He filed pleadings, settled a divorce, handled landlord-tenant disputes and counseled DUI clients under the auspices of a genuine law firm, however, Charles R. Arrotti was not a licensed lawyer.

Mr. Arrotti, a jailhouse lawyer-turned-paralegal-turned-faux lawyer, admitted yesterday that he duped judges, clients and fellow attorneys over a two-year period. He pleaded guilty to 18 counts of unauthorized practice of law and one count of identity theft while employed as an associate for Oakmont attorney Gusty Sunseri.

Allegheny County Judge Cheryl L. Allen sentenced him to six months of house arrest and 10 years of probation, which will be supervised by officials in Westmoreland County, where he now resides.

The defendant also paid $12,820 in restitution to the law firm for services he billed to various clients.

"You are not permitted to represent yourself as a lawyer or engage in the practice of law," Judge Allen said. Mr. Arrotti said he understood.

But this was not the first time Mr. Arrotti has broken the law by pretending to defend it.

In his latest con scheme, he got a job based on a diploma he said he earned from Southern New England School of Law in 2003. He told his boss, Mr. Sunseri, he had passed the Pennsylvania Bar Exam and presented what turned out to be a false attorney number. He also stated he'd passed the bar exams in Florida, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Detective William Miller, of the county district attorney's office, said Mr. Arrotti also told his boss he was teaching an ethics class at Duquesne Law School, but no one there knew him. He later told a client that he'd worked on the Robert Blake homicide case.

Mr. Arrotti convinced a client to provide more than $3,000 of construction services at his home in exchange for legal services. He appeared in court and passed off Mr. Sunseri's business card as if it were his own.

His boss caught onto the con game around the time a detective for the district attorney's office saw him apparently posing as a lawyer before District Justice Ross Cioppa. The district attorney began tracking his legal dealings.

His rap sheet went back to 1983 when he was arrested and subsequently convicted for credit card fraud. In 1985, he was convicted of theft. In 1993, he was convicted of unauthorized practice of law and again in 1997, for theft. During several months in jail, he picked up jailhouse lawyering skills.

Despite his criminal background, he was hired as a paralegal and posed as a lawyer while working for attorney Paul Goltz, Downtown. He earned $200 a week.

As a law associate for Mr. Sunseri, he was earning $2,000 a month and taking on cases of his own.

Before sentencing, Mr. Arrotti told the judge, "I didn't benefit. I lost a tremendous opportunity."

"As I understand it, this is not the first time you made these choices. You have to suffer the consequences of the choices," Judge Allen said.