Legal Pad

Bar Proposes Cheap Amnesty for Delinquent Lawyers

Hey, you lawyers suspended from practicing the law for not paying annual dues. Has the State Bar got a deal for you!

Pay half of what you owe, plus this year’s $410 dues, and your record is clean and you’re off the rolls of the suspended. At least that’s what the State Bar hopes to do once a 30-day public comment period ends.

The proposal — which adds an amendment to the State Bar’s waiver rules — helps the agency too. Currently, the State Bar is owed more than $21.6 million in unpaid fees from 8,342 lawyers. If even half that number pays up, the State Bar — always looking for revenue — could bag more than $10.8 million. And that doesn’t hurt in tough economic times.

"Found money" and "blue light specials," after the jump.

The ABA: Only Good at Evaluating Judges When The Prez is a Democrat?

The argument in this New York Times editorial today, about the White House deciding to use the ABA again to vet judge picks, truly puzzles us. At first, it seems to be giving the ABA props. But then it kind of morphs into a backhanded compliment.

Faulty logic (theirs, not ours), after the jump.

Bar Candidates Announced (No Swimsuit Competition Expected)

There are solo practitioners and big-firm lawyers, deputy public defenders and deputy district attorneys, an appellate specialist, attorneys from mid-sized firms and one guy the State Bar slapped on the wrist a few years back for accusing a trio of appellate justices of misbehaving.

They are the 18 lawyers — from as far north as Roseville and as far south as San Diego — who have thrown their hats into the ring for five seats on the State Bar Board of Governors. The State Bar announced the names late Wednesday and the candidates have until June 30 to convince their districts’ voters to choose them for a three-year term. Only time will tell if the victors become superstars of justice or reviled show boaters who manage to piss off State Bar staff with meddling and micro-managing. Oh, yeah! There have been plenty of the latter and few of the former over the years.

At least one lucky candidate will get a chance to serve one final year as State Bar president.

Let’s bring out our lovely contestants … after the jump.

Former Bar Prosecutor Vows to Fight, Fight, Fiiiiiiiight!

(Not Alan Konig)

There’s a 1999 movie called “Galaxy Quest,” in which actor Tim Allen, doing a comedic parody of Star Trek’s James T. Kirk, has a signature line: “Never give up! Never surrender!”

Alan Konig’s apparently adopted that motto in the face of all-out defeat.

Earlier today, the former State Bar prosecutor vowed to appeal a San Francisco judge’s three-day-old ruling that tossed out the last remaining claims from a suit he filed against his ex-employer at least four years ago.

“It’s a decision that has so many errors in it,” Konig said. “It’s a bad message to be sending to employees who work in government offices.”

Well, you can’t mention “State Bar” and “controversy” without mentioning Philip Kay … after the jump.

State Bar Wants to Push Unions Around

Giving up a federal holiday, cutting back on comp time and agreeing to take half the salary increase expected isn’t an easy thing to do.

But union reps for the State Bar’s two bargaining units — one for attorneys and the other for regular employees — did just that. And it still wasn’t good enough for the State Bar Board of Governors, even though both sides have been in a standoff, and without a labor agreement, since Dec. 31.

Earlier today, the board, meeting in San Francisco, unanimously rejected the union’s “bottom line” demand and sent State Bar management back to fight for more concessions. How many and what kind wasn’t made clear.

State Bar governor Laura Chick, who’s the controller of Los Angeles, expressed “great concern” about the economy and increases in “salary overhead.”

Governor James Aguirre, a lawyer with Los Angeles’ Richardson & Fair, added that the board is “very aware of the shifting landscape.”

L.A. Lawyers Send Formal Objection Over Bar Meeting

Here’s wondering how quiet the halls of San Diego’s Manchester Grand Hyatt will be on Sept. 10-13 for the State Bar’s annual meeting.

On Monday, a majority of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s 50-plus delegates to the 2009 Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations essentially threatened to boycott the State Bar meeting because the hotel’s owner, Doug Manchester, donated $125,000 to Proposition 8. (The Conference of Delegates, which debates political and legal issues, convenes on the same site as the annual meeting.)

The delegation’s letter, sent to State Bar President Holly Fujie, comes on the heels of the 4,000-member Beverly Hills Bar Association’s failed attempt on Friday to get the State Bar to relocate the big event.

L.A. fumes, after the jump.  But will anyone else? 

A Quick Q&A With BASF's New President

BASF’s got a new president (as of last week), and we checked in with him on Friday to see what’s on tap for the group next year.

And, as at every other organization on the planet right now, the economy is affecting the 2009 outlook. But maybe not in the way you’d think. For now, at least, tight times have Russ Roeca focused on doing more, not less.

Remorseless Prosecutor Says Bar Should Back Off

If nothing else, embattled Santa Clara County prosecutor Benjamin Field has chutzpah.

Accused by State Bar prosecutors of abusing his authority by ignoring judges’ orders, concealing evidence and attempting to intimidate witnesses, Field filed court papers recently arguing that at worst he should be given a public reproval. And that amounts to a hard slap on the wrist.

This even after the State Bar in late September stated in court documents that it wouldn’t seek disbarment, but rather a three-year suspension.

“There was no venality or corruption here. There was a very able lawyer doing his job,” Allen Ruby, a partner with San Jose’s Ruby & Schofield, wrote in a post-trial brief filed Oct. 31 in the State Bar Court in San Francisco. “If there is a finding by this court that Mr. Field should have done his job better, or differently, that ought not to transform him into a menace to the public, deserving of ruin.”

State Bar Takes Monterey by Storm

Call it the Siege of Monterey.

From Thursday to Sunday, the small coastal resort town was inundated by airplane enthusiasts attending a major air show in nearby Salinas, bikers competing at the Laguna Seca Raceway and, oh yes, thousands of lawyers attending the annual meeting of the State Bar of California.

It was quite a mix, but let’s concentrate on the lawyers holed up at the Portola Hotel & Spa, the Monterey Marriott Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Monterey. And, of course, there were the judges attending the California Judges Association’s annual meeting at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa.

Speeches were given, lectures provided, resolutions approved and frivolity held — as in the “Studio 54esq” dance party and Connie Champagne’s “A Night with Judy Garland” drag show, both on Saturday night. And there was the Friday night president’s reception at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the legal sharks met with their finny brethren over fancy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails.

Malpractice: More of it, and more costly

Legal malpractice claims have gotten more expensive. We think.

The claims that result in the highest of indemnity payments appear to be on an upward march, according to an ABA study unveiled this morning at the ABA’s national legal malpractice conference in San Francisco.

It’s just not clear how vigorous a march.