Former attorney Danny Adams speaks during a local television commercial in 2018. (YouTube)
The former owner of a local bankruptcy law firm with three offices has been disbarred after admitting that he filched $5,000 from three clients he did no legal work for.
Danny Adams, 43, graduated from law school in San Diego in 2009 and worked in several western states before passing the Colorado bar in 2018, according to his LinkedIn. His Centennial-based Allstate Law had offices in Arvada and Colorado Springs too.
“If you would like to be debt-free, reset your credit, and stop harassing creditor calls, call me now,” Adams said in a TV ad in 2018. “Get bankruptcy started with zero down.”
But in reality, Allstate Law required clients to put money down — and sometimes kept it.
In late 2018, a client identified as A.M. paid $1,500 to Allstate, which then demanded a second fee before it would file her bankruptcy. Neither Adams nor anyone else at Allstate ever filed the case, provided an invoice to A.M. or refunded her money, according to a May 24 agreement between Adams and the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.
In 2020, a woman with the initials K.B. paid Allstate $2,200 to file her bankruptcy case, but then decided to hold off. When she reached out to the firm in 2022 to ask them to proceed with the filing, no one answered the phone or the door at Allstate’s Centennial office.
K.B. talked with Adams, who informed her that his license had been suspended for a month but offered to file her case anyway, Adams admits now. K.B. wanted her money back instead but never received it. Adams cut off contact, according to his May 24 agreement.
Adams was suspended for 30 days in 2022 because he started a law firm with a non-lawyer and then, knowing it was a violation of legal ethics, tried to hide that from investigators.
That same year, a client named J.K. paid Allstate $1,300 to file a Chapter 13 case on his behalf. The firm didn’t do that, didn’t return his calls and didn’t return his money. Like A.M. and K.B., he had to quickly find and pay another lawyer during a financially precarious time in his life.
“Overall, (Adams)’ failure to return unearned fees and abandonment of all three clients caused harm to the reputation of lawyers and the legal profession,” according to last month’s agreement between Adams and the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.
That agreement, which Adams signed, recommended that he be disbarred. State Disciplinary Judge Bryon Large agreed and ended Adams’ local law career on May 24. He also ordered Adams to pay a total of $5,002 in restitution to the three clients he abandoned.
It’s not the only money Adams owes to Coloradans. In 2022, he was ordered to pay $16,000 to an Allstate paralegal who sued for back pay. And last year, the state ordered Allstate to pay $8,000 for workers’ compensation violations. He hasn’t paid either judgment.
Adams, who did not return BusinessDen’s requests for comment, has not been heard from by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel in months, that office told a judge in March. It asked the judge what should be done with 192 boxes of Adams’ client files that it found in a storage unit in Westminster and $120,000 in client cash that it found in Chase accounts.
Adams County District Court Judge Kyle Seedorf appointed another lawyer to safeguard those confidential files and freezed the bank accounts until the money can be sorted.
Former attorney Danny Adams speaks during a local television commercial in 2018. (YouTube)
The former owner of a local bankruptcy law firm with three offices has been disbarred after admitting that he filched $5,000 from three clients he did no legal work for.
Danny Adams, 43, graduated from law school in San Diego in 2009 and worked in several western states before passing the Colorado bar in 2018, according to his LinkedIn. His Centennial-based Allstate Law had offices in Arvada and Colorado Springs too.
“If you would like to be debt-free, reset your credit, and stop harassing creditor calls, call me now,” Adams said in a TV ad in 2018. “Get bankruptcy started with zero down.”
But in reality, Allstate Law required clients to put money down — and sometimes kept it.
In late 2018, a client identified as A.M. paid $1,500 to Allstate, which then demanded a second fee before it would file her bankruptcy. Neither Adams nor anyone else at Allstate ever filed the case, provided an invoice to A.M. or refunded her money, according to a May 24 agreement between Adams and the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.
In 2020, a woman with the initials K.B. paid Allstate $2,200 to file her bankruptcy case, but then decided to hold off. When she reached out to the firm in 2022 to ask them to proceed with the filing, no one answered the phone or the door at Allstate’s Centennial office.
K.B. talked with Adams, who informed her that his license had been suspended for a month but offered to file her case anyway, Adams admits now. K.B. wanted her money back instead but never received it. Adams cut off contact, according to his May 24 agreement.
Adams was suspended for 30 days in 2022 because he started a law firm with a non-lawyer and then, knowing it was a violation of legal ethics, tried to hide that from investigators.
That same year, a client named J.K. paid Allstate $1,300 to file a Chapter 13 case on his behalf. The firm didn’t do that, didn’t return his calls and didn’t return his money. Like A.M. and K.B., he had to quickly find and pay another lawyer during a financially precarious time in his life.
“Overall, (Adams)’ failure to return unearned fees and abandonment of all three clients caused harm to the reputation of lawyers and the legal profession,” according to last month’s agreement between Adams and the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.
That agreement, which Adams signed, recommended that he be disbarred. State Disciplinary Judge Bryon Large agreed and ended Adams’ local law career on May 24. He also ordered Adams to pay a total of $5,002 in restitution to the three clients he abandoned.
It’s not the only money Adams owes to Coloradans. In 2022, he was ordered to pay $16,000 to an Allstate paralegal who sued for back pay. And last year, the state ordered Allstate to pay $8,000 for workers’ compensation violations. He hasn’t paid either judgment.
Adams, who did not return BusinessDen’s requests for comment, has not been heard from by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel in months, that office told a judge in March. It asked the judge what should be done with 192 boxes of Adams’ client files that it found in a storage unit in Westminster and $120,000 in client cash that it found in Chase accounts.
Adams County District Court Judge Kyle Seedorf appointed another lawyer to safeguard those confidential files and freezed the bank accounts until the money can be sorted.
