Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California

Legitimacy of a lawyer

Good day. I need to find out how to investigate the legitimacy of a Malaysian lawyer who contacted me via email about a deceased client of his who shares my last name. Could you please let me know how might investigate this. The lawyer's name is Frank Lee, Esq. He is a solicitor and advocate at 16 Floor 100 Putra Plaza 50350 Kuala Lampur, and a member of Abdul Aziz & Co. He contacted me regarding my agreeing to be next of kin, and to acquire his inheritance, which is a rather large sum of money, so I need to varify if he is a legitimate lawyer. He has sent me a series of emails describing his intent and some of my responsibilities. Can I be placed ''next of kin'' to a client that I am not related to? I have tried to do an Internet search on this person, and am not finding anything. It is possible that I am not looking well enough. If you need any further information from, hopefully I can send that along.

- Thank you for your guidance,

I look forward to your quick reply.


Asked on 9/08/06, 3:20 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

Re: Legitimacy of a lawyer

I receive a lot of these kinds of messages -- perhaps because I'm a lawyer -- but this might be a new twist, i.e. inserting your last name in the body of the text. A Google search shows that Abdul Aziz & Co. is a textile importer based in Pakistan with outlets in Asia. Doesn't sound like a law firm to me. My best advice is to ignore it. Once you respond, my guess is that you'll be bombarded with more of these things since you're "a live one" with a good e-mail address.

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Answered on 9/08/06, 4:45 pm
Carl Starrett Law Offices of Carl H. Starrett II

Re: Legitimacy of a lawyer

I get junk like that all the time. It's called "phishing" and all they are trying to do is get personal information so they can steal money from you. Just ignore it and deleted it.

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Answered on 9/08/06, 5:01 pm


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