Clients

Linda Solomon was not the only person late for work yesterday morning because of snow, but she probably caught more flak than anyone else. Solomon, a social worker at the city's Adult Services Center, which places homeless people in shelters, said a client who felt he had waited too long for an interview became enraged, jumped on her desk, threatened to beat her up and then left the building - but not before throwing a brick through the...

A Voorhees car salesman was charged yesterday with bilking 80 customers with shaky credit histories and two financial institutions of as much as $1 million. Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell said Gregory Smith, a 26-year-old salesman for Stephens Chevrolet Inc. in Runnemede, falsified financial documents from July to mid-September for clients wishing to buy cars, then pocketed the loans they received for down payments on new cars. At Smith's arraignment on charges of theft by deception before Camden County Superior Court Judge Donald A. Bigley, Asbell said Smith may have been involved with a network of people.

Criticizing the jury that convicted her of pandering, Heidi Fleiss said the names of clients in her "little black book" might not be kept secret much longer. A teary-eyed, emotional Fleiss spoke with reporters, signed autographs and greeted fans over the weekend at an exposition where she peddled her line of flannel underwear, one day after a seven-man, five-woman panel convicted her of three counts of pandering. Jurors deadlocked on two other pandering charges and found her not guilty on a drug charge.

Some might call the work trash. But Paul Spiker and Christopher Bailey take it very seriously. They design the wrappers that are torn away in a frenzy to get to the food inside. Grocery shoppers see their work every time they reach for a carton of ice cream or a cup of cottage cheese. In fact, they might choose a product because of Bailey and Spiker. The package "is a product's image. It's what you want to communicate about a brand and a product," said Bailey, speaking in Bailey Spiker Inc.'s office, tucked off Montgomery Avenue in Wynnewood.

A Chester County lawyer who disappeared in January - allegedly with $175,000 of his law firm's money - was charged by a federal grand jury yesterday with defrauding nine former clients of $236,505 in insurance settlements. David C. Becker, 36, was indicted on five counts of mail fraud, 12 counts of bank fraud and one count of interstate transportation of a check taken by fraud. The indictment also charges that Becker cheated a lender to his former law firm of $39,625. The U.S. Attorney's Office said that if convicted on all counts, Becker could face a maximum sentence of 270 years in prison and a $13.5 million fine.

Oscar Gaskins, a civil rights activist and lawyer who had a number of noteworthy clients over the years, was charged yesterday with stealing close to $500,000 from some lesser known ones. Gaskins was accused of scamming $180,000 from a woman who won a medical malpractice settlement, and another $300,000 in insurance money from two sons of a widow. During his career as an attorney, Gaskins defended such clients as former mob boss Nicky Scarfo; one of the defendants in the Eddie Polec murder; and one of the developers accused of stealing money in the MOVE rebuilding.

Donald C. Carter, an adviser to prominent takeover specialists of the 1980s, pleaded guilty yesterday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan to stealing $1 million from his clients and evading and falsifying state income taxes. Ronald Goldstock, director of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, said that between 1984 and 1989 Carter routinely billed his clients for nonexistent or inflated expenses, and when questioned, supplied fraudulent documentation to justify the expenses.

When labor and employment lawyer Mike Curley noticed several years ago that the world of Big Law was focusing more on scale and profits and less on client relationships, his first thought was that wasn't the reason he had gone to law school. But then Curley, one of the nation's most prominent employment lawyers, decided maybe it was time to create his own, smaller firm, where clients would get more attention. And maybe even be friends. "I just wanted to get all of the baggage out of the way," Curley said.

No one ever likes getting bills from lawyers. They like it a lot less when times are tough. Such as now. And lawyers are feeling it now as never before: Law firms, for the first time, are finding they are not recession-proof. "I used to get calls saying, 'I want you to represent me.' Now they want information on the firm, its rate structure, the qualifications of the attorneys, and even references on occasion," said Robert Korn, senior partner with the Philadelphia firm Korn, Kline & Kutner before it dissolved last summer and he joined Starfield, Payne & Korn.

The phone was ringing off the hook when the H&R Block office in the shopping center at 23d Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia opened Monday - tax day - and the last-minute filers began streaming in, waving their paperwork and hoping the pros could make things as painless as possible. Denise Evans, a bus driver clutching her pay stubs and Form 1040-A, said she had tried to avoid paying extra. "I thought I could do this on my own this year," she said. "I looked it up on YouTube.

  A BENAA, 35, and Jamal Timazee, 46, of West Mount Airy, own Brownstone Natural Hair Salon, on South Street near 17th, which they began in 2001. Jamal oversees accounting and payroll, and Abenaa trains staff. The husband and wife also make their own natural hair products. Abenaa was recently interviewed by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry during a symposium at Penn about the politics of black-women's hair. We spoke with Abenaa. Q: How did you come up with the idea for Brownstone?

Leona Coren Ellick Kornfeld, 90, a Philadelphia social worker and advocate for those with AIDS and mental-health needs, died Saturday, March 23, of dementia and advanced age at Chandler Hall, a nursing home in Newtown, Bucks County. Before it was common, Mrs. Kornfeld made it her business to go into the community and look for those in need of help from society. She met with clients, figured out what services they were entitled to, and guided them through the application process. Clients included widows, elderly shut-ins, and those suffering from AIDS and mental illnesses, said her daughter, Carol Coren.

LOOKS LIKE Robinson Cano might be staying with the Yankees after this season. The All-Star second baseman fired his agent, Scott Boras, Tuesday and became the first athlete to sign with Roc National Sports, an agency founded by rapper Jay-Z. Robinson becomes a free agent at the end of the season. And, since Jay-Z is a huge Yankees fan, there is already some talk that he'll work on getting Cano an extension. Boras, on the other hand, almost always likes to test the free-agency waters so chances were slim that Cano, who'll make $15 million this season, would remain in New York.

Mark and Helena Guarnere learned about the addiction treatment business the hard way: As patients. "We know how it feels to sit in a chair during group therapy, trying to stay sober," says Mark, 45, who, like his wife, is a recovering alcoholic. "I was in a different treatment program six years ago, and it was very impersonal. I felt that I was just a number," Helena, 42, says. "So we rolled up our sleeves," Mark adds. The result is Lakeside Recovery Center, an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)

TULSA, Okla. - Health officials Thursday urged an Oklahoma oral surgeon's patients to undergo hepatitis and HIV testing, saying filthy conditions behind his office's spiffy facade posed a threat to his 7,000 clients and made him a "menace to the public health. " The Oklahoma Board of Dentistry said Thursday that state and county health inspectors went to W. Scott Harrington's practice after a patient with no other known risk factors tested positive for both hepatitis C and the virus that causes AIDS.

  K EITH LEAPHART, 38, of Overbrook Farms, is an osteopath-turned-entrepreneur. He owns Replica, a Center City graphic-design, digital-copying, printing and branding firm, acquired in 2009. Q: You're a trained osteopath. Why did you leave medicine? A: I'm a physician by training and entrepreneur by birth. The clinical setting was too limiting for me. I was on the staff of Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital in Malvern for about six years. I gave up my hospital privileges there in July 2011.

M ELISSA D'AGOSTINO, 32, of Germantown, uses hand-dyeing techniques to create her artsy women's-wear line. D'Agostino Fashion Textile Design also custom-made Philadelphia first lady Lisa Nutter's formal dress for President Obama's inaugural ball. Q: What's your background? A:I'm a graduate of Moore College of Art & Design. I was formerly a hand-block fabric printer at a textile-and-lighting studio. My textiles started as works of art and wall hangings, and the fabrics evolved into products I could sell.

Two South Jersey home care companies merged last month to form Home to Stay L.L.C., a Cherry Hill firm with 150 employees and 125 clients, the company said. Assisted Living at Home, the larger company, with 80 clients, bought Home to Stay Health Care Solutions for an undisclosed amount. The deal was completed on Feb. 17. Home to Stay serves the elderly and the disabled in Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Ocean, Mercer, Atlantic and Cape May Counties, the company said.