Former Phila. lawyer locked out of his office

A controversial former Philadelphia lawyer who once choked a judge and was found to be practicing law despite being disbarred has been locked out of his Center City office by the president judge of Common Pleas Court.

The former lawyer, Allen Feingold, also is prohibited from filing anything with Common Pleas Court, such as lawsuits.

Legal experts in Philadelphia and Harrisburg cannot remember another instance of such an order, which the judge signed Sept. 2.

"In an entire generation of practice - 30 years - I have never heard of anything like this," said Sayde Ladov, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Feingold, a 68-year-old civil lawyer known for a hard-charging style in personal-injury cases, said Friday that the lockout violated his civil rights, and that he was suing President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, among others, in federal court.

He is accusing Dembe of "illegally seizing and impounding" his office and "illegally denying plaintiff equal access to the courts and right to free expression."

In a phone interview, Feingold said he was indignant and incensed.

"I am Don Quixote. I always do what's right," he said in a breathless, raspy voice that has been readily recognized in and around courtrooms here for 43 years. "I sue those who lie. That's what gets me in trouble. I've always gone after the powerful, and now they've handed my head to me on a platter."

Asked whether the allegation that he practiced law after his disbarment was true, Feingold enigmatically said; "It's accurate, but it's inaccurate."

He said he was acting more like a legal secretary than a lawyer.

Under Dembe's order, Feingold had to surrender the keys to his 11th-floor office at 1515 Market St. He is barred from removing any papers from it. He is also prohibited from entering any courtroom other than as a witness, a party to a lawsuit, or a spectator.

What's more, Feingold cannot use any legal stationery or cards that identify him as a lawyer, or use the stationery of another lawyer - which he once did.

Further, Dembe ordered the Philadelphia prothonotary and the clerk of quarter sessions not to accept any filing from Feingold.

"Once you have been told that you can't practice law, you really can't," Dembe said in an interview. "He's obviously very distressed about this, and any of us would be when we see our livelihood imperiled.

"I think practicing law is his whole life, and I feel badly for him."

Dembe added to her Sept. 2 order eight days afterward, appointing former state Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro as conservator in the case. He is charged with notifying Feingold's current and former clients that he can no longer practice law.

Dembe stipulated that she would allow Feingold to go into his office with Nigro to retrieve utility bills, but nothing else.

Nigro could not be reached for comment.

Feingold's troubles intensified over the last three years. But Feingold and others familiar with him said his problems were rooted in events and consequences of his work that stretch back over more than four decades of legal practice.

On March 3, 2006, Feingold was suspended from the practice of law for three years.

A consecutive two-year suspension was added Aug. 22, 2006. Feingold was finally disbarred Aug. 22, 2008.

But it was determined that he had continued to practice law through June, according to documents from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

"It came to our attention that Mr. Feingold was continuing to practice despite being disbarred," said Paul Killion, chief disciplinary counsel, in an interview. Killion said his office had filed a petition requesting that Dembe step in.

"It's extremely rare to lock him out of his office," Killion said. "But he was well-known to our office for many complaints and battles. They were typically about his behavior in the courtroom and toward other attorneys. A lot of the complaints didn't result in discipline, and we can't talk about them."

What can be discussed are the matters that were the subject of Office of Disciplinary Counsel reports.

According to ODC documents, Feingold was an attorney for Jennifer O'Donnell in two injury cases, beginning with a slip-and-fall near the 100 block of Krams Avenue on July 17, 1997.

In suing for O'Donnell, the documents said, he "assisted his client in conduct that he knew to be fraudulent and criminal, namely perjury at her deposition."

Feingold then tried to "cover up the perjury by instructing his client's physician's employee to tell defense counsel that medical records could not be located."

In other matters, Feingold was found to have brought frivolous lawsuits against opposing parties' insurance companies.

The records described Feingold as employing "dishonesty" and "deceitful practices."

In another matter, the documents said, Feingold attacked 74-year-old Judge Herman Weinberg at the Dispute Resolution Center on Aug. 3, 2004, and "starting choking him."

Feingold also tried to hit Weinberg, according to the documents. In the interview Friday, he denied hitting or choking Weinberg.

Nevertheless, in one ODC document, Feingold was quoted as saying, "I knew that I was going to have a problem, and I knew I was going to catch grief even though I hadn't touched him, so I figured, hell, if I'm going to lose my license, at least let me get my one punch in."

The ODC report called Feingold "a danger to the public and the judicial system because of his short temper and unreasonable, erratic behavior."

After two suspensions, the ODC found that Feingold had failed to notify his clients that he was unable to work as an attorney.

After his disbarment in 2008, Feingold continued to act as an attorney, according to documents from an August hearing before Dembe about his activities.

In one instance, Feingold tried to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of a former client without her consent, according to Dembe's Sept. 2 order.

In other matters, Feingold "undermined" another lawyer, Jeffry Pearson, who had agreed to represent former clients of Feingold's, Dembe wrote.

Feingold said in the interview that he had altered his stationery when he and Pearson were apparently working together.

"With his permission, I took my stationery and where it said 'Allen Feingold' I put 'Jeff Pearson.' I wasn't practicing law. I was being his secretary," Feingold said.

Dembe disagreed in her order. "Mr. Pearson testified that Mr. Feingold also filed motions without his consent," she wrote.

Describing himself as having gone "into combat" for his clients over the years, Feingold added that his dedication had taken a toll.

He said that over the years, defense attorneys, insurance companies, and judges had tired of his dogged efforts on his clients' behalf.

The suspensions, his disbarment, and the office lockout are the result, he added.

Ladov of the bar association disagreed.

"There are many successful lawyers who are aggressive and do all the right things," she said. "They win cases, and no one is seeking to push them out."

Feingold, the son of an Overbrook car salesman and a mother who did charity work, doesn't argue that he was an unusual attorney.

"I'm a bulldog," said the 5-foot-6 Feingold, who injured his vocal cords at age 20 when his neck slammed into a wire barrier as he drove a convertible with the top down at Pennsylvania State University. It left him with his rasp.

He reinjured his neck when a SEPTA bus struck his car in 1974, and he was awarded $268,000 in damages, records show.

Feingold, who is the father of two children, ages 6 and 10, said he lives in Montgomery County, though he wouldn't say where.

"I loved being a lawyer," he said. "I fought to help people. And I've gotten my head handed to me."