(Added, According to Plaintiff's experience and the, PRESS RELEASE THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA, Plaintiff alleges lawyers licensed and controlled by the State Bar associated with Catanzarite Law Corporation namely Kenneth Joseph Catanzarite (, (a) failing to make reasonable operational decisions in response to changes in statutory duty for State Bar and public employees acting in their official capacity for State Bar (, California Auditor's official reports from 2009 through 2022, Public employees acting officially for The State Bar of California have engaged in repeated violations of duty, corruption, fraud, systemic corruption, with at least reckless disregard for injury or emotional harm to members of the public whom they are bound to protect by law. It shouldnt matter whether your lawyer is an A-list celebrity or a solo practitioner down the street. gene@attorneybusters.com Although Layton denies this, it is undisputed that Dunn made similar offers (without necessarily mentioning Girardi) to various Bar Presidents., 33. StopCorruptLawyers.com and its affiliate expressly disclaim any reliance upon any Writing from StopCorruptLawyers.com, and any information published is intended to be accurate as of the date of publication. A team of auditors pored over the State Bars internal data and identified examples of specific lawyers with disturbing track records who received little or no discipline. 8. 30-2021-01237499-CU-PN-CJC) (Complaint) against The State Bar of California and certain employees including Supervising Attorney Anand Kumar, Trial Counsel Eli David Morgenstern, Special Investigator Joy Nunley, and Doe defendants 1-30. State bar failed to adequately investigate, 24. The State Bar doesnt oversee how much an attorney can charge consumers. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon calls his Los Angeles County district a corrridor of corruption.. The bar closed each after the attorney finally paid the client, but the audit states that the bar did not obtain the lawyers bank records until it received more than 10 complaints over two years. Find out about the State Bars Client Security Fund and what you can do to recover lost money or property. Even in extreme circumstances of willful misconduct, Plaintiff alleges the State Bar knowingly enables licensees to wield State Bar credentials as "weapon[s] of extortion". Transactions with Persons Other than Clients, Chapter 7. StopCorruptLawyers.com Report 2022-030 from Cal. The Ethics Hotline is courteous as to provide for attorneys that do not wish to use their own names, the ability to use pseudonyms (an alias for us simple folk). The criminal court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem for Britney Spears, Samuel Ingham, is from the Probate Volunteer Panel of lawyers! The Club is working to provide their members the first level of defense when they are pursued by a client. public v. the state bar of california and STATE, key filings against the state bar of california enterprise, THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA FACES FEDERAL RICO LAWSUIT, Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson in dissent (. Other errors were basic investigatory lapses, like accepting poor levels of evidence. State bar charges say he corrupted the practice of law with "dishonesty and corruption." California legal authorities have filed disciplinary charges against John Eastman, a law professor. In January 2014, Dunn, Bar employee Thomas Layton, and former State Bar President Howard Miller of the Girardi Keese law firm traveled to Mongolia in response to a request from the Mongolian government for help in implementing a new regulatory system for lawyers, 30. Kenneth Jones, Nadine Ezzie, Esq. 0. That Girardis serial misconduct went unchecked for decades has forced a reckoning among the legal establishment. 9. There are limits on direct campaign contributions, but none on behested payments. Visit the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of StopCorruptLawyers.com for more information. The elder Ridley-Thomas was a county supervisor when the alleged transaction took place. [4] A lawyer may be disciplined under Business and Professions Code section 6106 for acts involving moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption, whether intentional, reckless, or grossly negligent. Another unidentified attorney had been the subject of several complaints alleging a failure to give clients money from their settlements. License plate readers can be an effective crime-fighting tool. Anytime findings are going through management, it introduces the risk that what is provided ultimately to the governing body is altered, said Kline, the principal auditor. But warmer storms could melt snow. Once you strip away the pretentious titles used to describe the various self elected positions, Office of Chief Trial Counsel, Board of Governors, etc., it is just a club with forced membership and dues. None of the attorneys were named in the report. Nothing in this communication or any communication including this press release or Writing, any other Writing, or any documents from StopCorruptLawyers.com, the owner, Plaintiff, is legal advice or accounting advice. You expressly waive any and all liability against Plaintiff by using StopCorruptLawyers.com. (e) through Defendants negligent operational decisions as alleged, where Defendants are aware that their licensed agents with Catanzarite have already caused, together with Defendants as alleged in special relationships with Plaintiff as victim, more than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in damages under Defendants control, and Plaintiff alleges that government licensee or agents associated with Catanzarite have directed or engaged its clients in criminal acts including felonies that are known to State Bar, Nunley, Kumar, Morgenstern, and DOES, but that each of them unreasonably use their positions of authority over Plaintiff to protect Catanzarite, and not public interest, outrageously, in violation of law, and in violation of their mandatory or affirmative duty to protect, and that this is but a symptom of State Bars flawed pattern of negligent operational decisions; (f) that State Bar and DOES failed to align its staffing with its mission, and that State Bar discontinued operational changes that improved capacity, has engaged in understaffing, and has willfully abandoned plans to benchmark attorney discipline systems to cover up its negligence, recklessness, and corruption; (g) that State Bar has failed to sufficiently fix the conditions of its licensing, regulatory, and discipline systems in the face of overwhelming evidence that State Bar fails to protect public interest, and that public interest relies upon State Bar to protect; (h) that DOES have failed to design or implement a reasonable system of licensing, regulation, and discipline through a series of negligent, reckless, and/or corrupt operational decisions that systemically fail to protect the public, including Plaintiff, amidst a series of conflicted transactions for all times relevant; (i) that State Bar has willfully and recklessly ignored the law, enactments, and duties imposed by Catanzarite Cases, and that this evidences systemic recklessness together with the Auditor findings from 2009 to present and Tom Girardi case; (j) that State Bar does not understand CTCA [Government Claims Act] or its history applied to Defendants, and has operated as if it State Bar and public employees serving State Bar are immune from any and all liability resulting from any and all decisions, including those involving operational negligence, gross negligence, corruption, and violations of general, mandatory, affirmative, and special duties to protect, and that this reckless assumption was discarded as mistaken [and] unjust since 1961 in California. (Complaint, p. 15). There is no excuse being offered here; [] , 37. StopCorruptLawyers.com. StopCorruptLawyers.com and its affiliates may not update any Writing after it is published. Maintaining the Integrity of the Profession, Compendium on Professional Responsibility Index, MCLE Requirements for Certified Specialists, Instructions for Essay Questions and Performance Test, Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, Further Investigation and Informal Conferences, Multijurisdictional Practice (MJP) Program, Out-of-State Attorney Arbitration Counsel (OSAAC), Volunteer Opportunities to Assist Veterans and Service Members. Matt Hamilton is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Attorneys licensed by the State Bar of California take an oath to abide by laws aimed at protecting consumers from unethical lawyers. Visit the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of StopCorruptLawyers.com for more information. 66 0 obj <> endobj California has been seeing a surge of political corruption cases in recent years, mostly involving veteran politicians who have a possessive attitude about their positions. Shown repeatedly in this action through predicate, parallel, and ongoing acts threatening harm to U.S. citizens, [c]riminal mail and wire fraud involves: (1) a scheme based on an intent to defraud; and (2) the use of the mails or wires to further that scheme., Whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice(1) to defraud a financial institution; or (2) to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises; shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both. The Shrimpgate scandal fueled a successful drive to place term limits on state legislators, in theory discouraging perpetual political careers that breed arrogance and corruption. "Certainly," Kutz said, judges disparage lawyers and litigants "much more often than the. Girardi was once a top plaintiffs attorney and Democratic powerbroker who gained reality TV fame on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alongside his third wife, Erika. The State Bar of California has failed to effectively discipline corrupt attorneys, allowing lawyers to repeatedly violate professional standards and harm members of the public, according to a long-awaited audit of the agency released Thursday. The Club will tell the attorney what things they can cite to deter The Club from getting them if they do have a complaint filed against them. I wonder how long before the State Bar would revoke. (See . He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times (First Amended Complaint generally)(, "Plaintiff seeks to prove through clear and convincing evidence, on behalf of himself as Plaintiff and on behalf of the public, that [negligence], malice, oppression, [recklessness], and/or fraud of a 'government protection agency' is unfairly impacting the lives of Californians [as well as] families, businesses, crowded Court dockets, the California economy, indeed, the United States and other states where [corrupt] attorneys who willfully violate the public trust are free to abuse their 'good standing' credentials to conduct official business -- which is not sustainable, nor is it fair to ethical attorneys [or the public]." But after the collapse of his Wilshire Boulevard law firm, scores of clients came forward saying they were swindled by Girardi and The Times documented a trail of misconduct allegations going back decades. Ridley-Thomas, who has jumped from office to office for the last three decades, is accused of helping a University of Southern California administrator obtain hefty county contracts in return for getting his son, Sebastian, a no-cost graduate degree and a full-time faculty position. StopCorruptLawyers.com and its affiliates may not update any Writing after it is published. Receive a free briefing on your state every day. It filed notices of disciplinary charges seeking to impose some form of attorney discipline against 180 attorneys in State Bar Court. We investigated certain governance issues arising from promises of assistance to Board members or others. Rather than request the bank statement, the State Bar accepted the lawyers explanation and closed the case. Copyright 2023 Stop Corrupt Lawyers - All Rights Reserved. There are several CDs available concerning what you should look for in an attorney and what to do if youve got a problem with one. State Bar Activities About the State Bar News about the State Bar He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with colleagues Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle and was part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack. The State Bar of California has important sounding titles for their fellow attorney members that discipline each other. This is an official communication to all members of the public and therefore privileged under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 47 subsection (b). So-called behested payments are another. For the purpose of discussion, lets call the State Bar of California, The Club. Did The State Bar of California Dismiss Your Attorney Complaint Despite Your Injury? For the foregoing reasons, and as outlined herein, irreparable damage will be caused Plaintiff, ROES 1-150,000, and the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA unless a three-judge panel is assigned to this case. 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