Michimich.com - Detroit Lawyer Steals 0,000 Settlement Meant to Protect Child

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He was supposed to fight for her family. Instead, Tabatha Kerr's lawyer stole a $600,000 settlement meant for her child.

LIVONIA, Mich. - Michimich -- Prominent Detroit attorney Greg Rohl was disbarred effective Oct. 1, 2026 by the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board (ADB) for embezzling the family's money and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $659,821.44. Rohl's law-firm webpage was taken down Friday and he was unavailable for comment.

Kerr's three-year-old daughter, Lilliana, died on Jan. 20, 2017, when a 350-pound cafeteria table fell from its wall casing and killed her while attending the Head Start program at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in Dearborn Heights.

For nearly 10 years, the 39-year-old Kerr has worked as a safety advocate to push for Lilliana's Law in Michigan. The proposed legislation aims to require annual health and safety inspections for all public and private school facilities and mandate a statewide registry for school safety incidents.

Kerr's "grassroot initiatives" have included gathering 32,278 signatures to persuade lawmakers to pass Lilliana's Law and producing a 510-page research book illustrating how children are at risk in schools in Michigan and the U.S.

"My daughter dies and now this," Tabatha Kerr said on the "More Than Just Luck" podcast hosted by author and Detroit businessman Greg Wier.

"My lawyer consented to disbarment over fraud and deceit and a whole bunch of other stuff after stealing my kid's money. It just makes me feel like my kids have never mattered. But they matter to me. It doesn't matter if I don't matter. But my kids matter."

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In the notice of disbarment and restitution, Rohl pleaded no contest to "misappropriating and failing to distribute court-ordered shares" in the wrongful-death settlement.

The ruling also said he engaged in conduct that "exposes the legal profession to contempt, censure or reproach" and was "contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals."

"I've been struggling a lot," Kerr said. "After my daughter died, I had to reteach myself how to function. I used to love to cook but to this day I struggle because I still have four plates . . .

"My oldest (Jayden) is 19 and Lilliana's twin (Tieranie) is 13. Their entire childhood has been watching me fight our government to get accountability. These kids have never seen justice. Not once."

This wasn't the first run-in with the law for Rohl, a veteran, high-profile attorney who worked on Dr. Jack Kevorkian's litigation defense team with lawyer Geoffrey Fieger in the 1990s before opening his first law office in Novi in 1994.

2024: Reprimanded for improperly supervising employees in his office which resulted in a five-year delay in providing a client with settlement funds she was entitled to receive.
2021: Sanctioned by U.S. District Judge Linda Parker for filing a frivolous, evidence-free lawsuit in 2020 and pushing a "false narrative of widespread election fraud."
2016: Suspended and convicted of disorderly conduct and malicious use of telecommunications services.

"We disbarred him on Oct. 1, a Friday and on Monday, Oct. 5, my birthday, I started really calling and I'm in tears and I called all throughout that week, two different county prosecutors, two different county attorney generals, probably over 10 or 12 different law jurisdiction counties, including the state and the marshall, and I keep on getting the runaround," she said.

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"Hopefully, by today, I will hear from my lawyer and see if anyone gives a damn about my kids because my kids didn't do anything wrong. You can put me down underneath a building, I don't care.

"For my entire life, I didn't have many friends. I grew up poor. My hair is all crazy, my clothes never fit and then my kid dies. I promised my daughter that I would fight until my very last breath and unfortunately I'm still here, fighting."

Wier, who is also documenting the physical and sexual abuse at Vista Maria's all-girls treatment center in Dearborn Heights, said "he was at a loss for words" how Kerr's message could "fall on deaf ears."

"What would drive an organization, or in this case a school system or legislators not to support something that would seem obvious?" Wier said.

"It's the liability," Kerr said.

"It goes back to money," he said.

"It does," she said.

"Because now these schools are older, the infrastructure is breaking down . . . " Wier said.

"It's more cost effective to sacrifice our children than to fix the problem," Kerr said.

To support "Lilliana's Law: Eliminating Dangerous Equipment from Education Spaces," you can go to Kerr's webpage at https://c.org/LbnXWvCSB5

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