by Richard W. Millar, Jr.

Bill Granger was the author of a series of thrillers in the 1980s and early 1990s featuring his hero known mostly by the moniker “the November Man.” The premise of the name was that the man’s appearance was so undistinguished (November being a gray and murky month) that no one could remember what he looked like, thus making him an effective spy. One of his novels was made into a movie released in 2014 and starring Pierce Brosnan.

More recently, author Mark Greaney has penned a series of thrillers about his protagonist, Court Gentry, a former CIA agent now known as “the Gray Man,” who largely avoids detection because he, too, is of undistinguished mien. One of his novels also was made into a movie called “The Gray Man” and starring Ryan Gosling, describing him as “trained to be a ghost, to exist in the gray.”

I have read both Granger and Greaney and have seen both movies. I am, admittedly, a fan.

I have also read untold numbers of books about lawyers, fictional and real, and if I were ever to get off my metaphorical couch and write a book, it would, no doubt, feature lawyers and the legal system. But lawyers, real and fictional, ply their profession in the light and purposely, or by happenstance, are well known. It would not occur to me to write about a lawyer no one could find.

That is, of course, until now.

That brings me to one Daryl Bobby Fenton of, perhaps, Miami.

Mr. Fenton was admitted to the Florida bar April 14, 2020. He was “ineligible” to practice from November 15, 2023 to November 27, 2023 because of his failure to complete MCLE requirements.

However, on November 21, 2023, which for those of you whose memory is worse than mine, was during his brief ineligibility, he filed a Notice of Appearance in a Florida criminal case.

The next day, November 22, he filed a Petition for Reinstatement with the Florida Bar in which he averred that he did not practice law, nor give legal advice, during the period of his ineligibility. This incongruity did not go unnoticed by the Bar folks, but Mr. Fenton failed to “respond to multiple requests from the Bar to explain the discrepancy in his petition for reinstatement with the filing of his Notice of Appearance.”

On December 2, 2023, in a different criminal matter, he “filed a Notice of Appearance, written plea of not guilty, demand for discovery, and demand for trial by jury.” On the day set for trial, January 17, 2024, Mr. Fenton’s client appeared, but Mr. Fenton was missing. The defendant client told the court that he had no contact with Mr. Fenton who had not answered his phone calls. The judge called Mr. Fenton at the phone number listed on his pleadings and at a different number he had listed on his Bar profile without success.

The judge then reset the matter for January 24 and emailed notice to Mr. Fenton, telling him that the court expected him to show up for the new trial date.

It will come as no surprise to learn that January 24 came and went without word or appearance from Mr. Fenton. As a result, the judge discharged Mr. Fenton, appointed the Public Defender to represent the defendant, and reported the situation to the Florida Bar.

The Bar’s investigator went to Mr. Fenton’s listed address which, and I am not making this up, turned out to be an Irish bar called the “Auld Dubliner Irish Pub and Kitchen.”

The record does not indicate whether he was, or was not, known to the Auld Dubliner, but only that it “was not authorized to receive [his] mail.”

The investigator did track down another address, but Mr. Fenton had been evicted shortly before the investigator’s arrival.

On October 31, 2024, the Bar held a “final hearing,” at which Mr. Fenton did not appear “despite having been properly noticed multiple times.”

On February 6, 2025, the Supreme Court of Florida formally disbarred him.

It is unknown whether either the Bar or the court ever found Mr. Fenton.

The more I think about it, I may write a book. As we lawyers are given to surplusage, I may call it:
The Gray November Lawyer.

Richard W. Millar, Jr. is tired and retired. He can be reached at dickmillar9@gmail.com.