SoCal, the place stars fall as quickly as they rise. And we’re not simply speaking about film stars. A star lawyer in Southern California simply fell from grace after she was arrested Monday in Washington State for grand theft.

Not way back, Kelly Duford Williams was a star within the authorized group. In 2021, San Diego Journal named her a “Lady of the Yr Rising Star.” However since then, she’s been stealing cash from her shoppers and making false 911 calls and police stories.

Now, the lawyer faces her personal authorized troubles, after police nabbed her not too long ago within the Pacific Northwest. Whereas her bail has been set at $25,000 in Snohomish, the California State Bar Affiliation has already revoked her license to follow regulation in “The Golden State.”

Who Is Kelly Duford Williams?

Born Kelly Williams in Eire, she moved to the USA along with her household when she was three. She claims she had all the time dreamed of turning into a litigator. Finally, Williams attended College of San Diego and earned her Juris Physician from California Western Faculty of Legislation. Afterwards, she clerked for the San Diego County District Legal professional, and from there, grew to become a Deputy District Legal professional in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2013, she married one other lawyer, Craig DuFord, with whom she had three youngsters. The 2 even began a regulation agency collectively in San Diego. However Williams and DuFord handled fairly a couple of marital troubles. At one level, for instance, her ex-husband obtained a restraining order towards her for home violence. In brief, the connection resulted in a messy divorce.

A Feminist Celeb Lawyer?

After the divorce, Williams determined to begin her personal enterprise. She established Slate Legislation Group, a regulation agency centered on enterprise growth and employment law-related points. The regulation workplace sprawled throughout a ten,000-square foot area in an expensive workplace constructing in San Diego.

Williams quickly grew to become considerably of a star. She recurrently appeared on native TV information, and the San Diego Enterprise Journal named her a “40 Subsequent High Enterprise Leaders beneath 40” for her authorized work at Slate. One other journal, Entreprenista, featured an interview with the lawyer wherein she quoted lyrics by Beyoncé to explain her work ethic. Quoting the pop star’s “Flawless,” Williams referred to herself as a “hustler.” In her acknowledged mission to advertise “social, political and financial equality of the sexes,” she really useful that different girls take heed to Beyonce’s work.

The Fall of a Star

However Williams’ good press did not final lengthy. In March, the State Bar of California commenced disciplinary proceedings towards her, on varied claims associated to each her private {and professional} life.

Discord In Private Life

In April 2021, Williams filed two false police stories over claims of a kid’s welfare. In these two telephone calls to 9-1-1, she expressed concern that an ex-boyfriend was abusing his youngsters. Throughout the calls, which occured in Utah, she additionally impersonated the kid’s aunt in addition to a deputy district lawyer.

In October 2022, her ex-husband filed for custody of their youngsters. Within the submitting, he cited the order of safety he had taken out towards her on claims of harassment and intimidation. He had additionally cited the disbarment proceedings and legal proceedings towards her—we’ll deal with these subsequent.

Not Such a Skilled Position Mannequin

Professionally, Williams appears to have engaged in some questionable practices at her regulation agency, Slate. There are a lot of, and we’ll begin with the smaller ones.

Former workers have additionally mentioned that she verbally abused them. One former paralegal of hers, Bryan Morgan, has mentioned she lived a “Imply Women life.” Some declare that she would frantically shift between singing pop songs within the workplace and making social media posts wherein she would demand her staff to fudge their hours so as to improve income.

Maybe her workers ought to have seen warning indicators of an ethically questionable employer. Quickly sufficient, the State Bar received concerned. Among the many allegations from the Bar was that Williams had permitted an lawyer not licensed in California to follow regulation as an worker of her agency. This was simply the tip of the iceberg for the Bar’s dealings with Williams, although.

In December 2021, the younger entrepreneur obtained a settlement test from State Farm Insurance coverage on behalf of a former consumer, who had filed a civil lawsuit over mould publicity. However when she received the test, Williams didn’t deposit it into the account belief account the place it was purported to go. In doing so, she violated varied guidelines in California on attorneys’ skilled conduct.

The discover from the Clerk’s Workplace claims that Williams deposited the $109,000 into an account registered to Slate Legislation, and in addition didn’t hold ample data on the money from the settlement. In her mismanagement of the funds, she misappropriated her consumer’s settlement cash. Based on court docket data, she additionally repeatedly lied about her dealing with of the money.

Evidently, the State Bar was not happy with any of this, and shortly commenced proceedings disbarment proceedings. The previous lawyer was formally disbarred late final month.

In case you thought any of that was dicey, it is small potatoes in comparison with her legal expenses. In March, the San Diego District Legal professional charged Williams with 9 counts of felony theft and one depend of forging checks, and issued a warrant for her arrest. Over the previous few years, she had apparently stolen a further $400,000 from different former shoppers. One of many victims and her former consumer, Fernando Rodriguez, referred to her as a “evil conniver” and a “little scammer.” Three pending lawsuits, filed in San Diego, declare that she owes hundreds and hundreds of {dollars} in backpay.

Guess she actually was a “hustler.”

Williams Will Cease at Nothing

In case you thought that this mountain of authorized bother would put Williams in her place, you would be mistaken.

Final week, she was arrested in Washington after evading authorities for roughly three months. She claimed she had been travelling to advertise concert events—a wierd story coming from a former employment regulation lawyer. It seems she has was an occasion organizer, recognizing that she wants a profession change after shedding her license to follow regulation. Based on police stories and The Every day Beast, she was additionally pretending to be pregnant.

As Williams prepares for the graduation of the legal proceedings towards her in San Diego, it is trying increasingly more like she was by no means an upstanding businesswoman, however as an alternative a white-collar legal.

Possibly she will nonetheless promote concert events from behind bars.