Prison Justice
Former BigLaw lawyer pleads responsible to stealing from property
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A suspended Memphis, Tennessee, lawyer has pleaded responsible to at least one rely of wire fraud for stealing $124,000 from the property of a former consumer.
Leigh M. Chiles, 49, of Little Rock, Arkansas, pleaded responsible Friday, in line with Law360 and a March 17 press release.
Chiles was previously a lawyer with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. The regulation agency informed Law360 that Chiles is not with the agency and was not working there on the time of the crime.
“These issues don’t relate to or contain our agency in any manner,” a spokesperson informed Law360.
Chiles had labored at Baker Donelson by at the very least November 2017, in line with Law360, which cited info from the Baker Donelson web site. She was suspended from observe in July 2018.
Whereas at Baker Donelson, Chiles centered on litigation underneath the Worker Retirement Earnings Safety Act, in line with the Memphis Daily News. The article mentioned Chiles was a shareholder on the agency, which she had joined in 2005.
The July 2022 indictment alleges that Chiles stole from the property of John Paul Mummert after she was appointed executrix in September 2018. Chiles had ready Mummert’s will earlier than his loss of life.
Chiles was accused of embezzling from the property by writing checks to herself or through the use of property cash to pay her private bank card and a second bank card for a enterprise during which she was an investor. The plea agreement requires restitution.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 17.
