Former ‘Excuseman’ attorney pleads guilty to theft
In YouTube videos, former Chicago personal injury attorney Jordan Margolis posed as “Excuseman,” a third-rate superhero with a penchant for lame jokes.
But the disbarred Margolis made no excuses of his own Monday, pleading guilty to a single count of felony theft, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The guilty plea comes more than two years after he was hit with three dozen counts of forgery, theft and other financial crimes for allegedly settling more than a dozen clients’ claims without their consent and keeping the money — more than $1 million — for himself, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Margolis is set to be sentenced in June 2019.
Prosecutors said he spent some of that money developing the “Excuseman” character videos, the Tribune reported.
Records from the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois show that Margolis, a grad of Northwestern University Law School, was disbarred in January 2015 and ordered to pay more than $675,000 in restitution to six parties.
He now lives in Los Angeles and works as a screenwriter under the pen name “Jack Leiv.”
In 2017, he was ordered to pay more than $390,000 after he was sued for legal malpractice, records show.
Margolis could not be reached for comment Monday.
Margolis’ ownership of excuseman.com also appears to have lapsed. Someone else bought it and has plastered it with links to unflattering news stories about Margolis and the ARDC decision to strip his law license.