Florida attorney Leslie Ferderigos returns for another podcast.
I interviewed Leslie in February, but we scrapped the original show.
Since that show, I have interviewed Connecticut attorney Nickola Cunha.
Both have had their law licenses threatened after taking on controversial cases and challenging the system.
Nickola has been disbarred, while Leslie is facing more than ten complaints.
With Megan Fox, I previously interviewed Minnesota attorney Michelle MacDonald. (with whom I previously wrote the book “Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and the World’s Last Custody Trial”) Michelle has also had her law license threatened after advocating for Sandra “Sam” Grazzini-Rucki in another explosive child custody case. The interview below starts approximately thirty five minutes in.
The charges are often frivolous. Michelle was accused of overcharging one client $50 as well as making a comment impugning the reputation of a judge, David Knutson.
Meanwhile, Leslie told me that in one of the charges she was being accused of not following bar rules by waiving a retainer fee and allowing clients to pay monthly.
Other attorneys targeted by the BAR include California attorney Richard Fine who was jailed and then disbarred after he accused a group of judges of a pay to play scheme.
"I ended up here because I did the one thing no other lawyer in California is willing to do. I took on the corruption of the courts," Fine said in a jailhouse interview with CNN.
In 2018, I wrote about Rhetta Daniel who had her law license threatened after taking on several controversial guardianship cases.
But, having a judge interfere with the enforcement of the subpoenas was not enough, because no on
April 9, 2018, Daniel faces the VSB in a related hearing against her alone.
The VSB is not accusing her of misconduct but, rather filed a spurious Petition claiming Daniel is impaired and so can't continue being an attorney.
Daniel said that this is the only way they can remove her from representing Jones.
Leslie has caused waves by taking on several guardianship cases as well as some controversial custody cases.
She has successfully gotten six people removed from guardianship. This included a medical doctor in their fifties, she told me.
Leslie told me the main problem with the guardianship system is that the court players benefit financially by putting and keeping people in guardianship, whether or not they actually belong.
I’ve noticed a similar problem in family court. Court actors like guardian ad litem, custody evaluators and others all benefit from cases which take a long time to end.
The system feeds off conflict in guardianship and child custody.
Leslie also got involved in a child custody case where the other side was represented by Dori Foster-Morales. Foster-Morales is the outgoing president of the Florida BAR.
Leslie’s bar license problems started as that case was heating up: coincidentally or not.
Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast The Impromptu: Episode 32 an Interview with Attorney Leslie Ferderigos