Revered Massachusetts defense attorney Kevin Reddington is facing a four-count formal disciplinary petition filed with the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) alleging professional misconduct, including claims made by convicted felon and former Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia II.
Reddington is coming off the high-profile murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, accused of murdering her three children. The lengthy trial ended in a mistrial on Friday when the jury was deadlocked after hours of deliberation.
The trial caught national and international attention, as did Reddington’s performance as Clancy’s defense attorney.
The petition for discipline was filed on June 23, 2026, by Bar Council to the BBO, the investigative body that handles attorney discipline under the Supreme Judicial Court, which will make the final determination whether Reddington will face discipline.
Correia’s allegations of professional violations against Reddington include accusations that the trial defense attorney tried to change his fee shortly before the federal trial against the then-mayor in April 2021.
The three other counts involve unrelated clients of Reddington that allege misuse of client’s funds and bad record keeping.
Correia’s Grievances
Correia’s complaints against Reddington to the BBO mirror accusations he made against his defense attorney in May 2024, alleging ineffective counsel during his 2021 fraud and corruption trial.
He was convicted of stealing over $300,000 in investor money meant to help fund his app start-up and lived a “lavish lifestyle” with the proceeds, according to prosecutors.
Correia was also convicted for initiating a pay-to-play scheme while mayor, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from businessmen looking to enter the just legalized marijuana business in Fall River.
A federal jury convicted Correia of 21 counts ranging from extortion, wire fraud and tax fraud.
The trial judge later dismissed several charges, leaving 11 felony convictions standing. He was sentenced to six years in federal prison.
Correia first hired Reddington in May 2018 after firing his first defense attorney and five months before his first of two indictments, the first in October 2018 for the defrauding of SnoOwl investors.
According to claims made by Correia previously and cited in the BBO disciplinary petition, the two agreed verbally to a flat legal fee of $150,000 plus expenses.
A superseding indictment followed nearly a year later in September 2019 for the extortion of the marijuana businessmen.
Things got ugly
After the trial, Correia fired Reddington and hired another law firm for his unsuccessful appeal of his conviction.
Then in May 2024 while incarcerated in Kentucky, Correia, representing himself, filed a motion in federal court seeking a reduction in his prison sentence.
In the 26-page court filing, Correia accused Reddington of attempting to extort $50,000 from him and take a 20 percent ownership of the defunct company SnoOwl.
Correia said text messages showed Reddington attempting to shake him down for additional money before the month-long trial.
In his court filing, Correia included affidavits in support of his claims by his wife, Jenny Fernandes Correia, his parents, Jasiel and Maria Correia and his sister, Alexandra Correia.
At the time Reddington had strong words about his former client’s accusations in The Herald News.
“He’s a liar,” Reddington told The Herald News. “And by the way, 20% of nothing is nothing.”
Reddington had acknowledged that he did attempt to collect legal fees and that the second indictment after the two agreed to a flat $150,000 fee, changed the scope of defense, ballooning into a complex federal corruption case.
As happened in other attempts, Correia was denied early release.
Reddington never got his entire $150,000 in legal fees
The trial began April 26, 2021, and between April 19, 2021, and May 10, 2021, Correia paid Reddington $7,700 until his May 14, 2021, conviction for a total of $122,700.
According to the disciplinary petition in what appears to be undisputed accounts, going into trial, and when Reddington was attempting to renegotiate the legal fees, Correia had only paid his attorney $115,000 of the agreed upon $150,000.
Related to the former mayor, the disciplinary petition accuses Reddington of using $3,000 from another client’s trust fund to pay for legal services for Correia.
According to SJC rules, Reddington could face discipline ranging from private warnings to complete disbarment for attorney misconduct.
An attempt was made to get a comment from Reddington, but he did not respond at the time of publication.
