How Do You Solve A Problem Like John Eastman?*
The State Bar of California announced this week that it had initiated a State Bar Investigation into John Eastman, former Champman University professor and a principal Trump legal advisor following the...
View ArticlePublic Protection Zealotry: Is There a Limit?
No one expects this. Lawyer disciplinary proceedings exist to protect the public. This value is enshrined in California Business and Professions Code section 6001.1: Protection of the public, which...
View ArticleState Bar: Transparency for Thee But Not For Me
There is a lot of information on the State Bar of California website. But one thing you will not find. You won’t find decisions from the Hearing Department of the State Bar Court. The State Bar Court...
View Article12,000 Days Later – What I Have Learned About Legal Ethics
It has been said that every problem looks like a nail if the only tool you have is a hammer. The point of that jape is that we are all prisoners of our own experience. Experience is the tool we use to...
View ArticleState Bar Ad Hoc Commission Votes for Fairness; OCTC Takes a Powder
The State Bar’s Ad Hoc Commission on the Discipline System met on June 1, 2022. In a series of lopsided votes the Commission voted to make sweeping changes to the discipline system to make it fairer....
View ArticleLegislature Chills Non-Lawyer Participation in Providing Legal Services
Independence is often referred to as one of the core values of the legal profession. This value is reflected in American Bar Association Model Rule 5.4, entitled “Professional Independence of A...
View ArticleDunn Undone
Ever have one of those nightmares where you wake up in sheer terror, breath a sign of relief that it is over, go back to sleep…..and plunge right back into it? The news this week that the State Bar of...
View ArticleThe Widening Gyre of Girardi-gate*
Like a Category 5 hurricane can spin off tornados, the widening gyre of Girardi-gate* is spinning off its own series of notable if not controversial agitations, including: *Forgive me the “gate” cliche...
View ArticleState Bar’s Annual Discipline Report Fails to Answer The Big Question
The State Bar of California 2022 Annual Discipline Report is out and it raises a question: how do you measure the thing that didn’t happen? The numbers we are presented with show that the amount of...
View ArticleCalifornia Supreme Court Joins Post-Girardi Zeitgeist
The California Supreme Court officially notified the world on May 18 that they will begin imposing the California Rule of Court 9.20 requirements on all attorneys subject to actual suspension of any...
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