Attorney Brian D. Kenyon of the Marshall Law Office in East Kingston, NH, has been suspended by the NH Supreme Court pending final resolution by the NH Professional Conduct Committee (PCC).
The suspension stems from allegations by the NH Attorney Discipline Office (ADO) that Kenyon, who was admitted to the NH Bar in 1978, violated a number of professional conduct rules in 2022 and 2023. The most significant allegation accuses Kenyon of failure to supervise a Paralegal at the law firm. Kenyon, who is no stranger to ethics violations, was reprimanded in 2016 for violating “duties owed to a client,” in which the ADO concluded that “Mr. Kenyon’s mental state was negligent with respect to his client.”
According to recent case documents obtained at the NH Law Library and the NH Supreme Court, the ADO alleges a number of ethics violations against Kenyon. The most significant of which is that Kenyon allegedly failed to supervise paralegal Keri J. Marshall who was a former attorney and is the current and longtime owner of the Marshall Law office. Marshall, who was admitted to the NH bar in 1987, once specialized in family law. She resigned from the NH bar while under investigation by the ADO in 2022. The specific reasoning for the ADO’s investigation of Marshall has not been disclosed.
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Marshall is no stranger to ethics violations herself. According to ADO records, she was censured in 2012 for a number of ethics violations, including directing an office employee to file an affidavit testifying that she had notified Daniel Shepard (an adverse party) of an “Assented to Motion to Continue” (agreement on rescheduling). Shepard, who was representing himself Pro Se against his ex-wife and her then-council Marshall, successfully proved that he was never notified of the Assented to Motion to Continue. Marshall was subsequently censured by the ADO with aggravating factors, including failure to fully cooperate with the ADO and failure to take responsibility for her misconduct. For her actions, Marshall received a public censure with sanctions. Marshall was permitted to continue practicing law without any suspension.
The recent allegations against Kenyon stem from two separate independent complaints by Timothy Bickford and Michael Kimball. Bickford’s complaint alleges that Kenyon, who represented his ex-wife in a recent family court matter, failed to supervise Marshall and that she, as a paralegal, was falsely representing herself as an active attorney at the Marshall Law firm. Kimball’s complaint alleges that he met alone with Marshall (a paralegal – nonattorney) at her law office in 2023, and he received legal advice from her and was subsequently billed for the meeting. He later learned that Marshall was not a licensed attorney. Kenyon, the only attorney at the firm, is responsible for the behavior of all staff members, including paralegals. These complaints to the ADO, by both Bickford and Kimball, have resulted in new accusations against Kenyon by the ADO where both Kenyon and Marshall appear to have dug themselves into a deep hole.
The ADO allegations against Kenyon and Marshall should not come as a surprise to many residing in the seacoast area. The Marshall Law office has a notorious reputation for ruthless and ignoble tactics in the realm of the family court. Online reviews on lawyers.com speak for themselves. Some of the reviews state: “She is the most dishonest person on the planet,” “She lies and encourages her clients to lie,” and “Honestly the most dishonest attorney in the state. Quick to lie and without a stitch of morals. A trust piece of subhuman garbage”, “She drags out a divorce as long as possible to make it as expensive as possible for her clients. She is always late for hearings, which costs everyone more money. She will keep the fight going as long as she possibly can, and if children are involved, she will lie”.
Presently, there are no licensed attorneys working at the Marshall Law Firm. However, the public is generally unaware of this. The Marshall Law sign still hangs in front of the law office at 47 Depot Road in East Kingston.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series when I discuss the details of the ADO allegations against Kenyon and Marshall and report on developments in ADO’s case.
