Chase Espy
Grim news keeps pouring forth from Birmingham's Balch & Bingham law firm. The latest? A former partner has been disbarred, and a former associate is now a registered sex offender.
K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group and publisher of its banbalch.com blog, has details:
The collapse of embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, the sister-wife of Alabama Power, continues.
The Alabama Supreme Court has disbarred ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert based on his federal conviction in the North Birmingham Bribery Trial on six criminal charges including money laundering and bribery.
Last week, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) requested a certified copy of the indictment, petition/complaint, and disposition of the state case against ex-Balch partner Chase T. Espy for their Sex Offender Registry.
Espy pled guilty to federal charges of possession of child pornography in October. The state case involved the online solicitation of a child for sex.
On top of that, Balch's efforts to rebuild its image have fallen mostly flat, writes Forbes:
Balch, which has a dubious record on matters of race, has tried to rehabilitate its image by hiring people of color. Unfortunately, some of them have left the embattled firm only months after being hired.
According to a recent review of Balch’s website, people of color account for less than 7 percent of their professionals and only 2 percent of their partners.
Meanwhile, Managing Partner Stan Blanton is patting himself on the back with make-believe awards for “diversity and inclusion. “
The only diversity and inclusion the firm appears to have are prisoners, pimps, prostitutes, and pedophiles.