Slain Lawyer Faced Charges of Bilking Firm and Clients

A Los Angeles criminal defense attorney killed in his office was facing allegations of embezzling money from a former law firm and misappropriating clients’ fees, court records showed Tuesday, but investigators said they are unsure if there is any connection between the accusations and the slaying.

Nathan Arnold Richardson, 34, was gunned down about 12:15 p.m. Monday in the lobby of his office at 5455 Wilshire Blvd.--only nine days before he was to stand trial for allegedly embezzling nearly $4,000 from the Jacoby & Meyers law firm, according to court documents.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective Dan Andrews said police believe that a disgruntled client may be involved in the slaying, but added: “There may have been other reasons. A disgruntled client is what (police) are looking at. There’s nothing connecting (the allegations) to the shooting.”

According to court records, an arrest warrant issued April 22, 1987, alleged that Richardson stole $3,900 from Jacoby & Meyers, the national law firm where he worked from June, 1985, until he was fired a year later.

In July, 1985, court documents show, a woman named Adrienne Robbins paid Richardson in cash and checks to represent her in a lawsuit against an auto dealership. Instead of depositing the money in the firm’s accounts, Richardson pocketed the money, Jacoby & Meyers officials alleged in the documents.

During an interview Tuesday, Leonard Jacoby, a senior partner in the firm, described Richardson as “a good lawyer, very charming, very bright. . . . He just wasn’t honest.”

In addition to the embezzlement indictment, documents show, the State Bar had accused Richardson of three instances of financial impropriety and of failing to cooperate with a Bar investigator.

Richardson had not responded to the charges and, consequently, was on the verge of being declared in default, according to State Bar records.

State Bar documents show that a woman gave Richardson a $725 check in August, 1987, to prepare a property settlement agreement in a divorce case. He cashed the check without depositing the money in a bank, but he never prepared the papers, it was alleged.

In July, 1987, another woman hired Richardson in a breach of contract action and paid him $4,800 in advance, it was alleged in additional documents. She hired another attorney a month later, and he asked that Richardson give him the money, which was to be deposited in the client’s trust account.

Richardson sent a check for $500 that bounced, according to court documents.

In January, 1988, Richardson wrote a $120 check from a client’s trust account to pay for a filing fee in his own personal lawsuit, the court documents said. That check bounced, too.

A graduate of Stanford University and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, Richardson practiced both criminal and civil law in Los Angeles and outlying cities.

Efforts to contact colleagues at the Richardson & Associates law office Tuesday were unsuccessful.