According to the filing, the plaintiff in the case – Brian Burton – alleged an attorney for the firm representing him was visibly intoxicated (and half-naked) during a mediation hearing held via video conference on the morning of May 2, 2025. Meanwhile, Burton’s law firm – Poulin Willey Anastopoulo – has filed notices with the court seeking to relieve itself as his counsel, claiming he threatened to blackmail the firm following the alleged incident.

Burton’s filing focused on the alleged conduct of Chase Coble, a senior associate attorney at Poulin Willey.

According to Burton, the mediation hearing in question was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. EDT in Myrtle Beach but no attorney showed to represent him. Forty-five minutes later, the mediator entered the room with a laptop and informed Burton “your attorney is on zoom.”

“Mr. Coble was seen on camera, drinking a beer,” Burton wrote in his filing (.pdf). “Later during the meeting, Mr. Coble had to confer with another attorney and placed me on mute but did not turn off the camera.”

What happened next, per Burton’s filing, was quite graphic…

“Mr. Coble then stands up to leave the room and exposes himself by not having any pants on,” Burton continued. “Mr. Coble comes back with the video still going and prompts (sic) his feel up on the desk and his legs spread wide open.”

Moments later, according to Burton, Coble “puts his legs down and starts to rub his eyes and falls asleep for four to five minutes, then wakes up and turns the camera off.”

Eventually, Burton and the mediator – Bob Calamari – placed a call to Coble at which point, according to the filing, he “starts to say in a slurred speech something about going to his car to take the call.”

“You’re going to take a zoom call from your car?” Burton asked, per the filing.

“You’re right, that’s probably not a good idea,” Coble allegedly responded.

At this point, Burton said he informed Calamari that he believed his attorney had “been drinking” and expressed a desire not to proceed with the mediation. Later in his filing, he referred to Coble as being “completely inebriated.”

“You’re right, Brian, I have been drinking a little this morning,” Coble allegedly acknowledged, per Burton’s filing.

Following the incident, Burton said he contacted the firm to discuss the matter but did not immediately receive a response. Several days later, he claimed to have had a telephone conversation with Lane Jefferies – Poulin Willey’s chief operating officer.

“Mr. Jefferies apologizes and acts like it’s not a big deal and even acknowledges that Mr. Coble has a drinking problem and wants to help him,” Burton stated in his filing.

After discussing the case, Burton said he told Jefferies his expectation for a settlement in the case – originally valued at $250,000 – was $50,000.

“This was to cover the settlement plus compensation for Mr. Coble’s behavior of exposing himself to me while I have been a victim of sexual abuse in the past,” Burton wrote.

Burton further advised Jefferies he had drafted a letter to the S.C. supreme court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) regarding Coble but that he “did not want to ruin someone’s career, especially if the firm wanted to keep him.”

According to an email from Jefferies, the firm took this as an attempt at blackmail.

“The issue is your insistence that my firm pay you money in exchange for you not filing a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel concerning events that you told me occurred during mediation,” Jefferies wrote. “Even after I explained to you that such an exchange of money for not making an ODC report is specifically forbidden by our rules of ethics, you continued to insist that we pay you. I told you that we simply cannot do that; if you have an issue that you think should be reported to ODC, then you should report it.”

Jefferies added that Burton’s alleged “insistence on payment” created a conflict which “precludes our continuing to represent you.”

Accordingly, Jefferies submitted a notice to the S.C. Fifteenth Circuit last Friday (May 9, 2025) indicating his firm’s desire to be relieved as Burton’s counsel.

“The grounds for this motion are that the client has insisted that attorneys engage in a course of conduct which attorneys are informed and believe is not permitted under the applicable ethics laws,” Jefferies wrote in the filing (.pdf).

“That is NOT true!!!” Burton responded in his filing (emphasis original). “The money I was insistent on was involved around the value of my case plus compensation for the actions of Mr. Coble. Mr. Jefferies is making it sound like I was blackmailing him for millions of dollars.”

Burton is asking the court to order Poulin Willey to stay on his case, secure the “maximum” settlement possible and compensate him for “lost wages and lost time for the embarrassment and unprofessional conduct by his firm.”

Something tells us we haven’t heard the last of this case, so keep it tuned to FITSNews as we track developments moving forward…

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5725693&forum_id=2:#48935512)