Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Keith M. Davidson become a lawyer?
For the next two years Davidson worked in government, with the state legislature and later at the Plymouth County district attorney's office. He began applying to law schools, and was accepted at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California. After moving cross-country to study there, he graduated in 2000 and was admitted to the California bar at the end of the year.[6]
Around the same time that Davidson was finalizing the deal between McDougal and AMI, he was representing another woman who alleged a contemporaneous affair with Trump: adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, known onscreen as Stormy Daniels. In that case the counterparty was Trump himself, represented by Cohen.[20] Davidson told CNN he had first represented her in this matter when gossip site TheDirty.com reported rumors of the relationship in 2011.[7] Ultimately she received $130,000 for her silence; at that time he denied rumors of the affair.[20]
Davidson was the attorney for the shell company. He told The Smoking Gun later that while he did represent "the content owner", whom he declined to identify, for some of that time, that was the extent of his involvement with ParisExposed. However, some of the programmers who had worked on digitizing the media and developing the site's code recalled that Davidson had been in charge of the effort to the exclusion of anyone else, although they were not sure he did not have outside investors.[6]
Their new lawyer, Sean Bral, reviewed the settlement and audited the records of the payments, which went from Sheen to Davidson's client trust account, then to Montgomery and Davidson, with smaller portions to Blatt and Quinlan. He came to believe that Davidson had committed several ethical violations in order to make more than his $800,000 share of the settlement, money which he likely needed given his recent financial difficulties. Davidson, Bral alleged, had billed Montgomery more than her stay in rehab had actually cost, taken more money at the beginning than he was entitled to and shared his fees with non-lawyers (Blatt and Quinlan), a practice the California bar prohibits. He had also modified their agreement on the sharing of the settlement without giving her a chance to have another lawyer review it.[9]
Davidson settled a legal malpractice case brought by a woman who said that not only had he made false claims in her legal pleadings, he had apparently lost interest in her tort case against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office when he learned her injuries were not as severe as he had originally believed and thus would not have earned him a high contingency fee. Clients in several other cases charged that Davidson had mishandled their cases, and/or put his interests above their own; they also recalled that, in his ads and personal consultations, Davidson had represented his firm as employing dozens of talented and skilled lawyers when he in fact employed only a single paralegal. A couple suing the state over an injury their son received at a state mental hospital learned that Davidson's repeated failure to appear on their behalf had led the judge to dismiss their case a long time after that had happened.[6]
When Avenatti was able to review the complaint the next business day, he did not share details but said "being named in this lawsuit is frivolous and complete bullshit." He moved to have it unsealed, suggesting that he was included on the basis that he had leaked the agreement to the media after Davidson shared it with him. However, he said, Davidson had shared it without any inquiry on his part, and, Avenatti claims, never told him any of it was confidential.[28]
These cases resulted in three complaints against Davidson to the state bar. In 2010 he accepted culpability for incompetence in the practice of law and willful violations of professional rules, including mishandling client funds and failure to keep a client informed of the progress of their case; he was suspended from practicing law for two years, to be followed by three years' probation requiring attendance at an ethics class and regular updates from other lawyers. However, after other lawyers filed letters of their own with the bar noting his lack of prior misconduct and "overall honesty", that suspension was reduced to 90 days.[6][lower-alpha 4] Davidson says that the neglected cases that led to the suspension were the result of being "spread a little too thin."[7]
In a 2018 court proceeding, Cohen said he had given legal advice to only three clients in 2017: Donald Trump, Sean Hannity, and Elliott Broidy. In late 2017, Cohen arranged the $1.6 million payment by Broidy to Bechard as part of a nondisclosure agreement requiring Bechard to keep silent about the matter. Cohen was Broidy's attorney and Keith M. Davidson represented Bechard. Davidson had previously been the attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. The Bechard nondisclosure agreement used the same pseudonyms - David Dennison for the man and Peggy Peterson for the woman - as in the Daniels agreement. The payments were to be made in installments.
A month remained in the suspension when Davidson began contacting Sheen's attorney, to negotiate a settlement and demand at least a million dollars in payment, details that later emerged when Sheen sued Anderson, without naming Davidson either as defendant or in the complaint but describing his role in detail, arguing she was attempting to extort him. Davidson also arranged for Anderson to appear on Good Morning America to discuss her case and sat next to her on camera as she did. Davidson told Smoking Gun reporter William Bastone that he had been very careful not to violate the terms of his suspension and did not think these actions did.[6]
Davidson's wife, Kristi, is a registered nurse. They have two sons and live near Lake Sherwood, in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles.[5] He is reportedly an avid golfer in his spare time.[9]
There have been other complaints about Davidson's adherence to legal ethics. The State Bar of California suspended his license in 2010 for incompetence in representing a client and other willful violations of rules of professional conduct after several incidents reported to it; a two-year suspension was reduced to 90 days. However, a report in The Smoking Gun alleged that even during that short period Davidson continued to practice law, and detailed many other questionable practices on his part, such as possibly splitting fees with non-lawyers like a TMZ assistant producer who referred clients to him.[5]
Davidson characterized the Gawker post as a "shot across the bow" from his clients, saying that there was more where that had come from,[13] and made what Houston characterized as less discreet threats. He and Hogan reported Davidson's efforts to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which believed there was enough evidence to suggest that he and his clients might be trying to extort money from the wrestler. Houston began letting the FBI eavesdrop on and record his telephone conversations with Davidson. He did not, however, make any clearly incriminating statements or threats as they negotiated what he believed would be a $300,000 settlement, and balked at including language in the agreement that seemed to him to be a confession.[12]
After being detained and questioned, Burbridge and Davidson were released with the understanding that federal prosecutors would be reviewing the case and might yet file charges. Davidson texted Loyd, who was elsewhere, and told him what had happened. He advised Loyd to retain separate counsel since he now had a conflict of interest as a target of the same investigation.[12]
The cash payment was only $150,000, from which Davidson would take his cut, but AMI would also give her a chance to write two years worth of columns on women's health and wellness both in print and online, with two cover appearances on their magazines, including Men's Fitness, where she had appeared after winning Playmate of the Year. Although she says she made clear several times that she did not yet fully understand the contract, Davidson allegedly told her to sign and return it within hours of receipt. However, she heard nothing from AMI afterwards;[16] only on later review did she discover that the contract only gave AMI the option to run columns under her name and likeness, a detail she claims Davidson did not tell her.[17]
William H. Davidson was an American businessman and politician who was the acting Lieutenant Governor of Illinois from December 9, 1836 to December 7, 1838. Davidson, who had been serving as the senator from White County, Illinois, replaced Alexander M. Jenkins when Jenkins resigned the Lieutenant Governor's office to become president of the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1838, Davidson lost a reelection bid to Stinson H. Anderson. 
Since Davidson had represented only himself in the case, he said, he claimed he was not violating the terms of his suspension, although he did not answer a question as to whether Tequila's boyfriend, also a defendant and the original owner of the tape, had been represented by separate counsel. However, shortly afterward Capri Anderson, another adult-film actress who alleged that she had been assaulted by Charlie Sheen, was referred to Davidson, and he began acting on her behalf in ways that appeared to The Smoking Gun to constitute practicing law.[6]
Some of the lawyers who have represented counterparties in negotiations with Davidson speak well of him. "For the niche he has carved out—which I guess most people would shy away from—he's always struck me as honorable and a man of his word", Mark Geragos, who estimated to The Smoking Gun that he has represented celebrities on whom Davidson's clients have material approximately 10 times, told Bastone. "He's more interested in making money for his clients rather than getting publicity for himself", said Martin Singer, attorney for Charlie Sheen. Cohen told Redden that Davidson had "always been professional, ethical and a true gentleman."[8]
Tila Tequila alleged that Davidson had threatened to market a sex tape she and her former boyfriend had made on a 2008 vacation overseas if she did not consent to it. If she did, she claimed he said, she would get a share of the proceeds as other celebrities had with sex tapes of themselves. However, Tequila had two new adult films coming out, and neither she nor Vivid Entertainment, the production company, wanted to compete with themselves.[6]
According to the Journal's account, after Bechard retained Davidson, he got in touch with Cohen. Campos found this a strange thing for Davidson to do since Broidy was not a client of Cohen's, and Cohen therefore had no obligation to keep the information about the affair confidential. "[The call] had no conceivable legal justification, and was profoundly counterproductive to Davidson's client's interest." He also found it strange that Broidy, a man whose name was not widely known outside New York's financial community, would pay much more than Trump had for the silence of a past liaison, and retain a lawyer he did not know (when he already knew many who could have effectively represented him) who had called him on his own initiative about a claim which Bechard had, according to Broidy, provided no proof of, then quickly confess after the case became public knowledge. Campos believed it was much more plausible that it was Trump who had impregnated Bechard and paid to keep the abortion from becoming public knowledge to avoid alienating evangelical Christians who had been critical to his election.[25]
Before McDougal left her Arizona home for Los Angeles, Davidson told her that AMI had already put half a million dollars into escrow for her. At AMI, vice president Dylan Howard had her retell all the details of the affair for two hours. But afterwards Davidson told her that the company was not interested, and that there had in fact never been any money in escrow. Only later, she claimed, did she learn that Davidson had called Michael Cohen, one of Trump's lawyers, about her conversation with AMI;[16] Davidson called it "a professional courtesy".[7]
Keith M. Landy was a Canadian lawyer and former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
Before Davidson's suspension ended, two celebrities had named him in lawsuits.[6]
While he has downplayed the role that that business plays in his legal practice,[9] he is aware that has defined him and that he has been seen as the lawyer to retain in these cases.[7] On the recorded conversations in the Hulk Hogan case he is heard telling David Houston, Hogan's attorney, that these cases are "my specialty";[8] Houston said he was "amazed that there was a lawyer actually making a living doing this".[2] Both Bastone, who reported on what seemed to him like an effort on Davidson's part to blackmail him out of writing his story, and Redden likened him to Saul Goodman, the profit-driven lawyer in the TV series Breaking Bad who helps launder profits from illegal drug sales.[5][8] Kevin Blatt, who had referred some clients to Davidson in the early 2010s, now no longer does because "he flies too close to the fucking sun".[5]
Hogan, Houston and Davidson met in a Florida hotel room to finalize the deal. Davidson brought the discs, and the other two brought $150,000 in cash, the first installment of the settlement. FBI agents in the next room were listening in and preparing to make an arrest. In a private conversation, Davidson admitted to Houston that the tapes had originally come from a disgruntled former employee of Clem's, without naming Loyd, and that he did not know whether they had been stolen nor was he interested in knowing.[12]
Davidson arranged for Montgomery to enter a rehabilitation facility owned by a friend and paid her cash advances afterwards. Eventually he negotiated a $2 million settlement with Sheen, payable in installments over the next five years as long as she kept the actor's HIV status to herself. After Montgomery and De Anda married in 2013, they fired Davidson.[9]