Patrick Megaro billed himself and his firm as the Appeal Law Group and took his huckstering ways on the road, from state to state, locale to locale. Along with sidekick Jaime Halscott, he purported to represent the little guy.
But, as the North Carolina State Bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission ultimately found in 2021, Megaro’s “manipulation and exploitation of vulnerable clients reflects that Defendant is either unwilling or unable to conform his behavior to the requirements of the Rules of Professional Conduct.”
This was the culmination of Megaro’s collection of “excessive amounts of McCollum and Brown’s Industrial Commission awards based on a fee agreement [Megaro] knew the clients could not understand, and in a proceeding where his actual work was de minimis.”
Megaro “financially exploited” his clients causing them “significant harm.” At his testimony before the Bar, Megaro displayed a “pervasive tendency to blame others.”
Megaro was disciplined by the Bar, but appealed. Now the North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld the Bar’s judgment. Megaro has been disbarred by New York and a pending disciplinary action is moving through Florida’s courts.
The Fourth Circuit recently shot down Halscott’s attempt to recover money from the unethical and manipulative work his partner Megaro perpetrated on behalf of two intellectually disabled brothers.
