California Bar wants to get 'proactive' in attorney discipline cases

by Karen Sloan

(Reuters) - Leaders of the State Bar of California said Monday that they have implemented changes to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel, which investigates and prosecutes attorney disciplinary matters, with more reforms on the way.

Those efforts include increasing staff, including the addition of a full-time administrator and a forensic auditor, and increasing pay for outside lawyers hired to investigate attorney complaints.

The office is also rolling out new ways to proactively identify potential lawyer misconduct instead of relying solely on complaints, officials added at a press conference highlighting the changes.

The bar will seek to identify attorney misconduct risk factors, then provide support for lawyers before they get into trouble, said state bar executive director Leah Wilson.

“This move into proactive regulation is new for the bar,” she said. But she and other bar leaders acknowledged that it will take more than minor changes to rebuild public trust in their organization.

Each state is responsible for regulating lawyer conduct. California has the second-largest population of lawyers behind New York, and its disciplinary system has been beset by years of critical audits and high-profile scandals, in particular surrounding the downfall of prominent plaintiffs’ lawyer Tom Girardi.

Girardi, who is accused by a rival law firm of using settlement funds meant for the families of victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash to fund a lavish lifestyle, was the subject of numerous complaints over the past four decades, but the bar allowed him to keep his license. The bar ordered an outside investigation of its handling of complaints against Girardi, who was disbarred in June.

State audits have for years raised red flags about delays in attorney misconduct investigations, case backlogs and low rates of discipline. The latest audit found that the bar too often resolves allegations of lawyer misconduct behind closed doors and does not consistently address conflicts of interest with lawyers who come under investigation.

Bar leaders said Monday that they are implementing the audit’s recommendations for improvements. They also said they are looking to address racial disparities in attorney discipline, as well as the perception that the bar is reluctant to pursue disciplinary charges against lawyers at large firms.

“While we have done much, let me be clear. We have more work to do” to reform the disciplinary system, Ruben Duran, chair of the bar's board of trustees, said Monday.

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California Bar wants to get 'proactive' in attorney discipline cases

State Audit: California Bar Put Public at 'Significant Risk'

A recent state audit raises serious questions about the California state bar's ability to protect consumers. The state bar is in charge of investigating and disciplining attorneys, but a 75-page state audit found major problems with the way the bar worked to clear a huge backlog of disciplinary cases against thousands of attorneys. The result, according to the California State Auditor's Office's, was "the State Bar allowed some attorneys whom it otherwise might have disciplined more severely – or even disbarred – to continue practicing law, at significant risk to the public."

According to the audit, the backlog of disciplinary cases topped 5,174 cases in 2010, "prompting the state bar to take steps to quickly reduce it." While the state bar managed to decrease the backlog by 66 percent within a year, the audit revealed that "speedier resolutions" came at a cost as the State Bar began issuing less severe punishments to attorneys. As a result, the Bar dismissed more cases and settled others with written reprimands that may stay hidden in a lawyer's discipline file.

"That's working your numbers to try and look good, even when you're potentially hurting consumers," said Ed Howard, an attorney with the Center for Public Interest Law, a government watchdog group that monitors state boards and agencies.

"The state bar does not do in any way shape or form, the kind of job – when it comes to disciplining lawyers – that Californians deserve and Californians expect," said Howard, who has previously testified before the California legislature to voice his criticism of the California Bar.

State Bar: "Unviable" Policies Caused "Crisis”

"We need to get our house in order," said Leah Wilson, the newly named Chief Operating Officer of the California Bar.

Wilson acknowledged the problems facing the bar, and said a 2011 policy requiring a "zero-backlog" of complaints was to blame for the Bar's ultimate failure in adequately disciplining attorneys.

"That focus on backlog reduction, absent the infusion of significant resources, was bound to result in that type of crisis that you saw reflected in the audit," Wilson said. "It just was just an unviable situation."

The audit found that "since 2007, the State Bar has changed its backlog goal four times: from 200, to 250, to zero, to less than 15 percent of all active cases (its current goal). While the State Bar has met its current backlog goal since it was implemented in 2011, the audit found that the backlog of complaints has increased each year since that time, "indicating that the goal may not be effective in reducing the overall backlog."

While Wilson said the bar agreed with the audit's recommendations, she was only hired five months ago – after the audit was released – and repeatedly told the Investigative Unit she could not answer certain questions concerning the audit's findings.

"I don't want to speak for what happened when I wasn't here," she said. "We're going to focus on fixing the underlying structural problems or conditions that caused that problem to occur."

Wilson said approval from supervising attorneys is now required before most disciplinary cases against attorneys can be settled. The state bar is also in the process of trying to determine how to best restructure its staff to adequately handle complaints while also minimizing its backlog. According to Wilson, that plan will be presented to the state legislature in May.

Woman Blames Former Attorney For Leaving Her Bankrupt

Katherine Roberts says the additional oversight should have been in place long ago, and if it were, that might have helped her with her former attorney Drexel Bradshaw. She says her legal troubles began in 2004 after trying to fight an eviction from her San Francisco home.

"I ended up in one day losing my apartment and being a half million dollars in debt," Roberts said. 

"It's been extraordinarily painful."  (Continue Reading)

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State Audit: California Bar Put Public at 'Significant Risk'