Ambrogi reports…..
Between 2016 and 2018, I wrote a series of posts about Derek Bluford, a one-time rising star on the legal tech start-up scene whose star fell after I reported in 2016 of his settlement of a lawsuit charging him with impersonating a lawyer, forging legal documents and fraudulently swindling two clients.
Now, Bluford has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges related to those forgeries and fraud.
On Thursday, Phillip A. Talbert, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said that Bluford, 34, was sentenced for wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of a federal investigation, and making false statements.
When I first wrote about Bluford, he had been slated to be featured two weeks later at a Legaltech West Coast program on legal innovation. Just 28 years old at the time, he had achieved success and won accolades as an entrepreneur, first starting California Legal Pros, a company that marketed various legal services to both consumers and lawyers. then QuickLegal, a service that provided on-demand legal advice to consumers, and then QuickLegal Practice Management, a cloud practice management platform for lawyers.
He had even been selected to appear on the popular ABC television show Shark Tank, although, as far as I can tell, he never actually appeared on any segment that was aired.
Following my report, QuickLegal shut down, but then seemed to be reincarnated in another similar startup called LawTova. After I wrote about that company (here and here), it too shut down. I then wrote about yet another startup that had ties to Bluford and QuickLegal, which has also since shut down.
