A decide has discovered that Joe Dunn, a lawyer and former Orange County politician, violated skilled ethics when he lied about using funds for abroad journey whereas working as the manager director of the State Bar of California, the company that regulates the apply of regulation within the Golden State.
In a 32-page choice, State Bar Court docket Choose Yvette Roland wrote Wednesday that Dunn — as soon as an in depth ally of now-disgraced lawyer Tom Girardi — had assured members of the State Bar’s governing board in 2013 that he wouldn’t use any of the company’s cash for a visit to Mongolia.
However after Dunn and one in all his deputies, Tom Layton, one other Girardi affiliate, traveled to Mongolia in early 2014, the bar paid out greater than $6,000 to cowl bills. Roland concluded that the proof offered at a three-day trial in April “unequivocally demonstrates” that Dunn’s “false and deceptive assertion to the Board was made knowingly.”
“[Dunn’s] misrepresentation to the Board quantities to a major moral violation,” Roland wrote in her choice. “Though his actions weren’t instantly associated to the apply of regulation, they had been made in his essential position as a pacesetter of the group that governs the apply of regulation in California, thereby undermining the integrity of the authorized occupation.”
Prosecutors with the State Bar had sought a 60-day suspension of Dunn’s regulation license, however Roland beneficial one 12 months of probation. Until both aspect appeals, the choice will head to the state Supreme Court docket for approval.
The disciplinary continuing was filed by the State Bar’s prosecutors in 2022 because the company sought to transfer previous the scandal surrounding Girardi and launched an investigation to uncover how Girardi corrupted the company. Dunn was intently aligned with Girardi and flew on his personal jet earlier than, throughout and after he ran the State Bar. Layton, Dunn’s deputy who accompanied him on the Mongolia journey, was later discovered to have acquired greater than $1 million in presents and funds from Girardi.
In a press release, Stacia Laguna, the State Bar’s particular deputy trial counsel, mentioned, “We’re glad with the findings of culpability.” Laguna mentioned prosecutors had not but determined whether or not to attraction the self-discipline that Roland beneficial.
Dunn’s attorneys, Mark Geragos and Ellen Pansky, didn’t reply to an electronic mail in search of remark.
The choice is a setback for Dunn, a former state senator from Santa Ana who as soon as led the California Medical Assn., a strong doctor lobbying group, earlier than taking the helm on the bar.
His 4 years as government director got here to a halt in 2014 when the bar’s board terminated him based mostly on the findings of an investigation by the regulation agency Munger, Tolles and Olson. That probe decided he had misused funds and misled the board.
Dunn contested his firing and filed a wrongful termination go well with towards the State Bar, however an arbitrator in 2017 rejected his claims and located that the bar had dedicated no wrongdoing in ousting him.
After his stint on the bar, Dunn labored as an administrator and lecturer at UC Irvine College of Legislation. A spokesperson confirmed Friday that Dunn now not is employed by the regulation faculty.
On the trial in April, a number of former board members testified that Dunn had assured them at a board assembly in late 2013 that the journey to Mongolia wouldn’t use bar funding.
“I don’t recall the precise phrases, however I do recall that in sum and substance he indicated that State Bar funds wouldn’t be used to pay for the journey to Mongolia,” mentioned Miriam Krinsky, a former board member. Krinsky testified that she wouldn’t have permitted utilizing cash for this journey, which was supposed to assist Mongolian officers develop a system for regulating attorneys.
Dunn testified on his personal behalf and denied making any presentation in regards to the Mongolian journey bills, and mentioned, “I don’t consider that I raised a problem with the bar board that there can be bar funds used.”
However the decide wrote that his account was “contradictory, severely undermining his credibility,” and that his “account of occasions has shifted dramatically over time.” For instance, in 2017 he testified that he did inform the board in regards to the journey and that the bar funds would cowl coach airfare.
As a part of his protection, Dunn referred to as a number of distinguished members of the authorized group, together with UC Berkeley Legislation College Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and L. Tune Richardson, former dean of UC Irvine College of Legislation.
Justifying the one-year probation time period, Roland famous that Dunn had no prior report of self-discipline and highlighted that the witnesses from the broader authorized group “persistently and uniformly testified to [Dunn’s] good character, praising his trustworthiness, integrity, and honesty.”
