DePerno is best known for defending former state Rep. Todd Courser after a 2015 sex scandal cover up and challenging Antrim County election results in a failed lawsuit that spawned ongoing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
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The Antrim County case made DePerno a national figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the election but prompted criticism from a Republican-led Michigan Senate panel that accused him of making false claims for personal profit, echoing allegations that marred DePerno’s legal career nearly two decades earlier.
As a tax attorney who worked primarily in Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties, his legal career has been marked by discord. DePerno was fired from one law firm, fought over client records after leaving a second firm and was accused of assaulting a client amid a fee dispute, according to court documents and transcripts reviewed by Bridge.
DePerno “committed fraud, deceit and dishonesty with regards to bogus billing, duplicate billing and write offs, in addition to other wrongful acts,” his former law firm — Kreis, Enderle, Calendar and Hudgins PC – alleged in a 2006 legal filing.
Those allegations, contained in never-before-reported documents out of Kalamazoo County Circuit Court, were only made public because DePerno sued the firm in an attempt to cash out his shares and transfer the lease on a company vehicle that was repossessed after his firing.
The sides eventually settled out of court in 2008. In an interview Tuesday, DePerno told Bridge he and colleagues had a “dispute on where the firm was going” but resolved the case with “mutual satisfaction.” He declined to discuss specific allegations, citing the secrecy agreement.
In his original complaint, DePerno alleged he was wrongfully fired from his $110,000 job because he had raised questions about the financial operations of the firm. He alleged “oppression of a minority shareholder” and said his termination caused “extreme mental anguish, emotional distress, shock and humiliation.”
In a related case, involving a malpractice claim against DePerno, he argued the Kreis Enderle firm “invented a claim of misconduct” to deny him state unemployment benefits. DePerno was able to obtain jobless assistance by presenting paperwork to the state indicating he was fired for failing “to promote a harmonious relationship with the firm,” not fraud.
But court records show law firm colleagues confronted DePerno in October 2005 and presented him with evidence detailed in a “confidential memo” included in public filings, along with 190 pages of internal billing documents.
DePerno had “padded” billings, claimed “excessive” write offs, “manipulated” the firm’s timekeeping system and logged hours with no explanation, according to the interoffice memo prepared by Kreis Enderle administrator Mike Beam.
In at least one instance, DePerno “admitted that he falsified billing to …….
