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report scam| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| City | Allentown |
| Address | 1037 North 28th Street |
| Phone | (484) 241-5529 |
| Website | https://www.alignable.com/allentown-pa/uslawdesk-services |
USLawdesk Services Reviews
This is a complaint alleging fraud against a 77-year-old Upwork freelancer named John J. Keller, who operates freely on UPWORK (upwork.com) claiming to be an “expert” legal researcher and writer through three decades of legal service as an alleged licensed lawyer (PA lawyer ID 10282).
On April 20, 2023, based on his posted qualifications, I hired Keller on the UPWORK platform to draft an Opposition to Dismiss Official Capacity claims, along with editing a Second Amended Complaint (SAC) with motion, which all had to be filed on May 2. I sent all basic documents for the Opposition motion to review that same day. Keller accepted the project with those conditions on April 22, so it became a legally binding contract.
On April 22, I sent him a draft of the SAC and asked him only to edit Counts 1-10 (para. 166-270). On April 24, I also sent my first draft of the Opposition to Dismiss Official Capacity claims to help out. On April 26, I summarized again the key project elements I needed finished before May 2.
On April 28, I asked how soon I could get Counts 1-10 of the SAC returned to me; on April 29, Keller responded he could get 1-10 to me that day, but only sent me para. 1-20 on April 30 (of which only the first paragraph was ‘edited), which I specifically asked him NOT to touch, so his changes to those 20 paragraphs were unauthorized and useless. On May 1 he admitted that he had misunderstood what he was asked to do, but still billed time doing unauthorized work, and sent nothing more.
On May 2 (the due date) he claimed he did not have the Motion To Dismiss to draft an Opposition reply to, which I had sent him on April 20. Keller was so befuddled that he continued to misplace my files and did not start work on the Opposition Memo until the day it was due. If I had not written a draft on my own in advance, I would have been lost. When he got around to looking at my work, he said it was "fine" and only edited 5 paragraphs--adding no case law or research, but just keeping my work as is. Keller did not send the SAC until two days after the deadline on May 4, and did not finish it, jumping from Count 5 on page 54 to FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION on page 57, not even bothering to check changes to paragraph links or correct his own errors, but leaving my work “in close similarity to before,” meaning he had done as little work as possible.
Keller’s work diary on UPWORK claimed he did 31 hours of billable work over 10 days from April 22 through May 4, falsely claiming on each day that he had performed “legal research” and was drafting “docs for filing in court,” although the chat transcript shows he did not start work until May 2; the work submitted includes no legal research at all, other than my own, and he just made cosmetic changes to my original work product. Thus, in the end I paid Keller through UPWORK a total of $2401.88 / €2245.67 (invoices T577195084 and T577195138 on April 24 for $420/€393.63; invoices T579189872 and T579189900 on May 2 for $800.63/€749.30; and invoices T581232702 and T581232760 on May 8 for $1181.25/€1102.74) for specific tasks he did not perform or complete on time.
In fact, I did all the work on my own, and got nothing of value in return--just long emails claiming not to have materials already in his possession. I ended the contract and filed a dispute with an UPWORK mediator; the mediator found “It is important to note that the freelancer missed completing the project on time . . . We recommend that the freelancer kindly considers issuing a refund of $1143.75 to the client, equivalent to half of the disputed amount.” Keller returned no money, but offered $300 in 2 to 3 weeks, claiming he needed to ‘support his family.’
No money was ever refunded. Keller breached the terms of the contract, engaged in fraudulent conduct by charging for hours that were not requested or performed, ignored the mediator’s recommendations, inflicted damage by missing deadlines, and then blocked a negative review of his shoddy and dishonest performance in order to falsify his job success rating on UPWORK as 100%, even though in my case I rated his success as 0%.
After doing research on him online, I contacted the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s website (https://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/), where I discovered he had been disbarred or suspended from the practice of law three times for professional misconduct—disbarred in 1986 for stealing money from 2 clients for his own use, suspended on an emergency basis in 2008, and formally disbarred by consent in 2014, after admitting the 2008 charges against him were true. In the 2014 docket, it indicated that Keller had been indicted on 17 counts of wire fraud, convicted by jury on 12 counts, sentenced to 57 months in prison on each count (served concurrently), placed under supervised release for 3 years, and ordered to pay $225,000 in restitution to the client whose funds he had used “to pay employee salaries, purchase office supplies and obtain cash for his personal use.” None of this information was disclosed on his UPWORK account, and I would not have hired him had I known he was a convicted felon with a long record of stealing money and being engaged in fraudulent activities. As he engaged in fraud, that fraud voids all contracts made with him on UPWORK and compels me to request a full refund not only based on that fraud, but for his breach of contract, falsifying work records, and taking money for services not performed.
While continuing his misrepresentation on UPWORK, he also offers paralegal services through his one-man company, US Lawdesk, (https://www.alignable.com/allentown-pa/uslawdesk-services), but states there that the services offered include “legal research and writing for law firms, government and business organizations, and selected projects; legal memoranda, appellate briefs, complex pleadings; federal and state,” which smacks of practicing law, although he is disbarred. A check with 2 national paralegal organizations (NALA, NFPA) confirm Keller is not licensed as a paralegal; inasmuch as it is my understanding that paralegals are only allowed to operate under the supervision of a licensed attorney, and Keller is disbarred, he is supervising himself, so his pattern of misrepresentation continues unabated.
My recommendation is to shun this guy and his company like the plague, as, on information and belief, he has a history of dishonest conduct and has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients.