Lawyer Suspended for Accepting Nude Dancing as Payment

By Margaret Lyons in News on Sep 19, 2008 5:25PM

We all know legal representation can be expensive. So maybe a you-scratch-my-back, I-defend-yours isn't the worst idea in the world. Unless you're DeKalb attorney Scott Robert Erwin, who accepted client payment in the form of nude dancing. Would you believe that's not cool with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission? Erwin has been suspended from practicing law for 15 months.

Erwin and his former client met in 2001, when he went to tittybar Heartbreakers and, upon chitchatting with one of the dancers, realized they had spoken on the phone about some legal matters. Talk about a meet cute! Anyway, Erwin and the woman "mutually agreed that she perform nude dances for him in his office as a way to cut down on the legal fees." And she did for several months, until, according to a criminal report, he allegedly touched her, an allegation Erwin denies. She filed charges, but a grand jury didn't indict Erwin. Over the course of their business relationship, Erwin credited the woman around $500 of the $7,000 she apparently owed. [WSJ, Trib]