WOODSTOCK, Va. (WHSV) – Former Shenandoah County Supervisor and Woodstock attorney Brad Pollack has had his law license revoked by the Virginia State Bar. On October 25, a panel of three judges found that he had violated the rules of professional conduct. Pollack is currently barred from practicing law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

WHSV spoke with Pollack on Monday to get his side of the story.

The misconduct allegations against Pollack stem from his representation of Kathleen Kearney, an elderly Clarke County woman, beginning in February 2023. The state bar accused him of filing a conservatorship petition in bad faith and making statements false in Clarke County Circuit Court.

In February 2023, Kearney and a younger friend acting as her caretaker hired Pollack to help Kearney with a reverse mortgage and to collect money allegedly owed by her brother on a note lottery winner.

“We started trying to help her and the younger woman disappeared. She went on vacation and left Ms. Kearney in a difficult situation in her home, so we tried to take care of her,” Pollack said. “Once it was pretty clear that the original boyfriend had abandoned her, Kathleen signed me a power of attorney. I took over some of her affairs, didn’t get very far, did nothing and took nothing until the old friend showed up again and basically took over Mrs. Kearney’s life again.”

Shenandoah County Circuit Court records for Pollack’s foreclosure case show that Kearney signed a power of attorney on July 6, 2023. Records also show that Kearney revoked Pollack’s power of attorney on July 12, 2023, and that an order was filed of rape against Pollack.

Pollack said that shortly after that, Kearney was placed in a nursing home because her health had deteriorated and Kearney’s girlfriend was causing problems, and she was transferred from Kearney’s nursing home and released a social services inquiry into the woman.

In the weeks after that, Pollack said, a mutual friend of his and Kearney’s told him that Kearney had been placed in a nursing home and needed help. Pollack also claimed that Kearney called him asking for help despite the fact that he had already revoked his power of attorney.

“Because of all this back and forth with the power of attorney and this woman being confused, I suggested a petition to appoint a conservatorship and guardianship to let the court take over her affairs. This supervisor from the Clarke County Department of Social Services wrote in writing, “A great idea,” Pollack said.

Pollack filed the petition on July 21, 2023. However, the petition was never served. Pollack said no one else was given power of attorney over Kearney and she was found to be mentally challenged when his power of attorney was revoked, so she was included as a purported power of attorney in the petition.

“I was not taking advantage of the fact that I had power of attorney, I was withdrawing from what I purported to be a legitimate power of attorney and submitting it to the court for the court to decide,” Pollack said. “But somehow the court thought that even though Mrs Kearney had mental health problems and a doctor testified about it last week, it was a valid revocation and I misrepresented myself to the court. That’s what it’s all about.”

The state bar said that by saying he had power of attorney, Pollack misrepresented himself to Clarke County Circuit Court. Court records show the bar also noted that he did not mention the revocation of his power of attorney or the notice of violation against him.

“It doesn’t matter if I had a valid power of attorney or not. The bottom line was that I turn her care over to the court, the bottom line is that the Clark County Circuit Court found that my petition was filed in good faith and in her best interest,” Pollack said.

Court documents show the State Bar also subpoenaed Pollack’s three previous license suspensions as a reason for withdrawing the permit. Pollack said he would not have been disbarred if not for his record as a lawyer.

“My history goes back 30 years to trying to help Lonnie Lloyd, a mentally disabled man, and his mentally disabled brother who had been swindled out of their 116-acre farm by the Shenandoah Caverns Interchange,” he Pollack said.

Pollack said many in the Valley legal community have been looking to catch him since that case 30 years ago.

“I don’t think I’m a popular guy in the legal community because of that, because of these other minor things that I’ve been through in the last couple of years. One was the money I was earning that I didn’t technically put into my trust account before my operating account. This is usually a warning, but for me it was a suspension. Then the last suspension was because I believed my client who said she filed a brief, but she didn’t,” he said.

Pollack said he believes many in the legal community also targeted him for his involvement in conservative politics and his legal fight against the original 2020 Stonewall Jackson High School name change and other school name changes.

“I’m very politically unpopular and that may have contributed to this effort. Now, in no way do I want to attribute any politics to the actions of the court, but to the actions of the people who have fed things to the bar and the bar itself, I don’t know where they stand politically, but that was one hell of an endurance match for me,” said Pollack. “Basically, I was forbidden to help people and that’s what I did. That’s gotten me into trouble for three decades here in Shenandoah County, and now I can’t help people.”

Pollack said the State Bar may reconsider its case in the next few weeks. If not, he has the right to appeal to try to get his law license back.

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