,000 from a Meritis tenant who allegedly broke a lease. But the funds were never deposited, and the receipt was fake, the lawsuit says.
In 2023, De Berardine was in the process of opening a NOTO nightclub in Houston. Klein negotiated the commercial lease for the venue, the complaint claims. But the lawyer was not admitted to practice law in Texas.
Klein said that told his client that he filed at least two lawsuits in Texas, one in state court and another in federal court, related to breach of contract (the complaint does not provide details). De Berardine accuses Klein of faking court orders in both nonexistent cases. One purported federal order is dated April 30, 2029.
And when De Berardine asked why the court would not execute the order in his favor, the complaint says, Klein allegedly told him that “the judge was in rehab,” causing a delay. But, the complaint says, the true reason was that the order wasn’t real.
In September, De Berardine’s Houston club was served an eviction notice, which the lawsuit claims was the result of Klein’s misconduct.
Culloo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court on Oct. 1. The lawsuit says the bankruptcy was the result of Klein’s fraudulent behavior, which allegedly cost De Berardine “millions of dollars in direct and consequential economic damages.”
The lawsuit accuses Blank Rome of not sharing information with De Berardine on the circumstances of Klein’s departure in 2023. The complaint notes that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania looked into the lawyer’s misconduct based on a complaint “believed to be by Alan Nochumson.”
The firms are named in the lawsuit as defendants because Klein was acting as their agent, Goodman said. Throughout the litigation process more information will come out about how much the firms knew, and what actions they did or did not take, he said.
“Engaging in egregious conduct, such as forging judicial signatures, faking court orders,” Goodman said. “It’s a total violation of the fundamental attorney-client relationship”